It was all incoherent and frantic and broken, as great revulsions of feeling have a way of being. It was impossible to find words adequate to their delight, and it is safe to say that at that moment there was no happier group of people than that which wept and laughed on the lawn at Camp Kill Kare.

The aviatrix sat looking on through all this tumult with a happy smile.

As soon as Cora could extricate herself from the arms that clung about her as though they never intended to let her go, she turned to her deliverer.

"You see what you have done for me," she laughed through her tears.

"They certainly seem glad to see you," was the response.

They all crowded around and showered her rescuer with thanks, as Cora introduced them. They were astounded to find that it was to a woman that Cora owed her safety. Most of them had heard her name in connection with flying exploits, and they were earnest in their compliments and congratulations.

When a few minutes later Miss Moore resumed her flight, every eye remained fixed on the plane until at last it melted into s.p.a.ce. Then they resumed their rejoicings over the wanderer who had been so strangely brought back from the wilderness.

CHAPTER XVIII GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAST

A perfect delirium of happiness reigned at Kill Kare that morning. From being an abode of deep gloom, it had suddenly been transformed into a corner of Paradise.

For Cora was back again! Here she was, a little trembly about the mouth, a little teary about the eyes, her hands and arms bearing the marks of scratches where they had come in contact with thorns, her garments torn from pushing her way through the underbrush, but with no damage that a warm bath and a good breakfast and a long sleep would not repair.

They brought her in triumph into the house and seated her at the breakfast table that they had just deserted, while Aunt Betty and the maid hurried about to prepare her something hot and comforting.

"I ought to go to my room first and freshen up and change my clothes,"

the girl objected, her purely feminine instincts coming to the fore, now that she was once more in touch with civilization. "I must look a perfect fright."

"Just at this moment you are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,"

declared her brother fervently.

"That's what!" confirmed Walter. "We've been wanting to see you so badly that now we can't bear to take our eyes off you."

"You're not going to get out of our sight again in a hurry," maintained Paul.

As for Bess and Belle, their voices broke so when they tried to speak that they had to content themselves with pats and hugs.

As for Aunt Betty, she went around hardly knowing, as she declared, whether she was awake or dreaming, while she laughed and cried at the same time.

"Such a hideous nightmare as this has been!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack, as he hugged his sister for the twentieth time.

"You must be nearly starved to death, you poor darling!" exclaimed Bess.

"Haven't you had anything to eat since yesterday noon?" asked Belle.

"Not enough to give me indigestion," laughed Cora-she could laugh now, though a few hours before she had thought she could never laugh again. "A soup cube and a chocolate tablet can hardly be called overfeeding, though I did have a few blackberries to help out. But even at that I have some provisions left," and she took the remaining soup cube out of her pocket.

Bess pounced upon it.

"One of the two I slipped into your pocket for a joke yesterday morning!"

she exclaimed.

"It was a very lucky joke for me," smiled Cora. "I'm going to have this one framed as a memento of my escape."

There was something more nourishing and abundant before her now, and she did it full justice, while the others looked on happily.

Then, when she had partially satisfied her hunger, questions poured in upon her in a flood, and she had to narrate all the details of her experience from the moment she had been beguiled by the shamming mother bird to the never-to-be-forgotten moment when she had heard the humming of the aircraft motor in the sky.

"If help ever came from heaven it did that time!" she said tremulously, and they all agreed with her most fervently.

"And, oh, girls," she said to Bess and Belle, "if you only knew how I felt when she spoke, and, almost at the same moment, I saw those two braids on the aviator's head and realized that I was talking to a woman!"

"We know," the girls a.s.sured her soothingly.

"She's a dandy!" exclaimed Jack emphatically.

"You bet she is!" declared Walter.

"She's as plucky as they make 'em," said Paul. "I only hope she beats the record."

"I'd like to be there at Governor's Island to greet her when she comes down," said Jack.

"Even if she puts the men in the shade by beating their time?" asked Bess mischievously.

"Even so," said Jack stoutly.

"Cora's got the start on all of us now," laughed Bess. "We're only motor girls but now she's an aviator girl."

"Weren't you frightened just a tiny bit when you felt yourself going up in the air?" asked Belle.

"Not a bit," replied Cora. "Possibly I might have been if the circ.u.mstances had been different. But I was so delighted to get away from those dreadful woods that nothing else mattered. I think I'd have ridden on a lion's back, if he'd promised to bring me home."

The girls took charge of Cora now, and although the boys remonstrated, she was borne away to her room to rest and bathe and change her clothes.

"And now," said Jack, drawing a long breath, "it's up to us to get busy and call off the searching parties. I suppose I ought to have done it the moment Cora landed, but for the life of me I couldn't tear myself away."

"You're excusable," laughed Walter. "But you stay right at home, old man, with your sister. Paul and I will get on the job and attend to everything."

Jack protested, but they would take no denial. They jumped into the car and whizzed down to the sawmill.

They found the foreman and Baxter deep in consultation. The latter saw at once from the boys' faces that they had good news, and hurried to meet them.

"We've got her!" cried Walter.

"Safe and sound at Kill Kare," added Paul.

"You don't say!" exclaimed the foreman with a broad smile.

"Bully!" cried Baxter in great relief.