CHAPTER XVIII
IN A BAD FIX
“Keep back!” shouted the young aviator.
He accompanied the words with a spring and a roll that took him throughand past the fringe of bushes and brought him directly against Hiram.
“Hold on, I say. The mischief!” blurted out Hiram, tipped clear off hisbalance.
“Hush!” warned Dave, regaining his feet. “Don’t go ahead, don’t make anydisturbance. Stop Mr. King.”
Dave spoke the words in a hurried and urgent tone. Then, cautiously, hecrept on all fours through the shrubbery. He took a second morecomprehensive look over the plateau. Then he worked his way back to thebewildered Hiram.
“See here, Dave Dashaway,” challenged the latter, “you’re acting mightystrange.”
“What’s the trouble here?” inquired Mr. King, coming up to the boys,pursuant to mysterious gestures from Hiram.
“It is trouble, I am very much afraid,” replied Dave, seriously.
“What do you mean—about the airship?”
“Yes, Mr. King. The _Albatross_ seems to be all right, but about twentymen, all armed with guns, have our entire party cornered near somerocks.”
“You don’t say so!” cried the airman. “Let me have a look.”
“Be careful, then,” advised Dave. “It looks to me as if another band ofthese wild outlaws probably traced the searchlight, and have managed tocatch our friends away from the airship. Anyway, our folks are helpless,and the strangers look fierce and dangerous.”
All three of the adventurers crept through the fringe of underbrush andtook a look across the plateau. They found the situation as Dave haddescribed it to be. The strangers held Professor Leblance, Mr. Dale,Grimshaw and the others at bay. A big, rough-looking fellow, evidentlythe leader of the band, was talking animatedly to the Frenchman. Theothers of the intruders held their rifles in a way that threatened anattack if the captives showed any resistance.
“They may be the MacGuffins,” whispered Hiram, intensely wrought up withexcitement.
“I shouldn’t wonder,” said Dave. “Mr. King, let us try to get nearer tothem.”
“Yes, we may learn what is going on and give our friends some help, ifthey need it,” replied the airman.
They had to cover half a mile in a cautious detour. This finally broughtthem to a thicket not thirty feet distant from their friends andenemies. Mr. King lay flat on the ground behind some high bushes, andhis companions followed his example. Dave bent his ear keenly, to catchwhat the leader of the invading party was saying.
“That don’t go with me,” the man said. “How do we know that you ain’there to spy on us? We fine trespassers here and we charge rent for theuse of our property.”
“You must own the whole state, you fellows must,” snapped out Grimshaw.
“We run this district, if you want to know it,” retorted the outlaw.“Usually we just string up spies.”
“But we are no spies,” declared the professor, earnestly.
“We don’t take your word for that. Come, you’ve got to pay yourreckoning. You scrape us up as much as two hundred dollars among you,or——”
The speaker waved his hand significantly in the direction of the_Albatross_.
“Yes,” growled one of his fellows. “It wouldn’t take us long to make asieve of that contrivance.”
“I resent this outrage!” cried the Frenchman, hotly. “We are underinternational protection. Our mission is in the interests of science. Ifyou interfere with us, you will rouse the entire community. It will bethe worse for you.”
“Hear him, boys,” rallied the outlaw leader. “Say, stranger, who’s goingto tell what we did or didn’t do to you, hey?”
The speaker grinned in a cold-blooded way that made Hiram Dobbs shiver.
“Say, Mr. King,” he whispered hoarsely, “shoot them.”
“One gun against twenty wouldn’t count for much,” responded the airman,with a shake of his head.
“I will pay no ransom, I will give you not one cent of blackmail,”declared the doughty Frenchman, thoroughly indignant.
“All right, then we will ransack your old gas bag and take what wewant,” boasted the outlaw.
“I warn you,” cried the professor. “The airship is one mass of devicesyou do not understand. You may find trouble.”
“What do you bother with him for?” cried the man beside the lastspeaker. “We’ll cover the rest of the crowd. You make him take you overthe machine and get what’s lying around loose.”
“Can’t we do something, Mr. King?” inquired the young aviator, in ananxious tone.
“I fear not, Dashaway,” was the reply. “These are desperate men andbound to have their own way. We can only hope that our being free willhelp our friends somewhere along the line.”
“You come with me,” ordered the outlaw leader, roughly seizing ProfessorLeblance by the arm and pulling him along. “Keep your eyes on thoseothers,” he added, to his men.
The Frenchman held back with resolute face and force. The outlaw,however, was a great, bulky fellow of enormous strength.
They had proceeded less than twenty feet towards the airship, when aquick word cut the air, clear and startling as a pistol shot.
“Halt!”