“I think this wire is from your two girls; is your name Mr. Dalken, from the yacht called the White Crest?” asked the man.
“Yes, yes! what do they say?” exclaimed Mr. Dalken anxiously.
CHAPTER XIV—IN AND ABOUT PANAMA
“Now what do you think of that!” exclaimed Mr. Dalken, after reading the message he had received from the stranded aviators who had landed beyond the last lock of the Canal Zone.
Mrs. Courtney took the message and read it to herself, then murmured: “This is disappointing: I did so want to have the girls on board when we went through the locks.”
“Well,” sighed Mr. Dalken, “we may as well give orders to the Captain to start early in the morning and meet the runaways at Panama—as Polly says in her telegram.”
“If only she had told us where they would stop overnight, we could wire there and tell them to get back here immediately. They should be able to use the railroad, as long as they have been able to get to a telegraph station,” said Mrs. Courtney, a trifle annoyed at such inconsideration on the girls’ part.
“I think we will give them their way this time, and have them miss the gorgeous trip through the Canal. It will serve them good and right!” declared Mr. Dalken, also impatient at such doings.
But the “girls”—meaning Polly and Eleanor—had no cause for disappointment or impatience. In the first place they did not see how they were to be held accountable for the aeroplane’s engine failing to work just about the time they reached the vast park which borders both sides of Miraflores Lock. In fact, they considered it an act on the part of Providence that the ’plane had such a wonderful stretch of lawn upon which to descend, instead of falling down in Gatun Lake, or upon the rocky hills to be seen everywhere around.
Because of an easy conscience, therefore, the two girls enjoyed an unusual dinner at an interesting old Spanish restaurant in Panama; and then accompanied the young aviator,—who had successfully brought his disabled ’plane to the nearby park before mentioned,—to the Tivoli Hotel, where a professional chaperone agreed to look after them in order to satisfy Mrs. Courtney’s concession to social requirements.