“Can’t afford to take any risks with the bad crowd trying to break us up though,” reminded Hiram.
“I don’t intend to,” answered Dave. “It will take a long trip clear back to Winnipeg to replace those parts. If those fellows we left back at Doubleday come on after the machine, it will be fully a week before they can think of taking up the chase again.”
“By that time we will have reached Alaska; won’t we, Dave?” queried Elmer.
“And far beyond, if we fill the schedule blocked out,” replied the young pilot of the Comet. “I’ll be back soon, fellows.”
Dave lined the grove of trees and was soon lost beyond it to the present sight of his friends. In about half an hour he reappeared, walking briskly.
“It’s all right,” he reported. “Get the Comet in trim.”
“Going to start up, eh?” remarked Elmer.
“We had better, I think, to avoid complications,” said Dave. “The town beyond here has a telephone service probably, running to Doubleday. The note I wrote told of the dismantled machine here. It also explained enough to warrant a ’phone call, explaining about it, sent to Doubleday. Those Winnipeg fellows can get their machine by coming for it.”
“You mean what is left of it,” corrected Hiram.
“I hired a boy I met to take my note to the postmaster of the town near here,” explained the young aviator. “I think I have been as fair all around as we can afford to be under the circumstances.”