CHAPTER XI
A STRANGE RACE
Dave, busying himself about the _Ariel_ inside the hangar, had caughtan echo of the shot outside the fence and the shouts accompanying it.There was generally considerable commotion about the grounds, however,and he paid no particular attention to these demonstrations.
Even the sound of the exhaust of the _Scout_ did not suggest anythingout of the ordinary. It was only when a loud cry sounded directlybeyond the open doors of the hangar, that the young airman was aroused.
“Oh, Mr. Dashaway!” gasped out a startling voice—“come here! come,quick!”
Dave looked up to discern Rohan, his newly employed watchman. Thelatter was limping towards the hangar. The light from the inside shoneon his face, showing excitement, and a sort of terror.
“Why, Dennis, what is the matter?” inquired Dave, anxiously.
“Your partner, Dobbs—the _Scout_!” stammered the watchman, so excitedthat he could scarcely speak. “Hear it? See it? And here are thepolice!”
Dave hurried out. His first swift glance showed that the _Scout_ wasnowhere near. The gathering lake haze formed its usual veil between theground lights and the upper clear area. A look in that direction toldnothing.
A crackling, tearing sound next directed Dave’s glance. It proceededfrom the fence. There the uniformed figure of a man was to be seen. Hecame through a two-foot gap in the barrier. A companion on the outsidewas just tearing loose a third board. He was pulling it from thebottom, and did not release the top nails. He sprang through after hismate.
“Where is he?” demanded the latter of Dave, and just then Rohan camelimping up to the spot.
“Tall man, wearing a buttoned-up frock coat?” he announced in jerks.
“With a fortune in it, yes!” responded the police officer, quickly.“Where is he?” followed the sharp challenge.
“Up there,” answered the watchman promptly, and he pointed aloft.
“Eh, what? Trying to guy us!”
“No, sir,” answered Dennis. “He’s gone, and he’s gone in the littleairship. I saw him!”
“Well, I’m flabbergasted!” puffed the officer. “Mate, he’s slipped us.I wish we’d got another shot at him. You mean the fellow has sailedaway in one of these balloons around here?”
“I saw him,” continued the watchman rapidly, with a glow of excitementin his eyes. “He dropped to the ground. Mr. Dashaway’s partner here hadjust got into his machine. The fellow you’re after ran for it. He gaveit a shove, jumped onto a side plane, crawled right up to young Dobbs,and put a pistol to his head!”
Dave started. The thought of his chum in peril set his wits at work inan instant.
“The man made some threat to Dobbs,” went on Dennis. “Anyhow, up wentthe biplane. Then, as the fellow dropped into the cockpit, I heard himyell, ‘West—straight west.’”
“You did?” spoke Dave, questioningly. “That’s a point,” and he made adash for the hangar. The officers were, indeed, “flabbergasted.” Theystood like dummies, dismayed and at a loss as to further action. Daveran the _Ariel_ out into the field.
“Officer,” he called to the policeman who seemed most to directaffairs, “that man—who is he?”
“Reddy Marsh, the slickest diamond thief in America,” came the response.
“And he’s got a load of the sparklers in his coat right now,” added theother officer. “Padded brick, smashed a lighted show-window in ajewelry store and off he was with a case, with stones in it worth fiftythousand dollars. We thought we’d run him down when he made for thefence.”
“Yes,” put in the other policeman, who was staring overhead in a lost,puzzled way, “and it won’t be a question of hundreds, but of thousandsto the person who gets him and his booty.”
“I’m not thinking of that,” said Dave in an anxious way, “but of myfriend. He’s clear grit, but the man is armed. Officer, I’m goingaloft. If the _Scout_ hasn’t got too far away, I may catch sight of it.I may need protection; assistance. One of you come with me.”
“Hey!” exclaimed the head officer—“you mean in that airship?”
“It’s the only way, isn’t it?” propounded Dave.
“I’ll go,” spoke up the other officer. “This lad must know his businessor he wouldn’t be here. It’s in my line of duty—besides, there may beglory in it, and a reward. Go ahead!”
“Quick, then!” directed the young aviator. “Now then,” as he guided theunusual passenger to the seat behind the pilot post, “buckle on thestraps, keep cool and quiet, and I’ll see what can be done.”
He liked the obedient composure of his passenger. If the latter feltthat he was taking a risk, and experienced a little natural dread, hemasked it by shouting to his comrade:
“Tell the sergeant I’m off on special duty—joined the airship corps—ha!ha!”
His laugh ended, however, and Dave could catch a series of quivers andsharp short gasps as the watchman gave the ground gear an impetus andthe _Ariel_ rose up majestically. The machine pierced the blanket ofhaze and came up above the lower strata of obscuring ground air. Davedescribed a slow broad circle. His eye swept in all directions thelevel they were on.
“If the moon were only up,” he murmured. “Well, the only course iswest. Hiram is shrewd and intelligent. If he guesses for a moment thatI am after him, soon as he gets his thinking cap on he will find someway to signal, or get the best of his passenger.”
“Don’t see anything,” observed the officer, and, big, brave fellow thathe was, there was the tremor of the novice in air evident in his voice.
“They’ve got a start, you must remember,” explained Dave, “and a bigfield. We can only go on, keeping a sharp lookout. If you should happento get sight of a black speck against the stars, tell me.”
There was a spell of silence for some minutes after that, Dave payingstrict attention to directing the machine, his passenger keeping askeen a lookout as was possible for him under the unfamiliar conditions.Suddenly the officer shouted out:
“There! See, a little way ahead? No, it’s gone. Now, again!Pshaw!—fireflies.”
“Too high for that,” spoke Dave, “I see what you mean. Thanks myfriend, this is important!”
Ahead of them, and on a higher level, there was now visible a series ofswiftly-vibrating brilliant sparks. They filled a mere tiny spot inspace. To the expert young airman they were guiding. Dave set themachine on a swift drift then climbed up several hundred feet. Now thesparks, intermittent but perfectly distinct, were clearer and nearerthe faster they went.
“It’s a machine,” soliloquized Dave, “and it must be the _Scout_. If itis—clever Hiram! He doesn’t dare show the lights, for that man aboardwouldn’t let him. I can guess what he has done—the vibrator.”
Dave, with a perfect knowledge of all the parts and possibilities ofthe natty little _Scout_, was at home with every detail of themechanism of the machine, and guessed what was transpiring. Later onhis surmises were verified. The young aviation expert decided that hischum counted on his searching for him. He had loosed the top of thevibrator, probably sending it adrift.
If he awakened the suspicion of the passenger, he could readily make apretence of watching the sparks jumping from one coil to the other, tosee that all the cylinders were working right. Correct or not in hisguess, those distant electric points of light were now a direct guideto the eager pilot of the _Ariel_.
“We’re getting nearer,” breathed the man behind him. “You think it’sthe airship we’re after?”
“I am pretty sure of it,” responded Dave. “It’s a race, now, officer.This machine can overtake the _Scout_ and outdistance it within thenext half hour. Then the case is up to you.”
“Just get me in reach of Reddy Marsh,” spoke the policeman, “and I’lldo the rest.”
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