"I say, don"t----"
"I am sure that girl must be devoted to you. Isn"t she? The one you want to see? Oh, yes! Well, think if it were _she_ who begged to be with _you_," pleaded Gwenna softly and deadly calm. Her knuckles were white on the hands that she held clasped against her breast. "Think if she begged for one last, last little time!"
"Look here; it"s imposs----"
"I never begged for any one anything before, in my whole life. Never!
Not even my husband. Only you! It"s the first--the last favour, Mr.
Ryan! You used to say you"d do anything----"
"No, please; I say----!"
"He"s always said he would take me. You can follow us on. Yes, indeed it will be all right----"
Here Paul, pa.s.sing with the Aeroplane Lady at the end of the yard, on his way to the machine in the field, saw by the steam reservoir his young wife talking earnestly to the red-haired Ryan chap, who was to be his pa.s.senger. He heard her say: "You must, Peter, you _must_!"
He hadn"t known that the Little Thing called that fellow by his Christian name, but he thought he knew the kind of thing that she would be saying to Ryan; begging him to keep an eye upon her husband, to do anything he could for him (Paul) since they were both going over to France together.
"It will be all right," repeated Gwenna to young Ryan in a settled kind of tone. "You"ll give me your things, and then you"ll stay here, out of the way until we"ve gone. You will!"
Thereupon Mr. Ryan became firmer than ever.
"Can"t be done, Mrs. Dampier," he said curtly. "Afraid that ends it!"
In the meantime Paul was making a last tour of the P.D.Q.
"Just start her, will you?" he said to one of his mechanics.
A harsh roar rattled out over the countryside. Paul touched parts here and there.
"All right," he said; and the engine was shut off again. Then he turned to Mrs. Crewe.
"Well," he said, "if you don"t mind----" He glanced first at his wrist-watch and then in the direction of the buildings. The Aeroplane Lady smiled.
"I think you"ll find her in the office," she replied.
He crossed the field and walked straight into the office, but Gwenna was not there. He pa.s.sed into the Wing-room where he had seen her at work.
She was not there, either; only two of the lads in blue overalls were bringing in a wing. He said to them: "Is Mrs. Dampier in the central shop? Just tell her I"m here, will you? I shall have to be off very soon." In a moment one of the lads returned to say that Mrs. Dampier was not in the shops.
"Go out that way and find her, will you, then?" he said. "I"ll go out the other way; ask her to wait for me in the Wing-room if you find her first." He went out to search for his wife. He sought her in the shops and in the sheds. She was not to be found. He came back to the Wing-room; it was empty, except for the Great Dane, lying in his corner blinking wisely, with his head on his paws. Dismayed (for he would have not more than a moment to spare with her now) young Dampier came out and sent a lad on a bicycle up to Mrs. Crewe"s cottage to find out if his wife were there. Perhaps the Little Thing had forgotten the cap-comforter she was going to give him, and had gone to fetch that.
Mrs. Crewe herself walked back from the field, and found him almost running about the yards again.
"What, haven"t you found her? Isn"t she anywhere about?" cried the Aeroplane Lady in astonishment. "This is most extraordinary. She must be here somewhere----"
"I"ve been and I"ve sent all over the place," said the young aviator, distressed. "Here, I"ve got to start in a minute, and she isn"t here to see me before I go. I can"t imagine what"s become of her!"
The Aeroplane Lady could imagine. She had had the quick thought that Gwenna Dampier, at the last moment, had gone away, hidden herself from that ordeal of last farewells. "Perhaps the little creature couldn"t stand it," she thought. It was, when all was said, a heart-breaking moment....
The Aeroplane Lady said softly: "Perhaps your wife"s one of the people who don"t want to say any good-bye, Mr. Dampier. Like some people thinking it"s unlucky to watch people out of sight!"
"Well, I"ve hunted all over the place," he said, turning away, agitated and dismayed. "Tell her, will you, Mrs. Crewe, I shan"t be able to wait any longer. I was to start at midday. I shall be late. You explain to her, please. Where"s Ryan--ah, there he is."
For across the field he saw a short, m.u.f.fled-up, brown figure, climbing, rather hurriedly, into the pa.s.senger"s seat. It sat, waiting without looking round.
The last stroke of twelve sounded from the clock of the factory. The whistle blew. The men trooped out of the works; every one of them cast a glance towards the field where the biplane was ready. Several of them in a group turned off there to watch the start.
Paul joined them and walked across the field.
His brows were knitted; it was dashed hard lines that he couldn"t see _her_ for good-bye. His wife! She ought to have seen him off.... Poor Little sweet Thing, she thought she couldn"t stick it---- He wondered where on earth she"d gone and hidden herself.
CHAPTER IV
THE DEPARTURE FOR FRANCE
Gwenna sat, for the first time in her life, in an aeroplane.
She had very little actual notion of how she came to be there. It was all confused in her mind, that which had happened between Mr. Ryan"s so resolute "Can"t be done, Mrs. Dampier," and its having been "done." What had prevailed? Her own begging? Mr. Ryan"s wish to see his girl? Or her, Gwenna"s, calm a.s.surances, repeated from that day in Wales, that it would be "all right"? She wasn"t sure which of all these things had brought her here safely where she was, in the pa.s.senger-seat of Paul"s biplane. She hardly remembered putting on the rough and voluminous brown clothes while Mr. Ryan mounted guard over the little stokehole of the steam chambers.
She only knew that she had walked, easily and undiscovered, across the field before the whistle blew. That she"d climbed una.s.sisted into that small wicker seat, and that she was now waiting there, m.u.f.fled up to the tip of her nose, the edge of the cap almost meeting the m.u.f.fler, goggles down, and gloves hiding her little hands. She was no more to be distinguished from a man than if she had been a diver encased for a descent into the sea.
She did not even trouble to wonder at her own wonderful luck in the affair.
A thousand little accidents might have betrayed her--and and she had escaped them all. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to her.
Once or twice one of the men had spoken to her, but a wave of the hand had been answer enough for him. It had been all right. And of course everything was going to be all right.
She was not going to be put off by pretexts any longer.
And she was not going to be left behind, without him. In another minute--two minutes--they would be off, he and she!
Furtively she glanced round.
Paul was holding both the Aeroplane Lady"s small, capable hands in those big boy"s paws of his.
"Good-bye," he was saying. "So long, I mean. I say, you"ll----"
"I"ll look after _her_," promised the Aeroplane Lady, very brightly.
"Thanks awfully. You would," said Paul. "Bless you."
"My dear boy----" began the Aeroplane Lady as if she were going to say something grave, but she ended lightly, "Well, you"ve a glorious day for it. The best of luck!--And to you, Mr. Ryan!"
Again the pa.s.senger waved a gloved hand in reply.