“I don’t know,” was Roy’s rejoinder. “Mr. Bancroft has had some of the cleverest detectives in the country on the case, and a description of the jewels, some of which were heirlooms, has been wired everywhere broadcast. But up to date none of them have turned up at any pawnshops or other likely places.”
For some moments more they talked in this strain, when Peggy suddenly gave a cry and pointed below. They were passing over a tiny lake surrounded by steeply sloping banks, wooded with beautiful trees. It was an isolated spot, no human habitation being near at hand apparently.
“Oh, isn’t that pretty?” cried Peggy delightedly. “It looks as if it might have come out of a picture book.”
“And the sight of that water reminds me that I’m terribly thirsty,” said Roy. “I bet there are some springs by that lake, or if there are not maybe the water is good to drink from the lake itself.”
“Let’s go down and see,” said Peggy, with a bright smile, and setting over a lever and twisting a couple of valves she began to depress the aeroplane.
“There’s a good landing place off there to the right of the end of the lake,” cried Roy, indicating a bare spot where some land seemed to have been cleared at one time.
“All right, my brilliant brother,” laughed Peggy merrily. “I saw it at least five minutes ago. Hold tight, I’m going to drop fast.”
To any one less accustomed to aerial navigation than our two young friends, the downward plunge would have been alarming in its velocity. But to them it was merely exciting. Within a few feet of the ground, just when it seemed they must dash against the surface of the earth with crushing force, Peggy set the planes on a rising angle and the Golden Eagle settled to earth as gracefully as a tired bird.
“Well, here we are,” exclaimed Roy, looking about him at the sylvan scene as they alighted; “and now what comes next?”
“A hunt for the spring, of course,” cried Peggy, placing one hand on her brother’s shoulder and nimbly leaping from the chassis to the soft, springy ground. And off they set toward the margin of the little lake below them.