“Came down to rest our wings,” Jimmie replied, saucily.
“Where you from?” asked the other farmer.
“New York,” answered Jimmie.
“We’re carrying government despatches to Japan,” Carl added, with a grin. “We’re in the secret service!”
Ben gave the two boys a jab in the back, warning them to be more civil, and, stepping forward, began asking questions of the farmer regarding the country to the west. The two men looked at each other suspiciously.
“Is this him?” one of them asked.
The other shook his head.
“Might be, though!” insisted the first speaker.
“No,” replied the other, “this is not the man!”
Ben looked at his chums significantly for a moment. He was thinking that the farmers might be referring to an aviator who had passed that way not long before. He was thinking, too, that that aviator might be the identical one who had started out to beat the Louise and the Bertha to the Pacific coast.