“Oh! that isn’t late,” said the other, “you know, we go to bed at all hours at our house at home. A doctor never knows when he can get a night’s sleep; and that breaks up things in his family more or less. But I’m on the home stretch with this batch of prints, Frank. Give me a little more time, won’t you? When I get started with my trays and chemicals I like to clean up a lot of stuff.”
“Ten minutes more,” remarked Frank, grimly.
“Oh! well p’raps I can get through then; but even if I don’t you might sneak off, and leave me to put out the glim when I am through,” the other went on to say.
“Not if I know myself and I think I do, likewise you,” chuckled Frank. “Why, you never would come to bed till long after midnight. It’d be just one more batch, and then another after that, to the wind-up. I’ll wait for you, my boy. Ten minutes, and then we’ll close up shop.”
Andy knew that his cousin would stick to his word; he had been up against it more than a few times in the past, and so he hurried matters as much as he could. When the ten minutes had expired he begged for five more, as grace, saying that he would just spoil the few prints that had to be finished if they were left in the washing water until morning; and so Frank gave in that far.
When they were undressing, later on, Frank thrust his head out of the window to look at the glory of the moonlight night, and wonder what the boys were doing in the round-up camp, just then.
The night was now cool and pleasant, as they frequently are after a hot day in Arizona, especially about the Fall season. Stars shone softly above, and there the moon hung like a big lantern, lighting up the earth below.
How many memories did it not recall to the Bird boys, every time they looked up and saw that great yellow shield! Had they not looked upon it under various periods of stress and peril in their own lives; sometimes near the home town, and again it might be far away in the mysterious country bordering the Magdalena river, down in Colombia, where the tropical sun shone far hotter than it did here in the Arizona regions.
Often the Bird boys were influenced to talk of these past experiences, when the mood came upon them; but Andy usually became more or less excited whenever he was reminded of these stirring events; and tonight Frank wisely refrained from starting him going by mentioning the memories that were awakened by that lovely round orb.
The last thing he remembered Andy saying was that it promised to be a good day for the little air voyage they contemplated taking on the morrow; which caused Frank to chuckle, because in this arid country, where it seldom rained, all days were good ones, save as the heat or blowing alkali dust might bring discomfort in their train.