The Highflyers

ate for the adventure-not like an ordinary boy, but rather like some princeling out of a fairy-tale. There was that air about her-the air of a prince who trafficked with fairies and would ride f

most as if it arrested his heart an instant and made it skip a beat.... That was the way she looked; not dazzlingly beautiful; the effect was not that of beauty, but of something more compelling, more thr

had to come. I hardly slept al

looked up into his face and laughed impishly, for it was plain reading t

e're nearly ready now, I guess." He knew it was hardly the thing

oing to be friends, aren't we?" she said to it, and smiled up at P

he face of her father's attitude toward him. He did not make the effort now. It seemed futile, not to be considered, so he helped her to

dy,

nor was she calm. Her eyes danced with excitement, her face was alight w

rdly," Po

to. I'm su

her manifest desire to become pilot of the cra

dollars-a-ride things we had here last year. I want to go miles and miles.... Let's go right acr

made tha

do I

s no promenade-deck to this sh

a danci

nt is too dangerous for me.

ge is more difficult than the one you speak while we dance

his seat. "You're not going to quarrel

g this morning. Let's start. I

to the smooth waters of Lake St. Clair. For an interval it scudded along, neither floating nor flying, like a wild duck frigh

with childish joy and wonder as the lake spread its beautiful panorama beneath and on all sides of them. It seemed but a moment before the distant blot became the familiar light-ship, and, looking ahead, she could see dimly the parallel lines which she knew must be the ship-canal which opened

assed laboriously in an hour seemed to withdraw themselves as at a magic word of command. Abreast of the light-ship they passed an up-bound freighter. Its deck seemed a mammoth gridiron as Hildegarde looked down upon it-a

of close-growing wild rice and reeds, a universe of wild birds, myriad tiny islets, with here and there a strip of land high enough above the water to supply a foothold for wind-bent, scraggling trees. Here and there wo

ls, untenanted now. To the right and left of it were loneliness, desola

of reeds and rice and shallows. One could wade almost the length and breadth of it. Hildegarde picked out a tiny island in

tter was intent upon it. Suddenly silence fell. Hildegarde had not known that silence could be like this. It was as if the end of all sound in the univer

Potter's face for its expression. It

I tinker," he said. "This is a fi

d. "Imagine being cast away

r going again. Hotels and mechanicians and t

smoothly. A narrow ribbon of open water lay below them, and Hilde

claimed, "the

his head; he was bus

ers and summer folks. Muskrat trappers and F

which she had been astonished to see a house.... The 'plane would not obey. It swept on and down.... Almost in a winking of the eye the solid land was before them ... a tree.... Hildegarde felt a wrench, a shock,

ent. She was stretched at full length, her face pillowed on her arm as if she had lain down on the grass for a nap. Peacefully, gracefully she lay-but very still. Potter dragged himself toward her, reached her.

?" he said. "Did you-b

he slumped downward, his face

ace with his handkerchief, and grunted. He opened Potter's clothing and laid an ear to his br

fted Hildegarde and carried her past the house to a tiny dock and handed

with them?" a man

an in authority replied, in the same language. "The

," growled the man.

from here. Don't be definite. To-night we'll get t

he doing h

regain consciousness. If he does he won't be able to remember

Once in open water, it showed an astonishing gift o

ray a sign of returning consciousness. The man in charge leaped ashore. He had chosen his landing with judgm

e man who habitually spoke in German, but whose En

are t

don't know anything.... W

e men who had brought them to the spot were not questioned, as they might have been in a city more accustomed to the handling of accidents. As the two inert

e accident to his son was telephoned to Fabius Waite, and local correspondents of Detroit papers saw that the story went where it should

woman.... Identification came later, and in the morning papers the names of Potter Waite and Hi

re. Reporters viewed it, and from its position were able to describe accurately how the thing had happened. "Must have been pickled again," was the consensus of their experienced opinion, and they did not hesitate in their a

n of the reckless career of a vicious and depraved youth. It was an af