The boys enjoyed heartily the dramatic manner in which Paul had aroused their curiosity only to tell them something which was routine. They jumped to their feet and immediately got busy. By sunset they had moved.
CHAPTER X
Flying Instructions
With the first ray of sunrise, Wallace was up. He dressed himself hurriedly, donned a sweater to keep warm, and then sat down on a rock to watch the sky. He had a suspicion that something would happen and that the incident would occur in the air. He didn’t dare walk up and down to keep himself warm because he feared that the noise of his footsteps would awaken some of the boys. So he quietly built a fire to keep himself warm. After he had watched the sky for an hour a plane appeared on the horizon. It flew nearer and nearer, circled about where he thought the mysterious airport was, then nosed down as if to land, which it evidently did. Wallace became terribly excited. His suspicions bore truth. And now he didn’t know what to do. He paced up and down several times, musing, thinking hard. His first impulse was to go down there himself, but he immediately discounted it.
He awakened Paul, who listened eagerly to his story. Wallace reminded him of his suspicion that a plane would land there in the early morning, and that was what had happened. Paul dressed hurriedly. Leaving behind a note, the two set off at a rapid pace. Just as they were about to reach the wooded plateau, the drone of an airplane motor was heard. They looked up, but the sky was hidden by the branches of the trees. When they at last reached the clearing, it was empty and still. They spent about half an hour searching the woods, but it was in vain. They returned to camp and told their comrades. A lot of discussion ensued and it was finally decided that every day a detail of two boys should go down there, to see what they could discover. But it was all in vain. When the time came for them to return to Stanhope, a week later, they had discovered nothing new.
As the boys reached the outskirts of the town, about six in the evening, they lined up and marched down Main Street. On the very same spot from which they departed, Paul sang out, “Patrol, halt!” For several seconds they remained at attention, with the eyes of many people upon them. Then Paul snapped the command, “Dismissed!” The boys broke formation and went home.
The boys did not propose to lose any time in beginning their flying instructions. They set a definite time, therefore, for all of them to meet, to go out to the airfield in a group. Paul was a few minutes late, having been detained by his mother who took a long time impressing upon him the importance of being careful. When he joined the group, they were all very much excited and discussed their future adventures in the air. Ken and Nuthin’ tried hard to appear just as excited as the others, but it was an empty gesture. Paul, addressing Ken, asked, “Anything wrong? You look kind of green around the gills.”
Ken made a gesture of dismissal. He answered, “Nothing. It really doesn’t matter.”