Wings Over the Rockies; Or, Jack Ralston's New Cloud Chaser

Jack had already noted that they were getting to be up to the times, as if the citizens might be of an enterprising sort. Landing lights had been installed while a flashing beacon close by had already started into action, showing that an airmail crate was expected any minute or else one was due to take off.

It was evident that Bart Hicks felt a certain amount of natural curiosity concerning these guests of the field. He had noted that their ship was a brand new one and also the fact that the pilot who brought it down so cleverly must be an experienced hand. Then too, the presence of Suzanne interested him in the bargain, she looked so confident and had all the little airs of a full-fledged pilot in the bargain – trust his old eyes to discover these patent facts.

“Come far, sir?” he was saying casually after the ship had been safely housed in the big hangar, doubtless the property of the aircraft company contracting with the Government for carrying the mails and express matter.

“We spent last night in the Colorado Canyon and have been covering all the ground possible ever since, flying low so as to keep tabs on the ground for as you might guess, we’re one of the many parties out searching high and low for Buddy Warner and his crate.”

“I reckoned you might be sir,” the superintendent of the field quickly remarked, displaying more or less sympathy in his voice.

“My pal and I have been thrown into the hunt by our employers like the rest of the bunch working the same racket,” continued Jack, diplomatically adding, “you see we happen to have run across a young woman pilot who had to make a forced landing down on the river sand in the canyon and it was absolutely necessary that we take her along with us. You can understand just why that could be when I tell you her name is Suzanne Cramer and that she is Buddy Warner’s sweetheart!”

Bart immediately displayed the most intense interest it seemed, just as wise Jack had figured out. He was a family man and in full sympathy with everything that had to do with the fortunes of honest, clean minded young people – for Jack knew there was a heap of truth in that old saying to the effect that “all the world loves a lover” and he was now playing the game for all it was worth.

“That’s mighty fine I must say, Mr. Ralston,” Bart said, for he had learned the names of the two airmen, “and I must say that girl is some daisy, to start off searching for her beau, and she an air pilot in the bargain. I’m tickled pink to have you all stay over in our little burg for even a night and if we can do anything to help you out just give me the tip and it’ll sure be done.”

That was just what Jack most wanted to hear. Before they took off again he was determined to do his best to get hold of some information that would prove of more or less value to himself and Perk.

“I’m meaning to ask you a few questions in the morning Mr. Hicks,” he hastened to say, “especially connected with the country to the east and northeast, for I figure the chances are three to one Buddy Warner must have made a forced landing of some sort in that quarter. The wind, the night he vanished, was blowing from the southwest and pretty gusty at times. Visibility was poor also, so if he lost connection with the beacons before reaching your station, he’d be blown off his course. Do you agree with me, sir?”

“I call it right smart reasoning,” Bart Hicks told him. “Three other ships dropped in here nights so as to save their gas and get some rest; and not one of the pilots seemed to know what course he ought to lay out – just kept swinging this way and that at random, hoping for a streak of good luck to strike them. I reckoned they were leaving a lot of ground uncovered, working without any system as they did.”

“That’s what I thought would happen,” continued Jack quietly, feeling that he had already made a good impression on the other and could hope for results when it came time to “squeeze the bag.” “We mean to devote ourselves to that particular locality so as to find out where he crashed and whether he is still alive or not.”

Bart Hicks gave a shrug with his broad shoulders.

“For the sake of that little girl, I sure do hope you find him alive, partner,” he said feelingly as became one airman toward another.

“She came straight out here from his old mother,” continued Jack, “who gave her blessing to the mad scheme; but now that she is in our charge, my pal and I will see that she comes to no harm. I am greatly obliged to you, Mr. Hicks, for your kindness in sheltering our ship. You can understand what it means to us now, while on this sad errand of mercy, to know that no harm will happen to the crate.”

“Don’t mention it partner!” hastily exclaimed the other. “Why, I’ve been just itching right along to get busy and look over that territory you’ve been speaking about, but my duties here kept me pinned down, though I took it out in doing a heap of growling and swearing too. Tell the little girl for me, will you, that we’ve all been wishing her Buddy would turn up safe and sound. I have a daughter about her age, I reckon, and I just know how she must feel. See you in the morning at daybreak, Mr. Ralston.”

