Jack, chancing to let his gaze wander that way, could see Perk staring with round eyes at the inspired face of the brave girl. He also feebly scratched his head with slow movements, just as if his wits had gone astray under the shock.
“Can it be possible, Suzanne,” stammered Jack, grinning amiably the while, “that you happen to be——er, Buddy’s sweetheart—what you might call his ‘best girl’?”
She regarded him with an encouraging smile, and nodded her head, forgetting to cry, as though something in his way of saying this bade her hug fresh hope to her heart.
“Why, yes, most certainly I am—we expected to be married in another three months—Buddy’s got the dear little cottage on the way, and everything was planned—and then came that dreadful news telling how he was lost somewhere among these awful mountains. My ship was being repaired, for I had had a slight accident in making too fast a landing on rough ground, and it took nearly two days for those slow poke mechanics to get it checked up again—two frightful days that I never want to live again. Then I hopped off, and came here, for the boys at the flying field told me just where he must have gone down, you know. Perhaps it was a crazy thing to do—they tried to persuade me to give it up, but I had promised Mother Warner to find him—and what was the use of my being a full-fledged air pilot if I had to stay a kiwi—stick to the ground, when my Buddy needed me so?”
“Still, it was an unwise thing for you to have done, though nobody could blame you, because Buddy was well worth taking chances for. But, you must have realized there would be scores of skillful pilots on the job, every one bent on finding your boy, if it lay in human power. My pal and I are in the employ of Uncle Sam—taken off all other business, and set to making a wide search—we have come all the way from Cheyenne, through the worst fog bank that ever was known, just for that purpose, which makes it seem doubly strange how we should have been brought in contact with you, Miss Cramer.”
She smiled through her tears, and then went on hastily to say:
“I can only think it was Providence answering the prayers I have been sending up ever since the dreadful word came to us there in our little town, that Buddy has put on the map. Oh! I am sure the way was opened up to me—that now you know who and what I am, you could not have the heart to leave me here while you took up the search I had dedicated myself to carry out!”
Jack evidently could give a pretty shrewd guess as to what lay back of her words—she undoubtedly meant to implore them to let her accompany them in their hunt.
So he scratched his chin in a way he had when placed in a dilemma—Perk, saw him do that and understood how matters stood; for he grinned shamelessly, as though it actually tickled him to see his best pal placed in such a hole, with no way out save in yielding.
“Er—much as I—we, that is—would like to oblige you, Miss Cramer—I’m afraid it would be impossible. We belong to a Department of the Government that frowns on our mixing up what they call business with pleasure. They set us on this job, and that means we’ve got to take off without any more delay than we can possibly help—I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean.”