“My land sakes alive—there, there, you are almost ready, little fellow. This is a nice baby! Now you can go to your mother.” She hustled the infant to his parents and then hustled back to serve her hungry household. During the meal two serious-faced men came to the house. “We heard that your nephews dragged in a family that might have been drowned, Fent,” one of them started . “Yes they did,” Mr. Fenton admitted and introduced the boys to the men, who shook hands gravely. “I’ve heard that there are some families stranded on the islands, and it may be that some of the summer colonies have suffered just as that family you brought in. We were wondering if you will help us get any others, if there are any. We have several good strong power boats, but we would waste a great deal of time trying to locate people and might not find them all.” “If you will fly around and watch for signal fires or flags, then we could send the boats directly and take them off,” the other added. “Of course we’ll be mighty glad to help,” Bob declared promptly . “Thank you. Another thing, there may be some who haven’t had much to eat for a couple of days, not being able to use their boats. Could you drop food to them?” “Sure thing,” Jim replied. “We’ll take some weights along because we don’t usually carry anything like that. We just happened to have one this morning or we might not have been able to give that fellow a tow.” “Thank you. We’ll arrange to have boats and rafts at four points of the island. If you find anyone, give the word to the nearest party. I’ll show you about where they are.” He took a map from his pocket and pointed to four places that would be used for stations. “You can come down on the water to speak to the men we’ll have there?” “Yes, we’ll manage.” “That will be good. We appreciate your help.” Then he turned to Mrs. Fenton. “My wife and some of the neighbors in the village are packing boxes of food, sandwiches, coffee and milk. We’ll send a truck—it ought to be here—and the boys can take it with them and use their own judgment about dropping it.” “I can fix them some—” “Judging by the number of people you have taken in I think that you are doing your share, Mrs. Fenton. We won’t ask you to do any more,” the man replied. “Now, I’ll telephone to the boatmen—” “They just told us not to use the phone,” Jim explained . “They will give me a connection,” the man smiled. In a minute he was giving information, directions and instructions, and finally the rescue work was well organized. By the time the boys were ready to take off, the truck appeared with boxes of food, and the chauffeur helped them store it in the plane. “We’re lucky to have you fellows here,” the man said, when finally the task was accomplished. “We’re in luck to be here,” Bob grinned. “My mother always said that I’d like this place, and I do.” “Come along.” Jim waved to the men, opened the throttle and Her Highness tore across the cove, rose and started on her errand of mercy. She seemed to appreciate the importance of the work before her, and never did an airplane behave more beautifully. They went circling north on the lake and were about to turn when Bob shouted! through the tube.
