Dave just shrugged and didn’t answer for a moment. He stared hard across the mountain peaks as though that would permit him to see what was on the other side. He saw nothing but tree-covered slopes, and jagged rocks, and deep ravines, of course. On impulse he twisted around in the seat and looked back in the general direction of San Francisco. There was nothing there but blue sky and blooming patches of pure white clouds.
“Wonder how far back Colonel Welsh’s agent is?” he spoke the question aloud, “By rights he should be near enough to see this light plane lad, and get curious and close in for a better look.”
“That’s what I’ve been wondering, too!” Freddy called out. “Strikes me as a bit strange we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since we left. Maybe he didn’t get off.”
Freddy Farmer’s last words caused Dave to stiffen slightly, and a tingling ripple passed through his body. He looked at the English youth and half closed one eye.
“Maybe you’ve got something there, pal,” he muttered. “Maybe our escort didn’t get off Frisco Air Base. But if this lad’s not kidding, and there is a crash with injured people over there beyond the mountains—”
Dave let the rest trail off and scowled at the banks of clouds. If there was a crash and injured people in need of help, he wanted to lend that help even though he and Freddy were on an important military mission. After all, injured people—Yet, confound it, there seemed to be something inside of him that wouldn’t agree. A tiny voice kept yelling for him to ignore this pleading pilot and fly on to Albuquerque.
“Perhaps a look wouldn’t hurt any, Dave,” Freddy spoke up. “We could take a look, and if there is a crash send a radio to the nearest air field. What do you say to that?”
Dave didn’t say anything to that. In fact, he hardly heard what Freddy Farmer was saying. At that moment he had suddenly spotted two dots high up in the banked clouds to the east, two moving dots that were hugging the shadows cast by the lumpy clouds. And he didn’t need anyone to tell him that they weren’t just a couple of soaring eagles!