Tom donned his leather coat and went to the house. He entered and called up the stairs to Catherine. She answered him and he went up. He found her lying bright-eyed and flushed of face, staring eagerly at the door.
“Oh, I am glad you are real!” she cried. “I was queer last night—and I thought you weren’t real.”
He laughed.
“I am one of the realest things you ever saw, of my own kind,” he said. “I’m no dream, Cathie. And now I’m going to make a little journey, to fetch you a doctor—so when you hear my engines wish me luck, girl—put up a little prayer for me.”
He stooped, touched his lips lightly and quickly to her hot forehead, and left her. He ran to his machine and started the engines. He put on his cap and goggles. He twirled the propeller; and suddenly it hummed.
“Stand clear!” and he scrambled to his seat.
The old bus thrilled, lurched, then moved forward down the field, slowly for a few yards, then less slowly, then fast. Gaspard and Mick stared after it, frozen with awe; and when they suddenly realized that the little wheels were no longer on the mossy sod they felt as if their hearts were stuck in their windpipes. Yes, the little wheels were off the ground! And the wide wings were climbing against the green wall of the forest; now they were swooping around; and now they were against the morning blue; and still the great bird circled as it rose. Now it was high over the house, high above the blue smoke from the chimney. Now it was over the barns, and over the woods beyond, still circling and rising. Four times it circled the clearings, flying wider and higher each time; and then it headed north and flew straight away into the blue.
Then those two aged woodsmen suddenly recovered the use of their lungs and limbs. They shouted triumphantly and waved their arms in the air. They leaped together and embraced.
The frail thing that flew northward with so much of their pride and love dwindled and dwindled and at last vanished from their sight.
“An’ that’s the man Ned Tone fit with,” said Gaspard, in a voice thrilled with pride and shaken with awe.