CHAPTER XVI
IN DOUBT
Hiram Dobbs sank down on the sand beside the wreck of the _Ariel_ andtears came into his eyes. In a flash the truth dawned upon him. Vandalhands had destroyed the flying marvel upon which such hopes had beenbuilt. Dave had been tracked to the present spot and captured; perhapshurt.
Bruce Beresford stood regarding his new friend, sharing his deepemotion. He rammed his hands into his pockets and clenched them, pacingabout the spot to give Hiram time to regain his composure. Finally hewalked up to him and touched him on the shoulder.
“Don’t take on so, Hiram,” he pleaded, “please don’t. It may not be the_Ariel_, you know——”
“Not the _Ariel_,” cried Hiram, springing to his feet, his tearsbecoming angry tears now. “Think I wouldn’t know the _Ariel_ if I cameacross one spar, or rod of it in the desert of Sahara? The _Ariel_?Look there!”
The speaker pointed to a place in the blackened twisted mass near thepilot post. A silver plate there bore in script the name of themachine, date and maker. Blackened and abrased as it was Bruce was ableto make out the inscription.
“It’s too bad,” he said sorrowfully. “Do you suppose something explodedand set it on fire?”
“No!” shouted Hiram wrathfully, now poking in among the debris. “I cansmell kerosene. And there’s the cinders of a bunch of cotton waste. The_Ariel_ was set on fire! And—Dave!”
The thought of his missing friend roused the young pilot of the _Scout_as no other idea could have done. Bruce was glad to see Hiram come backto his old rushing, go-ahead self. Hiram went back to the coat they hadat first discovered. He inspected it more closely this time.
“See, it’s torn as if in a struggle, and the pockets are turned insideout,” he said. “Oh, if we had only received the warning from Mr. Bordensooner! Dave is gone. The same persons who expected him here, andwatched for him, have taken him away.”
“But surely they would not dare to injure him,” argued Bruce.
“Perhaps not, but don’t you see that they have spoiled his wholefuture? They have put his biplane out of the way—they will keep Daveout of the way till the International meet is over.”
“The crowd you told me about—the Syndicate people?” asked Bruce.
“Who else? What will Mr. Brackett say when he hears of this? How am Igoing to find out where they have taken Dave? Oh!” cried the excitedlad, “I’m just half crazy over these doings! Wait here and watch the_Scout_. They’ll be after that next,” and Hiram sped away, after asweeping glance in every direction.
He had made out a man with a rake covering the ruts in the stragglywinding road that ran across the waste space. He came up with him andasked:
“Have you been here long?”
“All day, here and hereabouts,” was the reply, as the worker rested onhis rake and seemed glad to break the monotony of his task in thatlonely spot by talking to some one.
“Did you notice an airship within the last hour or so?”
“I did,” answered the old man. “It was over to the north yonder. It didsome fancy whirls. I watched it a bit, then I went on with my work.They’re getting common, those flyers.”
“Have you seen anybody over near that clump of poplars?” and Hiramindicated the spot where he had left Bruce and the _Scout_.
“Why, yes, I did,” answered the road-mender. “Thought it was sort ofqueer, too. It must have been nigh onto two hours since, when threemen, driving a covered wagon, drove off from the road here. They cutacross in the direction you say. I wondered why, for the loose sanddon’t make easy going for a horse. The hummocks shut them out after abit, and I thought no more of them until I noticed a lot of smoke nearthat patch of poplars. I then made up my mind they were campers, comedown on a sand-crane hunt.”
“Did you see them after that?” inquired Hiram eagerly.
“I did. Next thing I knew, the horse and wagon cut across back thisway. They struck the road here, and went south, the same direction theyhad come from.”
“Did you notice the men on the seat of the wagon?”
“They weren’t near enough for that, and I’m sort of poor sighted as Iget older,” was the reply.
Hiram thanked the man, and hurried back to Bruce.
“I hope you have found out something,” said the latter anxiously.
“Not much that is any good, I fear,” replied Hiram. “We’ll get backinto the Scout. It’s just as I guessed it, Bruce. I am satisfied that acovered wagon with three men in it took Dave away and that they wentsouth.”
The country lay under them like a map as they resumed the flight. Hiramfollowed the road as a guide. At the end of ten miles it ran into ajunction of other diverging highways. So far they had not caught sightof any vehicle answering the description of the covered wagon.
They followed the main highway for some distance. Ahead they made out alarge town. It was one of half a score dotting the landscape, and thelocation of large iron plants. As they neared it, and passed roadsfilled with all kinds of vehicles, and the great industrial beehivespread out for miles, Hiram gave up in despair.
“They’ve got a start of us, and have probably run to cover by thistime,” he said. “Oh, Bruce! I don’t know what to do!”
Hiram was in deep distress. He realized that he, only a boy, had on hishands a task that might well baffle the shrewdest detective. A dozenimpulses and plans came to his mind, but he rejected them all, fearingto cause complications.
“Indeed, I don’t know what to do,” he said to Bruce. “If I go to themanagement back at the grounds, they may cancel our entrant, and thenDave may show up. They will want some evidence besides my say so, andmy suspicions, before they will be willing to accuse anybody of havinga hand in the affair. If I charge that Syndicate mob boldly with havinga hand in the burning of the _Ariel_, it will put them more than everon their guard, and they will hide Dave closer than ever. Oh, but Imust do some tall thinking! Of course the very next thing is to get intouch with Mr. Brackett. We’ll get back to the grounds right away.”
An unexpected shower came up, and pilot, passenger and machine receivedquite a drenching. The rain had stopped by the time they reached thegrounds. It made Bruce Beresford sad to watch the face of his friend.Hiram was like a rudderless boat, without Dave. The responsibilitiessuddenly thrust upon him seemed to stagger him. He was so harried,worried and flurried that he walked up and down before the hangar, sonervous and stirred up he could not keep still.
“It seems to me, Hiram,” suggested Bruce, “that the best thing to do isto tell the management about the whole business. Surely they will dosomething to help you.”
“I’m trying to think if it’s best to do that,” responded Hiram. “I’mtrying to block out a way to act so I won’t make any mistake. You don’tknow this game as well as I do. It isn’t the first time this kind of athing has happened to us. Let me alone for a bit, Bruce, till I geteverything straightened out in my mind.”
“Don’t you bother about the _Scout_, Hiram. I’ll clean up and get itinto the hangar,” said Bruce.
He rubbed the metal parts dry and shining and swept up the litter inthe cockpit. A good deal of sand had gotten into this. He was pullingout the seat cushions, when something caught his finger, pricking itsharply. It was a metal point of some kind, and looking closer Brucemade out that it was a stick pin.
He picked this up, and as he did so noticed a second pin lying on theseat frame, hitherto concealed by the cushion. A quick flash ofintelligence came into his mind. Quite roused up, Bruce shouted to hisfriend:
“Hiram, come here, I think I’ve made an important discovery!”
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