Buddy was a bit weak and his host bade him not to keep talking too long, since excitement would not be good for him in his present condition—indeed he had quite enough as it was. But Suzanne begged so hard to be permitted to wait upon him and promised to keep him quiet, that she was finally given permission to do so.
Perk too, had noticed the way in which the hermit had done such a wonderfully fine job in attending to the one he had rescued from drowning after the plane had crashed; for he too, seemed to steal a sly glance in the other’s direction whenever he felt he could do so without being detected.
For one thing, the near miracle of Buddy’s being able to drop down into the shallows near the sandy shore had doubtless kept the plane from being wrapped in flames and possibly eased the plunge more or less.
“When I dragged him out,” the owner of the shack explained to Jack and the latter noted how musical his voice seemed, so full and clear in the bargain, “he would not allow me to even look at his wounds until I had found and rescued four sacks of mail. You would have thought the contents of those bags were of greater value than his own life. That is what I’d call being faithful to a trust. But now I must ask both of you gentlemen to follow me outside where, as a rule I do my cooking. While we make ready to have supper, such as the limited stores will allow, we can talk over things and you may be able to figure just how you expect to take off again in the morning for it is too late now to consider going.”
A little later on, while Jack was aboard the ship getting certain things that he wanted, Perk sidled up to the earnest old man with whom their fortunes had been so strangely thrown, and with one of his capacious grins remarked casually:
“If you’ll excuse me for sayin’ it, mister, I kinder guess now your name might be Doctor Whitelaw Reeves!”
When the other heard him mention that name he started as though he had been stung and looked Perk over with those keen eyes of his, and then a faint smile broke out on his stern face.
XXVIII
AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
“How does it come, my young friend,” remarked the recluse of Crater Lake moving closer to the grinning Perk and apparently greatly moved, “that you are mentioning a name I have not heard spoken for the last seven years?”
“Huh! it happens, Doc, that I got some memory. Specially o’ faces,” candidly replied the aviator. “Course you’ve changed a heap since I knowed you, but back o’ it all I could ketch the same look you had then when you fixed me up so dickey.”