All the boys were overjoyed at the prospect.
“We are going to visit the cave where you found the dead body of a man,” continued Dr. Byrd. “I have notified the coroner and he has expressed the desire to have you all present when he takes the body away. It won’t be necessary, but I’ve decided to let you go if you wish to. I am going myself. I have full confidence in the safety of Mr. Miles’ airship.”
“When are we going?” Hal inquired.
“As soon as the coroner gets here—half an hour. Now go and get ready for the trip, if you’ve decided you want to go.”
The five Scouts left the doctor’s office and went to their rooms. They doffed their class-room clothes and shoes and substituted their coarse, strong mountain-climbing suits and heavy-nailed footgear. Then they hastened out onto the campus, where they found Mr. Miles getting the airship ready to fly. Most of the other boys of the school were gathered around the aeroplane, watching proceedings with interest.
Of course the five returned truants were the objects of much interest and questioning when they appeared. The other boys all knew in a general way what had happened to their runaway associates, and they were now hungry for details. But the arrival of the coroner and the announcement that the boy explorers of Flathead were about to make another trip through the air added a new excitement and so much confusion that there was little opportunity for anybody to gain any information.
Coroner Huffman and Pickles made the first trip with Mr. Miles to the top of the mountain. This official, who lived in Jimtown, was a great hunter. He had held one and another political office for fifteen years and celebrated each election by going off into the mountains to shoot big game. On this occasion, he had his rifle with him, hoping to get a shot at the mountain lion that Kenyon and his companions had seen the day before.
While the first trip was being made, Hal, Frank, Byron, and Ferdinand were surrounded by their eager schoolmates and plied with numerous questions. Then the doctor, in order to simplify matters, asked everybody to keep still and suggested that Hal tell the story from beginning to end.
So Kenyon told the story of their adventure in detail. Before he had finished, the aeroplane returned and started on another trip, with Byron, Frank, and Ferdinand as passengers. The aviator had decided that, since the airship was built to carry three men including the operator, it ought to carry one man and three boys at once. The experiment proved that he was right.
By the time Mr. Miles returned for the doctor and Hal, the latter had satisfied the curiosity of his schoolmates. Some of them begged for permission to make the trip also, but Dr. Byrd said that since it would be impossible to take all, he must limit his permission to those whom the coroner had asked to be present at the removal of the body from the mountain-top cave.