Jack kept thinking that it surely would circle again. But it did not.
As he and his companions watched in stunned silence, it vanished between the mountain peaks.
Chapter 21
THE ENEMY
Heartsick, Jack, Craig Warner, and Hap Livingston trudged back to the cabin. Ken, too, had seen the plane from the woods where he had been gathering a few edible berries. He reported that it had not come close enough to the clearing for him to signal.
“What made it turn back?” he grieved. “Surely the lake makes a sizable landmark.”
“It may not have been the Forest Service plane,” said Warner.
“Something’s wrong,” Mr. Livingston declared. “Warwick and Willie may have had trouble getting through. If anything happened to them—well, I’ll always blame myself for letting them go off alone.”
“They’ve made it by now,” Jack said.
However, he spoke with more confidence than he felt. War’s condition had not been the best, and it was quite possible he had fallen ill on the trail. Resolutely, he put the matter from his mind. There was enough to worry about as it was, he told himself.
“Any visitors while we were away?” he asked Ken as the group walked to the cabin.