“Sure it’s us,” Mike agreed. “Who’d you t’ink? We may be tough, miss, but we know real coin when we see it. You come from right down our alley. Come on, we’ll git y’ out a’ here.”
“Not so fast,” a voice might have whispered. The boys had been too intent on getting over the trail to note that a wall of fire was at that very moment fast closing the trail. They had retraced their steps only a matter of two hundred yards when they found themselves face to face with that wall of fire.
“All right fer you,” Mike shouted defiance at the flames. “We’ll find a way out. Never doubt that!”
It was not long before even Mike did doubt this. Florence had warned him of danger in two directions. All others seemed blocked.
This was the state of affairs when Jeanne and the captain flew over them for the first time. At sight of the plane Florence took courage. She was sure they would try to help. But how? They could not land. There was no lake in the fire-encircled area. What could they do? She was to know.
In the meantime, on a very high point of Greenstone Ridge, perhaps a mile away, there stood a solitary figure. He wore a crimson sweater and carried a high-powered glass at his side. Three times he lifted the glass to study the spot where Florence and the two boys stood. At last he turned and took three steps in their direction. Then he stopped. A sound had reached his ears, the drum of an airplane motor.
He did not go on, but, as the airplane circled toward him, dropped from sight behind some low-growing fir trees. Who was he? Why was he here? Did he know a safe way back to the spot where Florence and the boys stood? Who could answer these questions?
Florence and her companions, too, heard that motor. It was the plane’s second trip. Their hopes rose. They might receive aid. But how?
Twice, as they stood watching, the plane circled. Then a spot of white appeared at the side of the plane. In the rear seat a slim figure stood erect. It was Jeanne. She was saying, “Poor Plumdum.”
The spot of white detached itself from the plane. The girl sat down.