The Boy with Wings 34Part III · The Departure for France
18
Literature · Romance
The Boy with Wings 34
Part III · The Departure for France
RuckEnglish
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 assurances, 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 passenger-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 unassisted into that small wicker seat, and that she was now waiting there, muffled up to the tip of her nose, the edge of the cap almost meeting the muffler, 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 passenger waved a gloved hand in reply.
Then Gwenna felt the tip and creak of the machine, as Paul climbed into his place behind her.
Andre dashed up to grasp his hand, calling "Bonne chance!"
"Thanks!" said Paul. "Right away."
Then, as the propeller pulsed like an angry nerve, Gwenna gave a start.
An appalling roar and wind seemed all about her. Faintly, very faintly, the noise of the good-bye cheer rose through it. The hat-waving group of men with wide-open mouths seemed to slide back. The Aeroplane bumped over the rough field. And then it ceased to bump. Gwenna drew in her breath, sharply. To right of her, to left of her, the horizon seemed to sway ever so gently. She thought, but was not sure, that she heard Paul's voice behind her, bawling, "Trim."
As she settled herself in her seat, the horizon fell away altogether.... All was sunlit blue! The swiftest run in the motor down the smoothest bit of hill had been nothing to this that was coming; faster, faster....
"There's only one pity," she thought hastily. "He's thinking now that I let him go without saying good-bye!"
Here she had a glimpse of the khaki-green earth far below, as blurred with height and speed as was the raving invisible propeller itself.