“Thank you again many times, sir.”

Jack felt that he had made a warm friend in honest Bart Hicks. He saw the respectful way in which the field superintendent shook hands with Suzanne, after all of them had entered the gentleman’s car and were ready to start for the hotel and how pleased the girl looked as he murmured a few words of sincere sympathy. Things at least seemed to be working along the line he had laid out. Of course, no one could say this early in the game whether anything worth while would develop from the circumstances springing out of their decision to spend the night in the valley town.

XXIV

ONE CHANCE IN A THOUSAND

The little hotel to which they were taken by the kind owner of the five-passenger car proved to be all they could wish for. It looked scrupulously clean and the rooms to which they were shown seemed to give promise of a comfortable night’s sleep, though Jack doubted whether the excited girl would obtain the rest she needed so much.

He promised to knock on her door at daybreak so that they might secure the early breakfast he had ordered and be off to the flying field to make a start.

He and Perk had a double room with twin beds and were not long in turning in, both of them being more or less tired after a gruelling day aloft. Jack had no idea they would be disturbed during the night, for they were utter strangers in the town and such things as robberies were absolutely unknown, or so the hotel proprietor had assured him in answer to an incidental question.

He was up at the first peep of dawn and had Perk on his feet without any unusual racket. Later on Jack kept his promise about tapping on the door of Suzanne’s room and was a bit surprised when she opened it, disclosing the fact that she was fully dressed as though she had been up for some time, which indeed was a fact.

He would never forget the yearning look she gave him when, seated at the table, they started their simple breakfast. It was as though her heart were in her throat, choking her and Jack, realizing the girl must be close to the breaking point, quickly started talking of outside matters and even cracked a little joke to try and divert her mind from the subject that had gripped her day and night for so long.

About the time they settled their account and were ready to start for the field, a car stopped at the door and their accommodating friend of the night before, Mr. Caleb Cushman, accompanied by his wife, appeared. They came early to have the pleasure of taking them to where they meant to start off again – perhaps his good wife also wished to meet the brave girl who was the now famous Buddy Warner’s sweetheart. Apparently they both knew about this important fact, showing that Mr. Cushman must have been in touch with Bart Hicks by telephone since last they saw the latter, and learned this thrilling circumstance that might put their little town on the map, with all the big newspapers of the country blazing inch high scareheads on their front pages when covering the latest sensation along aviation lines.

Although Jack would not admit that he felt the least uneasiness concerning the safety of the amphibian, nevertheless he gave a sigh of relief when after looking the ship over he found everything in shipshape condition.

“Get that gas aboard as quick as you can, Perk,” he told his comrade for he had contracted to have the tank filled to full capacity while the chance held good, and besides he wished to have a little further conversation with affable Bart Hicks, with the hope of picking up a few crumbs of information in regard to the terrain they meant to cover on this most important day.

Accordingly he drew the ground superintendent aside and plied him with a variety of questions, all of which the accommodating test pilot answered to the best of his ability.

Jack had him describe the general character of the ground and just as he anticipated, learned that it was actually the roughest section in all the region.

“Rocks – deep gullies that seem to have no bottom – peaks with slithering points that look like the savage steel tips of spearheads – the worst territory for a poor devil of an air pilot to crash in or have to make a forced landing that you could run across in a hundred square miles. I’d say there wasn’t over one chance in a thousand that the lad could get to the ground alive and even granted that he did, wounded as he must be, he never in the wide world would be able to find his way out of that hole. I’m sorry to have to say that, Mr. Ralston, but it’s the truth.”

Jack may have winced, but just the same he showed not the slightest sign of being yellow.

“Tell me about that thousandth chance, brother,” he observed, at which the other looked him keenly in the face, shrugged his shoulders and went on to say:

“Guess you’re clear grit all right, son. The best pilots are built that way. Look at our Lindy now, and you’ll find he never flinches, no matter what happens but always does the one right thing as if by instinct. Fact is, when I mentioned that there might be a tiny loophole for a poor devil who had to go down in that god-forsaken stretch of wilderness, I must have been thinking of that strange old hermit who has a secret hideout somewhere in that country. There’s a beautiful little clear water lake surrounded by peaks and heavy woods that no white man’s ever fished in or set eyes on at close quarters, ’cept maybe that queer old chap.”

