So they had various “chores” to perform both before and after breakfast on the morning following their “hike” in the mountains. For an hour and a half they were busy, sandwiching their breakfast between the tidying of the dormitory and the washing and wiping of dishes. But finally all such duties were done, and the boys were free to go to Mummy Cañon for the wrecked aeroplane.
Meanwhile they had been told that the victim of the accident was not fatally injured. Aside from his broken ribs and leg he had suffered only a severe shaking up. A thorough examination had convinced the doctor that he would recover as soon as his broken bones could mend. The swelling on his leg was rapidly going down, and the doctor announced that he would probably set the limb in the afternoon.
A team of horses was hitched to a wagon, and one of the boys got in and drove, while the rest walked ahead or behind. Mr. Frankland accompanied them. The journey was uneventful and in less than an hour they were in the cañon.
The aeroplane was so thoroughly a wreck as to require almost an expert to determine what it had been originally. It had struck on a level grassy spot and had torn up the sod as if to make the earth as much a wreck as itself. A misshapen mass of splintered wood and bent struts and braces was about all that the Scouts could make out.
“It’s hardly worth while to take that junk back with us,” said Mr. Frankland as he gazed on the sorry-looking heap. “But since we came after it we may as well obey orders. Perhaps he’ll want to hold a funeral and bury his dead pet.”
“Who is he?” inquired Ferdinand Sharer, commonly known as “Fes” because of his fondness of carving or inking his initials, “F. E. S.,” on all his personal property. “What’s his name?”
“I don’t know,” Mr. Frankland replied. “He hasn’t done much talking yet.”
“Gee! such a fall as that’s enough to shut anybody up,” exclaimed Frank Bowler.
“Yes, anybody except you,” answered “Fes” wisely. “You never close your face till after the chickens go to roost.”
“I don’t, eh!” began Frank; but Mr. Frankland put a stop to this sort of dispute by saying: