A JOYFUL REUNION
Cora gasped as the aircraft mounted into the sky and she saw the earth
falling away from her. It was the newest and greatest thrill in her
experience.
Her first sensation was that of detachment. She seemed to be floating in
a sea of ether. Everything was impalpable, intangible. It seemed to be
her astral body that was moving through space. All that was material
seemed to have been thrown aside like a cast-off garment.
Her next impression was that of silence. All earthly noises had been
stilled. The song of birds, the rustling of leaves that had made the
forest vocal had died away. It seemed as though the world had been
suddenly stricken dumb. The only sound was that of the motor with its
monotonous hum.
"Like it?" called out Miss Moore, looking at her with a smile.
"Do I?" replied Cora. "It's just heavenly!"
The aviatrix gazed at her with approval. She had found a kindred spirit.
"You're a thoroughbred," she said. "Many girls would be frightened to
death. They'd be begging me to descend."
"No danger of my doing that," laughed Cora. "I could go on like this
forever, if I were not so anxious to get back to my friends."
They were flying now at a height of five hundred feet, and the air,
despite the August sun, was cold. Miss Moore had given Cora a coat and a
pair of gloves from her kit, however, so that she was fairly well
protected.
"What a glorious view!" exclaimed Cora ecstatically, as the vast panorama
of field and forest unrolled itself as far as the eye could see. "Oh, how
I envy you!"
Miss Moore smiled.
"It _is_ beautiful," she assented. "But I'm kept so busy with listening
to my engine and shaping my course that I don't have as much time to
enjoy it as I would like to. That's one of the advantages of being a
passenger. But look around now, and see if you can recognize your camp.
I'll make a landing as near to it as I can."
Cora looked eagerly about.
"There's the sawmill!" she exclaimed. "And there's the road that leads
from there to Kill Kare," she added. "All you have to do is to follow
that road south for a few miles, and we'll come to the house. And there's
a big cleared space around it that will make a splendid landing place for
the aeroplane."
Miss Moore turned in the indicated direction, and followed the road that
Cora had pointed out.
"I can never thank you enough for rescuing me as you have," said Cora,
her voice broken with emotion.
"It's made me almost as happy as it has you," returned Miss Moore. "It
will be one of the pleasantest memories of my life."
"But it's delayed you on your trip, hasn't it?"
"Suppose it has?" replied Miss Moore. "Do you suppose I would have
hesitated on that account to bring you home? But set your mind at rest on
that score. I was an hour or more ahead of my schedule anyway. You see,"
she added gaily, "we girls can give the men a handicap and yet beat them
out."
Cora laughed gleefully.
"Of course we can!" she exclaimed. "But oh, Miss Moore, there's dear old
Kill Kare now! See, over there among the trees."
"I see it," was the reply, as Miss Moore's practised eye looked out for
the landing place.
She touched a lever and began to descend in a sweeping curve.
When Jack and Walter, together with Joel, reached the picnic ground, they
found that Paul had not been idle. He had been searching for Cora in ever
widening circles during every moment of their absence, but a glance at
his disconsolate face showed that he had learned nothing.
Some of the workers from the mill had already scattered in the woods,
going in different directions. Other volunteers came straggling in until
the number had reached a score. Joel, because of his knowledge of the
woods, was put in general charge of the search.
Anticipating that Cora might not be found before dark closed in, torches
were prepared in large numbers and distributed among the men. It was
arranged that the place where they now were should be the general
rendezvous, at which all the searching parties would report, and to which
Cora should be brought as soon as found.
Most of the men had either rifles or revolvers, and a copious supply of
ammunition was furnished by the foreman of the mill. Joel had brought
from the barn a number of skyrockets that had been left over from the
previous Fourth of July celebration, and it was arranged that one of
these should be set off every hour through the night. By following the
course of this and marking the direction from which it came, the
searching parties could keep the location of the camp in mind. It was
hoped also that Cora might see them and thereby be guided in the right
direction.
