A quick shoot forward, then up. When his altimeter showed he was up twelve hundred feet, and with everything running smoothly, Jack dropped the flying field behind and headed away for the distant mountains within which lay Don Ferdinand’s feudal estate.
Before starting he had suggested that his father should endeavor to call Don Ferdinand on the radio from the plane. The German who once, in the don’s belligerent days, had operated the radio outfit, long since had taken his departure. But Jack had instructed Manuel Sanchez, an intelligent young fellow of Don Ferdinand’s retainers, in the operation of the radio station. He had even overhauled the two-way station himself recently. If Manuel had succeeded in restoring the outfit to working condition since Jack’s last visit, Mr. Hampton might be able to get a response.
However, no response was received. And at the end of an hour and a half of flying over bare untrodden desert country giving way to foothills, Jack finally crossed the top of a low range and their destination appeared in the valley below.
Jack swooped downward and leveled off a foot above the ground of the flying field. Nobody came running, but that was nothing unusual. Since Don Ferdinand had dispensed with his airplanes, the field was deserted. Only when Jack departed after a visit could the men whom he had trained to help in the take-off be found at hand. His hand dragged back on the stick, and he dropped to the hard-packed sand for a perfect three-point landing, wheels and tail-skid hitting together.
Shutting off the motor, Jack and Mr. Hampton climbed out and started for the house. There was no danger in leaving the plane. None of Don Ferdinand’s people would have dared approach Jack’s plane or touch it.
As they walked toward the eucalyptus grove shielding the house from the flying field, a lithe, slender figure, skirts fluttering, emerged from the trees, and began to run toward them.
“Rafaela,” cried Jack, and darting away from his father’s side he ran to meet her.
Mr. Hampton smiled and continued at his own more sober pace. He saw them meet, and saw Jack suddenly take Rafaela in his arms.
That was a surprise.
“Great guns,” he muttered. “I didn’t know affairs were that far along.”