“Please tell me all you know about him,” pursued Jack eagerly, just as if he was trying to clutch some minute shred of hope that was difficult to capture.

Bart Hicks laughed shortly.

“I can tell you all that in a jiffy Mr. Ralston,” he hastened to reply, “because none of us happen to know anything at all about who and what the old party is. About twice a year, spring and fall, he bobs up here with a sure footed mule and buys all sorts of grub and stores. He never stays overnight and seems to hate the sight of a real house. Some curious minded folks, thinking that perhaps he had struck a rich mine there in that rockhouse district, have tried to follow him but had to give it up and come back beaten. He doesn’t fetch free gold out with him but plain, everyday Government yellow-back bills. We don’t know a thing about the secret trail he takes to make his way through all that riotous land.

“I’ve heard pilots tell how they’d seen spirals of wood smoke rising and those who happened to be flying low say they could see his campfire was close to the brim of that crater lake – for some say it lies in the crater of an extinct volcano. That’s about the whole story as far as any of us know it, Mr. Ralston and I’m winding up by saying again it would be just one lone chance in a thousand that a poor air pilot dropping down there would be found and rescued by that mysterious old hermit.”

“As you say, it’s a desperately small opening and not very promising at best,” Jack told his new friend with the same resolute look on his face, “but it may be we’ll have to place our hopes on such a slender chance after all. At any rate I’m meaning to look into that matter before giving up the game as impossible. It wouldn’t be the first time such a mere thread turned into a stout cable that’s saved the ship from destruction.”

“Never say die, eh? I’d think that’d be your motto, Mr. Ralston,” observed the field superintendent who apparently had come to have more or less admiration for the young air pilot who carried himself so buoyantly, so confidently, as though he absolutely believed in himself.

By now Perk had finished his job of refueling the plane and was rubbing his soiled hands with a bit of waste.

“All fixed, are we brother?” asked Jack and for almost the first time on record, those close by learned that Perk was not at all dumb, but had a fluent voice of his own.

“Wall,” he drawled with a wicked wink toward Jack, “guess now she’s loaded to capacity an’ then some ’cause I’ve got six gallon cans o’ juice stowed away where they ain’t goin’ to take up much room, an’ll keep us on the wing a bit extra. Then too, partner, here’s a waiter comin’ from our hotel joint carryin’ a package o’ eats in the shape o’ sandwiches which I took the trouble to order an’ which you’ll have the pleasure o’ payin’ a hull dollar for right on the spot.”

“Good for you, Perk!” laughed Jack, who seldom had to worry about a sufficiency of food when traveling in the company of such an excellent provider as Gabe Perkiser who never had any difficulty in hearing the “call of the eats” so many times per diem.

Apparently they were all ready to make the jump-off, the amphibian having been taxied to the head of the runway where a simple slant would help give her “gangway,” as Perk often called it.

Just then Bart Hicks came up and shoved a bit of paper into the pocket of Jack’s leather flying coat.

“Just take a squint at that when you find time, brother,” he remarked and held out his hand for a parting grip. “Shake hands, Jack, and here’s wishing you all the luck going in your present job as well as in all others they put on your shoulders – you too, Perk old hoss.”

There was something a bit mysterious about the way Bart Hicks said that, and Perk had it on the tip of his tongue to demand an explanation but since the pilot just then drew back the stick and the motor commenced to roar as the amphibian started down the slant, he had to take it out in a goodbye wave of his hand and let it go at that.

They rose like a bird long before the termination of the runway had been reached for those sloping wing-tips were fashioned so as to make it easy to take off successfully in one-third the distance formerly deemed necessary for a ship with a powerful enough set of motors to lift a heavy weight and get away with it.

