“After fitting you out,” was the reply, “we are going to find the other machine, deliver our message, and turn back east.”
“Supply us with fuel,” Ben suggested, “and we’ll go with you in search of Jimmie. Perhaps we can help you find him.”
The two men who had arrived in the Ann conferred together for a few moments, and then one of them began supplying the tanks of the Bertha with gasoline. The boys stood by in a brown study as to what they ought to do next. The Japanese eyed them keenly.
“We want to stay right by the machine, so they won’t hop up and run away!” Carl whispered to Ben.
“If they do, I’ll send a bullet after them!” Ben whispered back.
While the boys talked at one side of the Bertha and the two Japs engaged in conversation on the other side, an aeroplane shot into view, coming swiftly from the west.
“I guess that’s Jimmie now,” suggested Ben turning to the Japs. “In that case you can deliver your message, and we’ll all go east together.”
As the reader will understand it was by no means the intention of the boys to follow the instructions given by the Japs. They had been supplied with gasoline enough to last for several hours, and their purpose now was to get out of the company of the strangers as soon as possible.
There was an indefinite resolve at the back of Ben’s brain to get out of the company of the Japs by leaving them stranded on the summit! It was a daring thought, but the boy was actually considering the possibility of getting away in the Ann while Carl navigated the Bertha.
If the aeroplane now approaching proved to be the Louise, he thought, the trick might be turned with the assistance of Jimmie and Kit.