His scorn for such a weakling showed in his face as he helped Simeon to clamber into the cockpit. The man was as white as a sheet, and trembling as if expecting to meet with some dire end in short order, once he left the firm ground and took to the boundless air. His groans were heartrending, and Jack felt sorry for the wretch but for once Perk displayed no signs of sympathy, it was all so silly in his opinion.
He proceeded to take precautions by fastening the greenhorn in by means of a stout strap which would prevent his falling out should conditions necessitate a sudden banking on the part of the pilot, or a fierce gust of wind cause the ship to give a unannounced plunge.
“All ready, Jack,” announced Perk, after completing these arrangements.
“I’ll be with you inside of three minutes,” he was told, and as the ground ahead had been examined, and found to be fairly good for the wheels to trundle over, there seemed to be nothing more that could be done, only put things to the test.
It was “some rough,” as Perk told himself, when violently shaken once or twice but they managed to get up sufficient speed to admit of Jack lifting her when the right time arrived. Then they were off, rising like a bird, and almost immediately opening up the village that nestled there two miles off, at the foot of the low ridge.
Jack headed straight into the west, for that was their route “as the crow flew.” He cared not at all that they would pass directly over the settlement, for few of the people were apt to be abroad at such an early hour, nor would they be any the wiser for seeing a plane pass overhead at such a low altitude.
Perk, looking down, found himself wondering which of the modest cottages in line of his vision chanced to be the home Simeon had spoken of with such a catch in his voice. The man had temporarily forgotten about his fears concerning his own safety, while being carried so high above the surface of the earth—he was stretching his neck, and eagerly focussing his staring eyes on one spot, which evidently held all that he held dear. Perk ignored his recent sensation of scorn, and actually felt sorry for the man.
“Poor guy,” he was saying under his breath, though the other could not have heard him had he shouted at the top of his lungs, on account of the racket being kicked up by combined motor and propeller, “he feels right bad ’cause he’s goin’ off without a chanct to say goodbye. Well, I on’y hope this will be a lesson to Simeon, an’ he’ll quit playin’ with a buzz-saw, which is the long arm o’ our Uncle Samuel.”
Simeon tried his best to keep tabs of the lonely little hamlet until it was no longer possible to distinguish objects, owing to the several miles of distance the speeding plane had covered; then he fell back in his seat, and let his head drop on his chest, while his body shook with emotion. In that dreadful moment he would undoubtedly have only too gladly given all he had in the wide world for a chance to undo the wrongs he had committed in his haste to get rich.
“Shucks! he orter thought o’ that before, while the goin’ was good!” was Perk’s comment, who had seen just such short-sighted men more than once before in his eventful life, and had a philosophical mind concerning all such late repentances. “But I’m sure sorry for them that are agoin’ to suffer the most—he deserves all he’ll get, but they’re the innocent ducks.”