XXVIII
AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
"How does it come, my young friend," remarked the recluse of Crater Lakemoving closer to the grinning Perk and apparently greatly moved, "thatyou are mentioning a name I have not heard spoken for the last sevenyears?"
"Huh! it happens, Doc, that I got some memory. Specially o' faces,"candidly replied the aviator. "Course you've changed a heap since Iknowed you, but back o' it all I could ketch the same look you had thenwhen you fixed me up so dickey."
"Ah! that is what it means! So you were once a patient of mine. I hope Iserved you well, to cause you to remember me so long!" and the hermitpatted Perk on the shoulder in what seemed to be a very friendly way.
"Hot ziggetty dog! I'm sayin' you did, Doc--looky here and see how thethings healed up," and as he said this, Perk rolled up his sleeve,exhibiting a stout arm marked by a series of red lines zigzagging hereand there and giving evidence of being a reminder of a most seriouswound.
The hermit looked and nodded his head.
"Rather a tough proposition it must have been," he remarked with a showof interest.
"You jest bet it _was_!" vociferated Perk. "That bally English doctorwanted to take the arm off--said it'd save my life, but what use wouldlife be to a birdman with only one arm? Then you came along and done thetrick, Doc. Never could forget what I owed you. Finest operation everdone on that line, the American surgeon said afterwards."
"Ah! very kind of him, I am sure," said Perk's companion, obviouslyappreciating the implied compliment, "and would you mind telling me justwhere, and under what conditions all this happened? It may assist me toremember the particular instance out of the hundreds I handled?"
"In the Argonne, Doc--I came down in flames after sendin' two out o'four Heinies ahead o' me. 'Member you told me my mother had ought tofeel proud o' her boy--which she sure was, Doc. Course it couldn'thardly be 'spected you'd 'member me, but I guessed I'd keep think-in''bout you as long as I lived. An' to think we'd run up agin each otherlike this--it certainly is a small world, as I've said before."
"While I don't happen to remember the particular circumstance, myfriend," the other went on warmly, "it's a pleasure to know that you didpull through with both arms and have apparently continued to ply yourdangerous, if glorious calling ever since. Shake hands with me, willyou? I'm proud to renew our acquaintance and it comes at a turning pointin my life also."
He glanced affectionately at Buddy lying there on his cot with the girlhovering over him, smoothing the blanket as only a woman can andlavishing looks of adoration on her hero pilot.
"For years I have been mourning the fact that after being shell-shockedon the battle line during the closing month of the war, I had lost mytouch for my vocation; for a surgeon depends a great deal on his handsfor the success of his delicate operations. Then _he_ came into my lifeas though dropping down from heaven itself. The necessity forimmediately handling his injuries started me back into the old rut againand I was thrilled to discover that my finger-tips were as sensitive asever. Then I realized that since God was so good as to restore to methat which I feared had been lost forever, it would be wicked for me toremain shut up away from my fellows when so many suffering people wereholding out their hands to me for aid. My prayer had been heard and Ihave resolved to go back once more to labor in the field that can neverhave an over supply of workers."
What he said so seriously, so joyfully, thrilled Perk to the core. Hefelt that both he and his chum Jack had had at least a little to do withthis loyal determination on the part of the once expert surgeon to againoffer his services to the uncounted multitude of sufferers in everygreat city of the nation, and insofar as he could effect a cure, bringhappiness to many a home that was now shrouded in darkness.
Later on, when Perk had a chance to tell this remarkable happening tothe deeply interested Jack, and they had talked it all over, they cameto the conclusion that the supposed loss of his skill as a result of hisshock, was not the only reason causing Doctor Reeves to have thatmysterious yearning to seek the solitudes of Nature in an effort to shunhis fellow men. He may have met with some bitter disappointment, perhapsfrom the hand of the woman he loved, who had proved faithless. But allthis was none of their business and Jack agreed with his pal when Perkdeclared they were treading on forbidden ground in even speculatingabout it.
"No matter what it was," Jack ended the talk by saying earnestly, "he'sapparently gotten over that upset. Time heals wounds of the heart weknow, and if he's the wonderful surgeon you say, he can do a heap ofmissionary work among the hospitals during the rest of his life. I'mmighty glad we've run across him and he seems to have fixed up Buddyhere just prime--says he'll be able to get back on his job in four weeksand be just as good as ever."
"Bully for Doc. Reeves!" exclaimed the enthusiastic Perk, still a littledazed over the amazing coincidence of meeting the professional man towhom he owed so much.
They found that the hermit--who would be called by that name no longerif he kept his new resolution--had a stone fireplace close by hisshelter where he was accustomed to carrying on such cooking as wasnecessary.
Perk immediately took possession of the "cooking galley" as he waspleased to call the small addition to the shack where a meagreassortment of pots and pans were hanging, and proceeded to providesupper.
He would not allow the proprietor to render the least assistance andalso declined the offered help of Suzanne, telling her she could do moregood as a nurse than trying to help him. He had long been waiting justsuch an opportunity to "sling the grub" and was not going to be knockedout of this fine chance.
Jack, knowing how the other was enjoying himself, offered no objectionsso Perk found himself monarch of all he surveyed and boss of thekitchen.
Perk dragged the clumsy dugout belonging to the late recluse to serve asa ferry between the anchored amphibian and the shore. Later on Jack sawhim fetching a number of things up to the vicinity of the shack andchuckled, highly amused, to note that among them was the submachine gunwith its belt of ammunition. He could readily surmise what that meant.Perk must have remembered seeing that monster silvertip bear waddlingalong among the piled-up masses of rock not so very far distant from theshack of their present host and with some dimly defined notion in hishead that he might wish to again play sentinel and guard to the camp,was determined to be in condition to meet any situation that mightarise.
Oh! well, if it pleased Perk to imagine dire things hovering over theirheads, and if it afforded him real happiness to assume the duties of aposted sentry, why should any one wish to cheat him of such an innocentrecreation? It could do no harm but on the other hand would give thevigilant one a feeling of satisfaction, thought Jack.
"Only I do hope," Jack was telling himself under his breath with a fondglance toward the object of his soliloquy, "if he's bound to save us allagain, his victim turns out to be a little more ferocious than awretched half-starved prairie dog, creeping up to smell out a bone ortwo thrown away after a camp supper."
Perk was a busy and willing worker for the next half hour, dodging inand out, bending over his cooking fire that had been coaxed to a pointapproaching perfection with several pots and pans resting on the largegridiron that the ex-hermit evidently used principally for roasting hispotatoes in their skins, he being no great hand at achieving culinarytriumphs. Some men are born to one profession and others excel in quiteanother line. Doc. Reeves' specialty was surgery, that of Jack might beset down as general excellence along the duties of an air pilot and alsofairly well equipped to play his part as one of Uncle Sam's energeticSecret Service men while Perk had a notion he shone in no one particularline, but could get up about as savory a meal, under existingconditions, as the best woods guide.
He certainly surpassed himself on this particular occasion. The odorsthat soon began to permeate the atmosphere all around that lonesome spotcaused Jack to show uneasiness, as though he could hardly wait for Perkto call them t
o partake of the glorious feast.
"Why, if this keeps on much longer," he told himself as he walked up anddown near by as a very hungry man is apt to do when waiting for supperto be put upon the table, especially if it is in camp, where appetitereigns above ordinary likes and dislikes, "he'll have the wholeneighborhood saturated with the smell of whatever he's cooking. Ifthere's a hungry mountain lion or a half-starved grizzly within a mileof here, he'll make a trail to this nook right away. What's that Emersonwrote, that if a man invents the best mouse trap ever built the worldwill make the deepest kind of a trail flocking to his woods cabin topatronize him? And Perk's sure _some cook_, I admit!"
The agony was finally brought to an end and they settled down on bits oflogs and a couple of ricketty chairs the self-exiled surgeon hadmanufactured at some time or other. A small table, also home-made,fairly groaned under the most bountiful supply of "camp grub" imaginableand the grinning Perk eager to serve it out in generous portions.
Even the injured Buddy developed an astonishing appetite. Doc. Reeves,now radiant and full of good nature at the way he had been brought backto his one consuming passion, which he feared was gone forever, declaredhe had not sat before such a gorgeous feast for many a long year.Suzanne too, saw fit to add her praises while she ate and ate, as iftrying to make up for the several meals she had missed while laboringunder such a heavy load of suspense.
As for the cook himself, he showed no sign of his late labors havingdiminished his capacity for stowing away tremendous quantities of food,as those who prepare meals so often declare. But there was enough forall and a bit to be thrown out for the squirrels, rabbits, or any largerspecies of hungry mountain denizens that might care to investigate theappetizing odors.
They sat around in the faint light of the only lamp available, used onlyoccasionally by the doctor on account of the difficulty of transportingkerosene such a distance on muleback, and talked on a variety ofsubjects. Buddy was of course eager to learn what was being saidconcerning the mystery of his disappearance and must have been dulythrilled when Jack and Perk recounted some of the many things they hadread under flaming head-lines in the daily papers coming under theirobservation from time to time.
When questioned, he told in simple words just what had happened. It wasnothing original, just such an accident as might happen to the mostskillful of air pilots, though not all of them live through theexperience. Chancing to see the little lake which was not by any meansthe first time he had glimpsed it, since on several occasions he hadflown above it while carrying his mail pouches to and from airports, hehad tried to make a halfway safe landing on the strip of sand at thatend of the round pond but failing by a dozen or more feet, plunged intothe water.
He lost all knowledge of what happened, coming to his senses a long timeafterwards to find himself on a cot with the recluse just completing hiswonderful job of attending to his broken arm and the many bruises aboutthe rest of his person.
Dr. Reeves said but little, seeming quite content to listen to thevoices of his little company of guests thrown so unexpectedly upon hishands but it was easy to see he was far happier that night than he hadbeen for many years, with the future again beckoning and looming up as awide field where he could apply his services in behalf of his fellows.
It was decided that Buddy must keep his cot for the night. They made upone for Suzanne with several fairly well cured animal pelts, mementoesof certain beasts the recluse had shot or trapped, either for theirskins or to be used as a change of diet. Jack and Perk were oldcampaigners, and could find an apology for a bed on the ground near thefire while the surgeon said he meant to sit on a chair in the kitchenand spend the night in general rejoicing over his good fortune in"coming back."
Jack teased his chum a bit when he saw the other lugging thatsub-machine gun over to where he was going to sleep, but Perk onlygrinned, and nodded, as though he really enjoyed the prospect of oncemore remaining on guard.
Wings Over the Rockies; Or, Jack Ralston's New Cloud Chaser Page 28