Oh-Pshaw’s woebegone look began to fade from her face and her heart was warmed clear to the bottom at the thought of Sahwah’s leaving the celebration and coming all the way out here to find her.  The world took on a cheerful hue again; she sat up and dried her eyes and began to smooth out her crumpled uniform.  Sahwah jumped lightly from the tree and Oh-Pshaw followed her, but Oh-Pshaw’s foot had gone to sleep from sitting on it so long and she jumped stiffly and came down on a jagged stump, skinning her shin from ankle to knee and giving the knee itself a bad bump.

“Anything broken?” asked Sahwah, bending solicitously over the injured member and inspecting the damage.

“I guess not,” replied Oh-Pshaw, wincing with the pain, “though it hurts like fury.  I guess it’s just skinned.”

Sahwah bound up the two places that were bleeding the most with her handkerchief and Oh-Pshaw’s and was gently replacing the stocking when her ears caught a sound—­a noise like the humming of a giant bee.  “What’s that noise?” asked Oh-Pshaw.

“It’s an aeroplane,” said Sahwah.  “It must be the aeroplane that’s coming over from Philadelphia to take part in the sham battle.  The one has been in Oakwood all day, but the other hadn’t arrived yet when I started out to look for you.  It’s coming in this direction, over the woods.  Come on, let’s run to the open space by the Devil’s Punch Bowl and see if he flies over there.”  Sahwah seized Oh-Pshaw by the hand and started away on a run, and Oh-Pshaw followed as best she could for the pain in her knee.  The humming noise grew louder and louder as they ran, and then suddenly it stopped altogether.

“Where is he, is he gone?” asked Oh-Pshaw in disappointment.

“I can’t imagine,” replied Sahwah, looking up in bewilderment when they came out beside the Punch Bowl.  “No, there he is,” she cried, as the machine suddenly shot into sight directly above them.  “Oh-Pshaw!” she screamed, “it’s coming down!”

Rooted to the spot, they watched it, as nose downward the machine came rushing toward them, struck against the rock cliffs high above them and dropped with a terrific splash into the Devil’s Punch Bowl.

CHAPTER XVIII

OUT OF A CLEAR SKY

It happened so quickly that the two girls had no time to jump back out of the way; they were caught in the deluge of water that shot out from the Punch Bowl on every side.  When they got their eyes open again the luckless flying machine lay before them in the water, a mass of wreckage.  Oh-Pshaw gave a little muffled shriek and sat down on a log, hiding her face in her hands.  Sahwah shook her roughly by the shoulder.

“Oh-Pshaw! The man’s under the machine, in the water!”

Oh-Pshaw shuddered and did not look up.

“Oh-Pshaw!  Oh-Pshaw! He’ll drown!”

Oh-Pshaw looked up, still shuddering, and gazed in fascinated horror at the thing in front of her.  “Isn’t he—­dead?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.