Looking back, Suzanne could see the little bunch that had seen their takeoff, including some mechanics and field hands as well as Bart Hicks, Mr. Cushman and his wife. They were all waving their hands wildly and possibly giving tongue in the bargain, although the noise prevented her from making sure of this. She answered their salutes with her little pocket handkerchief and then wiped her eyes as though the long repressed tears just would break through her guard, and run down her pretty cheeks.

They were now fully launched on another day’s weary though eager search, with no one being qualified to prophesy what the outcome of the new flight would be. Jack had mapped out in his mind the country over which he meant to fly with little save his own conception to assist him.

One thing was sure, when they had covered a stretch of several miles in a straight run, it could be set down as certain nothing had missed their close attention and that there would be no necessity for returning over the same ground again. This was a fight to a finish and a clean-up as they went along, so Jack kept hugging that tiny hope to his heart and wondered what the eventual outcome of the adventure would prove to be. As yet it was a toss-up, as far as he could see.

XXV

THE NEVER SAY DIE SPIRIT

“Hot ziggetty dog! all set now for another long spin, combin’ the country as we go along, eh partner?”

Perk had no sooner arranged his head-phones after seeing that Jack had his fixed for service, than he commenced business at the old stand. Perk was just burning to get certain things out of his system that had been dammed up by his playing dumb on the previous evening.

“So far as I know nothing has been overlooked Perk – if only that left wing aileron doesn’t play us a dirty trick and fall off, we’ll be alright.”

“I tell you I tested it an’ it’s okay, Jack, don’t crab my game if you have any respect for my feelin’s. When I say a thing’s all to the good it’s there, every time.”

“Forget it brother, we’ve both been under a heavy strain lately and apt to show undue anxiety. Today ought to prove which way the wind’s going to blow for us. See, already she’s at the old job, covering every rod of ground with the powerful glasses. All I can say is I wish her all the luck going, poor kid.”

“But just the same you ain’t any too – er – sanguine – is that the word I want, partner? A sort o’ yearnin’, hopin’ but kinder afraid things mightn’t turn out so well in the end?”

“I get you, Perk, and according to my notion there are three of us in the same boat right now. I’m holding the ship in right along, so we’ll make certain nothing gets away from us.”

“Yeah, an’ by the way Jack, didn’t I see our good pal, Bart, stick somethin’ in your pocket jest before we skipped off – looked kinder like a piece o’ paper to me – did you ask him for his home address or somethin’ like that?”

Jack laughed.

“So you saw him do that, did you, old Hawk-eye – no, I didn’t ask him for anything in that line – he did more than enough for us as it was.”

Perk seemed to be consumed with curiosity which he made no attempt whatever to smother, for after a bit of grunting he went on to say suggestively:

“Huh! that looks a whole lot queer to me, partner. Why should Bart Hicks want to act like he might be an informer, tryin’ to hand you a leadin’ clue to a smashin’ big mystery an’ on the sly in the bargain? Huh! seems to me he must ’a’ had some good reason for doin’ sech a stunt as that!”

“Thunder! Perk, if you don’t make me think of the picture we used to see in the magazine ads, where a baby in a bathtub is reaching out to get hold of a cake of soap with a well known brand on it with the words ‘He won’t be happy till he gets it.’ Right now you’re just eaten up with curiosity about that slip of paper Bart crammed down in my pocket and there’ll be no peace in the camp till you know its contents.”

Perk unblushingly chuckled, as if ready to “acknowledge the corn.”

“Lemme have the stick, partner,” he hastened to suggest, “I’m jest as fit as a fiddle to lay things out for a few hours, an’ mebbe it’ll tone me down some.”

“Oh! all right brother, here you go then.”

The transfer was made “as slick as grease,” according to Perk’s mind and so Jack felt in his coat pocket to immediately draw out a sheet of paper, evidently torn hastily from an account book, and upon which there was considerable writing, none too legible.

He fastened his eyes on this and Perk could see that whatever the tenor of Bart’s secret communication was, it appeared to afford Jack considerable interest. Several times as he read on he nodded his head, as if agreeing with certain statements in the missive, all of which redoubled poor Perk’s eagerness to have a share in the proceedings.

“Well, that certainly takes the cake,” Jack was heard to say after he had evidently reached the finish of the note.

