“Oh sure. By the noise they made, those chaps getting away may not have heard our little play. Reckon, they beat it to their headquarters to tell the other fellows. Seeing us again would have queered the party for the Mounties,” Bob agreed.
“Yes, a plane is sort of conspicuous. Bet that message told the Chief, whoever he is, to surround the ravine and get the outlaws while the getting promised to be good.”
“I saw one of those fellows pull out his gun. Gosh, they would have got Bradshaw if he had come riding right into their arms.”
“It would have been some scrap, you bet. Bradshaw’s no slouch.”
“Not a bit. Wish he could come and see us at Cap Rock. Say, with Pat to help him, he’s better off than if he were twins, or two policemen,” Bob laughed as he thought of the efficient pony. “Some horse. Glad he’s got a good master.”
“You bet.” They rested comfortably, and at last Jim broke the silence again. “Gosh, Buddy, remember that story of the brothers who watched the smoke go up the chimney?”
“Surely. I was just thinking about them. The Montgolfier boys. They were watching the fire and the smoke go up the chimney, and that set their brains to working and they wondered why the smoke went up. Queer isn’t it when you think that a little thing like that happening around one hundred and thirty years ago, should develop into air travel!” Bob glanced toward Her Highness affectionately.
“She doesn’t look much like the paper bags they made their first experiments with, does she?”
“I’ll say she doesn’t, nor the balloons that came a few years later. Gosh, I’m glad we don’t live at a time when people were so ignorant that they thought everything new was a devil of some kind,” Bob replied.
“We’d be in a nice fix if we got shot at or stabbed with pitch forks every time we came down. But, even at that, Jim, there are places in the world where the people are mighty savage. Dad says in some of the South American provinces they’ve never been able to conquer all the tribes, or civilize them. They are almost the same as they were when Columbus landed, and will fill a chauffeur full of poison arrows if they see a car driving through their land.”