Once they were all ashore, dripping wet, but heedless of so little a thing under the circumstances. The master of this lonely region led them along what seemed to be a narrow, well trodden path, circulating among the piled-up rocks and trees, until presently they reached a rude shack from the stone chimney of which arose the tell-tale smoke that had been their guiding beacon in discovering the retreat of the recluse.
Suzanne dashed ahead of their guide and they heard her joyous cries as they reached the open door. She was down on her knees, her arms around a figure stretched out on a rude cot.
And so it was that Jack and Perk came upon the lost air-mail pilot whose hand they were soon squeezing with heartiest enthusiasm. Buddy was bandaged pretty well and confessed to a broken arm and quite a lot of bruises, all of which would keep him “on the shelf” for a month or so but everything was “all right,” he told them and expressed amazement as well as pride when told that Suzanne had not only received her pilot’s license, unbeknown to him, but even made a long and successful solo flight in the mad desire to join in the wide search for him.
The hermit was saying nothing, only listening with great interest and Jack could easily see that somehow this strange happening must have renewed his interest in the outside world from which he had for years been a stranger.
Such chattering as followed.
The happy girl turned every little while to beam upon her two faithful squires as if she could never forget how much they had done for her. Perk stared at her as though entranced. Evidently he had never imagined there could be so much loveliness in all the wide world as he saw pictured there in her rosy face with eyes like twin stars. For such a delightful little “dame” the honest fellow would have braved the perils of Niagara or the Whirlpool Rapids, if need be, to see such rapture steal over her face. The proud feeling, that he had been able to prove of service to Suzanne in her hour of blackest despair, would reward him ten times over for any bodily discomfort he may have endured. And Buddy too, he was surely worth finding—so jovial, so chummy in his ways and, lucky guy, with so dainty a “best girl” to hover over him and be his devoted nurse.
No one would ever know the part he and Jack had taken in this happy ending of the widely published mystery attending Buddy’s vanishing in the night. The rules of the service to which he and his pal had sworn allegiance forbade such a thing as publicity. To have their pictures sent throughout the land, with an account of their previous successful labors in rounding up transgressors of the law, would put an effectual damper on any future jobs coming their way. It was not to be permitted under any circumstances whatever and not only the hermit, but both Buddy and his girl must solemnly promise never to disclose the names and vocation of the two airmen who were mainly responsible for the finding of the lost aviator.
That, however, was a minor matter to both comrades. They were not in the Secret Service of Uncle Sam for any glory or honors that might be showered upon them. They did not risk their lives day after day with any hope of being decorated with a Victory Cross or any ribbon telling of foreign service. It must be sufficient reward for them to feel that they had performed their duty to the best of their ability, no matter what its character and, backed by the long arm of the Law, brought wicked violators to the bar of justice, there to receive the penalty for their crimes.
One thing Jack noticed almost immediately was how everything connected with the bandaging of Buddy’s broken arm had been carried out with astonishing neatness. Had he been a patient in some hospital, attended by the most famous of surgeons and with a clever nurse as his attendant, he could not have been in better shape.
Jack looked again closely at the mysterious recluse, noted the keen eye, the slender, agile fingers which moved with dexterity when he fixed up some little slip in the bandage and made up his mind that the world had undoubtedly lost one of its most gifted surgeons when this unknown man took to the woods, so to speak, for some reason never known.