The two boys shook hands with Pat. He looked like his name, a tall, broad, husky man with a shock of curly hair that had probably once been red, but which was now brown, with a little gray at the temples; a young face—it was impossible to tell how old he was; and a broad grin that spread across his face and up around his eyes, disappearing into the roots of his hair.
“Well,” he said, without ceremony, as though he had been friends of theirs for years, “They’ll make good flyers if they’re not too lazy. And if anybody can make you work, I can. And I will.”
The Captain laughed. “Don’t take Pat seriously,” he said. “He’s too lazy to make you work very hard. But let me warn you that he’s trained army flyers, so you’d better not mind what he says, while he’s teaching you.”
The boys had gone over and were looking at the Marianne. She was a beautifully stream-lined craft, large yet graceful.
Pat noticed the boys’ admiration, and was pleased. “How about taking a ride in her now?” he asked.
“They just got down to earth,” said the Captain. He explained about Hank and Hank’s plane. Pat was delighted that their old pal had turned up, and decided that they would have to have a reunion very soon. He also decided on the spot that he was going along with them to the mountains.
“Try to keep me away. Although I don’t much fancy the riding on cushions, in a fancy plane. When I fly, I want to fly. But if you let me do the piloting, I’ll make the best of that.” Pat always decided things that way, but nobody resented his high-hand manner, since he looked, and was, the sort of man who could make good on any job he undertook. “Well, Bob, my lad,” he said, turning to the boy, “how about going up? It’s the first step in learning to fly. And don’t think that it’s going to be like cabin flying. You’ll notice the difference when you get up. Ready?”
“Sure,” said Bob.
Pat produced a helmet and some goggles. “It’s an open cockpit you’re sitting in,” he said. “And see that the goggles fit tightly.”
Bob wiggled them around. “They seem all right,” he said.