"Then he means to—to be an aviator," said Lenore, with quivering lips.
"Sure, if he can get in. An' he's wise. Jim knows engines. He has a knack for machinery. An' nerve! No boy ever had more. He'll make a crack flier."
"But—the danger!" whispered the boy's mother, with a shudder.
"I reckon there'll be a little danger, mother," replied Anderson, cheerfully. "We've got to take our chance on Jim. There's one sure bet. If he had stayed home he'd been fightin' I.W.W.'s!"
That trying moment passed. Mrs. Anderson said that she would see to supper being put on the table at once. The younger girls began untying the bundles. Lenore studied her father's face a moment.
"Jake, you run along," she said to the waiting cowboy. "Wait till after supper before you worry father."
"I'll do thet, Miss Lenore," drawled Jake, "an' if he wants worryin' he'll hev to look me up."
"Lass, I'm only tired, not worried," replied Anderson, as Jake shuffled out with jingling spurs.
"Did anything serious happen in Spokane?" she asked anxiously.
"No. But Spokane men are alive to serious trouble ahead," replied her father. "I spoke to the Chamber of Commerce—sure exploded a bomb in that camp. Then I had conferences with a good many different men. Fact is they ran me pretty hard. Couldn't have slept much, anyhow, in that heat. Lass, this is the place to live!… I'd rather die here than live in Spokane, in summer."