“Ain’t you goin’ to let me in on the fun, partner?” begged the other almost pathetically. “I’m sure all het up with a desire to know what’s goin’ on.”

Jack nodded his head again and then started to relieve his chum’s mental burden.

“Seems like the joke’s on us, Perk, old boy,” he began.

“Joke hey? Bart Hicks played one on his unsuspectin’ guests then, did he?” Perk grumbled as if terribly upset. “I didn’t think he was that sorter cad.”

“Oh! you’ll take that back after you find out what I meant by the word ‘joke’,” Jack hastened to assure him. “Listen, partner, I’m going to read you the whole letter, because it’s no easy job to get the hang of Bart’s handwriting. Reckon he wasn’t great shakes at penmanship when he went to school, for he does spell something fierce, but I’m going to keep this, all right, for it’s a cinch Bart outsmarted two fellows who reckon themselves some clever at their business. But listen and grab what he says here.”

“Go to it, old hoss,” begged the waiting Perk most eagerly.

“‘Hats off, boys – I’m on to your curves okay. Happens I got a younger brother a holding down a job in the same crowd you run with – mebbe you remember young Doug Hicks, him that fetched in all by his lonesome the four ginks makin’ up that slick gang of international crooks doin’ business as the Keating Bunch’ – what d’ye think of that, Perk, Doug Hicks turning out to be the kid brother of our new friend, Bart, isn’t that the limit though? Well he goes on this way: ‘He often mentioned both you lads in his letters to me, and when you introduced yourselves I just knocked wood, but didn’t let on I got the drift of things. But say, don’t you worry any, boys, I’ll never leak a drop, so your secret is as safe as a new dollar bill. Go to it, and fetch in Buddy Warner, for if anybody can do that, it’s bound to be you two. So-long. Your friend, Bart Hicks, all wool and a yard wide.’”

Perk was making all manner of queer faces as though this wonderful disclosure had taken his breath away but through it all there struggled that happy-go-lucky grin of his, to proclaim his full appreciation of the contents of the flying field test pilot’s unique communication.

“Jest what that gink is – all wool and a yard wide – honest goods, you bet every time,” he finally managed to say with numerous chuckles accompanying the words. “Sure we know Doug Hicks, the boy who’s goin’ to make a name for himself in the Secret Service one o’ these days, if he don’t get bumped off by some hijacker’s lead. Queer what a little ole world this anyhow – kickin’ up against Bart Hicks in this jumpin’-off part o’ the country. We sure do strike the strangest happening in our line o’ work, don’t we?”

“We certainly do,” came the quick reply as Jack folded up his letter and put it carefully away. “While you’re doing duty brother, I’ll get busy with some calculations I have in mind. Keep her headed just as she is, and in half an hour we’ll bank and come back along a parallel line, so as to cover all the ground up and down, up and down, through the whole day.”

It was gruelling work, but the only possible thing they could do if they meant to make certain that they had investigated every rod of that terrible terrain that lay on every side, looking as though at some remote time in the past, nature had been turning things topsy-turvy and making a mad havoc with the entire land of gigantic rocks and sink holes.

So two whole hours crept along with a number of abrupt turns, now north, again south, steadily covering the ground. But sad to say there had as yet been discovered nothing to breed sudden hopes and expectations. Haze there had been in patches, owing to some humid condition of the atmosphere in certain quarters, but never the first sign of friendly smoke curling upward in spirals, nor yet a glimpse of any sort of half concealed mountain lake such as had been described to them by Bart Hicks.

It was now drawing on toward the middle of the day and Perk having turned over the controls to his chum at the latter’s request, was taking things easy, having relieved Suzanne of the binoculars which he handled with the skill born of long practice.

Several times during the morning the girl had begged Jack to take a look and tell her if she had deceived herself in thinking there was some favorable sign ahead or on either side. Much as he would have loved to confirm her wildest hopes, Jack found himself doomed to give a disappointing answer and so see the look of anguish that passed over her erstwhile eager, smiling face.

The grim truth must be faced – there was no break so far to the monotonous cruelty of the landscape with its unpromising features the only result of all this search.