“I tell you I don’t know!” almost shouted Ben, “and I’m not going to puzzle over the matter any longer. Here we are up on a bald old peak without any show of ever getting our machine down to the ground again, and that’s enough for me to brood over for the time being.”
“This is a beautiful view from this mountain!” suggested Carl, with a grin. “Note the sunlight on the valleys below.”
“Aw, dry up!” cried Ben. “What’s the use of rubbing it in?”
“But,” urged Carl, “just think of the situation Noah was in when he landed his Ark on top of a mountain!”
Ben threw a pebble at his chum and turned moodily away.
“I wouldn’t have your disposition for a barrel of gasoline!” laughed Carl.
“I wish I could trade my disposition for a barrel of gasoline,” grinned Ben. “That might help some.”
“Well,” Carl said rather excitedly, in a moment, “you may keep your precious disposition, for here comes our barrel of gasoline!”
“You must have been reading a dream book!” exclaimed Ben.
“Honest!” shouted Carl. “If you’ll take a squint up there to the north, you’ll see the _Ann_ come poking back! If you don’t believe that is the _Ann_ with Havens on board, just observe the signals in sight.”
“I guess that’s the _Ann_ all right,” Ben returned. “I hope she’s got full tanks of fuel. We need a lot right now.”
The great flying machine came winging south at a great rate of speed, and finally, after circling the peak several times, volplaned down to the _Bertha_. The boys sprang forward to greet Havens, but drew back in a moment for the aviator was a man they had never seen before.
The machine was the _Ann_, sure enough but she was in the hands of two men who were total strangers to the boys. They were slender, dark fellows, with oblong eyes and low foreheads.
“The _Bertha_?” asked one of the men in almost perfect English, stepping close to the machine. “You seem to have met with an accident.”
“It’s the _Bertha_ all right,” Ben answered, “and we’re out of gasoline.”
“And where is the _Louise_?” asked the other.
“Off on a scout somewhere,” was the indefinite reply.
“That’s unfortunate,” the other began, “for we are instructed by Mr. Havens to notify you all to turn back to New York at once.”
“What’s the meaning of that?” demanded Carl.