Paul had driven back to Kill Kare, and had secured unlimited food and
coffee for the refreshment of the searchers, in case the hunt was
prolonged.
All through the waning afternoon the search continued. And with the
coming of night it doubled in intensity. Fresh parties took the place of
exhausted ones that came straggling back. The woods were alive with
torches.
It seemed certain that, with so many hunters, success ought to have been
almost certain. But Joel knew that twenty times that number might search
in that vast wilderness without running across the one they sought. At
best it was a gamble, with the odds against them.
Morning came and found the boys fairly dropping with fatigue and torn
with grief and disappointment. Jack was almost out of his mind with
reflecting on his sister's plight.
"We'll drive back to Kill Kare and telegraph for bloodhounds," he said.
"Joel says that there are a couple he knows of at the county seat. If
they're sent on the early train to the nearest town they ought to get
here by noon. We'll put them to work at once, and see what they can do."
They left Joel in charge of the search, and drove back gloomily to Camp
Kill Kare.
There was plenty of "care" there that morning. Neither Aunt Betty nor the
girls had been able to sleep. The thought of Cora out in the wilderness
all through that long night had driven them fairly frantic.
And their hearts sank still further when the boys came back to report
their failure.
"We ought to telegraph to your mother at once," declared Aunt Betty,
wringing her hands.
"It would almost kill mother to get a telegram like that," said Jack
moodily. "It wouldn't do any good, and in the meantime Cora may be found.
We'll wait, anyway, until after we've tried the bloodhounds."
They ate briefly and scantily of breakfast, for none of them had any
heart for food. Then they went outside to make ready for their trip to
the rendezvous.
The boys were piling into the car when Belle gave a sudden exclamation
and pointed upward.
"There's an aeroplane!" she cried.
They followed her gaze and saw the aircraft coming toward them at a rapid
rate.
As they looked, they saw that it was beginning to slacken speed and at
the same time was coming closer to earth.
"Looks as though it were going to land somewhere about here," remarked
Jack. "Perhaps it's having trouble."
As it drew closer they could see that there were two people in it.
"And one of them's a woman!" cried Walter, as he noted the fluttering of
a skirt.
"She's waving at us!" exclaimed Belle excitedly. Then her voice rose to a
scream.
"It's Cora! It's Cora!"
"Cora!" shrieked Bess.
"Cora!" echoed Aunt Betty.
As for the boys, they gave one look and tumbled out of the automobile,
yelling, shouting, thumping each other on the back. The girls sobbed and
laughed, and hugged Aunt Betty and each other. None of them had the least
idea of what they were doing or saying, and none of them cared. They were
fairly mad with joy.
They ran out under the plane as it circled around looking for its
landing. And when it settled down as gracefully as a swan and finally
stopped, there was a wild rush for it, and the next second Cora was
unstrapped, dragged from her seat and was being devoured with hugs and
kisses.
It was all incoherent and frantic and broken, as great revulsions of
feeling have a way of being. It was impossible to find words adequate to
their delight, and it is safe to say that at that moment there was no
happier group of people than that which wept and laughed on the lawn at
Camp Kill Kare.
The aviatrix sat looking on through all this tumult with a happy smile.
As soon as Cora could extricate herself from the arms that clung about
her as though they never intended to let her go, she turned to her
deliverer.
"You see what you have done for me," she laughed through her tears.
"They certainly seem glad to see you," was the response.
They all crowded around and showered her rescuer with thanks, as Cora
introduced them. They were astounded to find that it was to a woman that
Cora owed her safety. Most of them had heard her name in connection with
flying exploits, and they were earnest in their compliments and
congratulations.
When a few minutes later Miss Moore resumed her flight, every eye
remained fixed on the plane until at last it melted into space. Then they
resumed their rejoicings over the wanderer who had been so strangely
brought back from the wilderness.