“I’ll be in camp almost as soon as you are,” he had said, “and will take the first mountain meal with you.”
Yet the boys had reached the vicinity of the chosen location on the previous day, and Ned had not made his appearance. Naturally the boys were more than anxious about the safety of their leader.
“Did Ned say anything to you while at Missoula, about an aeroplane?” Jack asked of Frank as they unpacked bacon and corn meal. “You know, before we left the Philippines,” he went on, slicing the bacon for the coming repast, “the officials said we were to have a government aeroplane. I was just wondering if the thing would get here after we have no use for it.”
“He said nothing to me about the arrival of the aeroplane,” Frank replied, “but I presume he knows when the government air machine will be on hand. It may be packed up at Missoula, for all we know,” he added, “and Ned may have waited there for the purpose of getting it ready for flight.”
“What the dickens can we do with an aeroplane in this wilderness?” demanded Pat, wiping the sweat from his face. “We can’t run around among the trees with it, can we? Nor yet we can’t get gasoline up here to run it with. Anyway, I’m no friend to these airships.”
“When they travel with upholstered dining coaches in connection, and sleeping cars on behind,” laughed Jack, “you’ll think they’re all to the good. If we can’t chase around among the trees in an aeroplane,” he continued, “we can sail over the forests and high peaks, can’t we? Without something of the sort, it would take us about a thousand years to get a look-in at this wild country.”
“Well,” Pat grumbled, “I only hope we won’t get our necks broken falling out of the contraption. It may be all right to go up in one of the foolish things, but I think I’d rather take chances on going over Niagara Falls in a rain-water barrel.”
“I half believe he will come in the aeroplane,” Frank said, shading his eyes with his hand and looking out to the south. “He wants to surprise us, I take it, and that is why he acted so mysteriously about the matter.”
“What about Jimmie?” demanded Pat, who would take almost any risk on water, but who was filled with horror the moment his feet left the solid earth. “He can’t bring Jimmie along in his pocket, can he? And even if he managed to get the little scamp up on the thing, some trick would be turned that would land the ’plane on top of a high tree.”
“Two can ride an aeroplane, all right,” Frank insisted. “Anyway, quit your knocking. Ned knows what he is about, and we’ll wait here for him if we have to remain until the Rocky Mountains wash down into the Pacific Ocean.”