CHAPTER II
“FOR MOTHER’S SAKE”
“Whoa!” sang out Hiram Dobbs, bringing the team to a halt and beckoningto Dave.
“Why, what’s the trouble, Hiram?” inquired the young aviator.
“Crowd didn’t come, that’s all.”
“And no word from them?”
“Why, yes, there was a wire,” and Dave’s friend and assistant handed ayellow sheet to Dave with the explanation: “Operator at the station gaveit to me that way. A rush, so I read it.”
“That’s all right,” returned Dave, and he also read the brief dispatchin his turn.
It stated that there had come an unexpected hitch in the arrangements ofthe New York agent of the Interstate people, and that the party he hadin tow would not visit Lake Linden until the following day.
“That’s good,” said Dave. “It will give us a chance to go to the cityand see how our giant airship scheme is coming on.”
“Fine!” applauded Hiram. “There’s something I wanted to talk to youabout first, though, Dave.”
“What’s that, Hiram?”
“Wait a moment, Miss.”
Hiram interrupted with these words, addressed to the only passenger inthe carryall. For the first time Dave glanced at her closely. She was aplainly-dressed, modest-looking girl of about sixteen. Her eyes were redwith weeping. She held a handkerchief in her hand, and was pale andseemed greatly distressed.
“Oh, I must make you no farther trouble,” she said, in a broken tone. “Iwill get out of the carryall here and walk the rest of the way to theseminary.”
“I want to speak to my friend here first, Miss,” said Hiram. “You justwait. Maybe he can suggest some way to help you out.”
“You have been so kind to me already,” murmured the girl.
Dave wondered what was up. The carryall was a hired one, and he hadsupposed at first that Hiram had given the girl a lift, finding she wasgoing his way. Hiram was always doing such kindly things.
The forlorn appearance of the girl, however, and the rather seriousmanner of Hiram as he jumped from the wagon seat and beckoned Dave outof earshot of his passenger, made the young aviator surmise that he hadsomething of particular moment to impart to him.
“Now then, what is it, Hiram?” he asked.
“You see that girl?”
“Of course.”
“I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life as I do for her.”
“Who is she?”
“A poor girl working her way through the young ladies’ seminary up atthe other end of the lake.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It seems she got a telegram about an hour ago. It is from her home, ahundred miles west of here. It stated that her mother was in a criticalcondition, and if she expected to see her alive she must take the firsttrain for Easton. She hurried to the depot. I found her there crying asif her heart would break.”
“Poor girl! she had missed the train.”
“By just four minutes, and no other until eight o’clock this evening.”
“I am dreadfully sorry for her,” said Dave, glancing with genuinesympathy at the girl in the carryall.
Hiram fidgeted about. He dug the toe of his shoe into the dirt. Then helooked Dave daringly in the eye. Then he dropped his glance. Dave wasquick to read his impetuous and open-hearted comrade’s thoughts.
“I fancy I guess what’s in your mind, Hiram,” he said.
“I hope you do, anyhow. Say, if I knew how to run an airship like you——”
“You’d run it to Easton, I suppose?” intimated Dave.
“Yes, sir, that’s just what I would do. See here, Dave, suppose you hada sister in the trouble that young girl is in?”
Dave put up his hand interruptingly. His face was earnest and serious.
“I’d get her to her mother if I had to sell the shoes off my feet.You’re a grand-hearted fellow, Hiram Dobbs, and, as I’ll not let youbeat me in the doing-good line, why——”
“You’ll take her to her mother in the _Gossamer_?” fairly shouted Hiram,dancing from one foot to the other in his excitement over such aprospect.
“I’ll try and make it out that way,” responded Dave. “Let me think for aminute or two, Hiram.”
The young aviator took another look at the mournful face of the younggirl in the carryall. Then he made up his mind. He was a fully-trustedemploye of the Interstate Aero Company, and pretty nearly at liberty todo as he pleased. Dave looked up at the sky, made some mentalcalculations, and said finally:
“Tell her who I am, Hiram—I want to have a little talk with her.”
“This is my best friend, Dave Dashaway, Miss——”
“My name is Amy Winston,” spoke the girl, a trifle shy and embarrassed.
“Hiram Dobbs has told me about your trouble, Miss Winston,” said Dave.“He is a fine fellow and feels sorry for you, and so do I. We are goingto try and get you to your home within the next three hours.”
“Oh, if you only could!” exclaimed the young girl, anxiously. “But thereis no train until this evening.”
“That is true,” replied Dave.
“You see, Dave is a great aviator, Miss,” broke in Hiram, in his usualimpulsive, explosive way. “He’s taken lots of prizes. He won the——”
“That will do, Hiram,” laughed Dave. “The truth is, Miss Winston,” hecontinued to the puzzled girl, “we have only one way of getting you toyour home. Please step down and I will show you what it is.”
Dave helped the girl down the steps at the rear of the vehicle. He ledher to the gates of the enclosure and drew one of them wide open.
“Why, it is an airship!” exclaimed Amy Winston. “I saw it yesterday fromthe seminary grounds.”
“Dave was running it, and I was aboard,” boasted Hiram, proudly.
“How beautifully it sailed,” murmured the girl.
“Miss Winston,” spoke Dave, “I can make Easton in about three hours inthat machine. It may be something I should not propose, considering thepossible risk, but the _Gossamer_ is at your service.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Amy, her eyes filling with tears of gratitude and hope,“I would dare any danger to once more see my dear mother before shedies.”
“You are willing to try it?” asked Dave, definitely.
Amy was trembling, but she answered bravely in the affirmative.
“Tell Mr. Grimshaw,” said Dave to his friend, who at once started off toobey the order. “Now, Miss Winston,” continued the young aviator, “Iwill help you to a seat in the machine.”
When the girl had been disposed of in the most comfortable seat in the_Gossamer_, Dave gave her a strap to draw her dress skirt tightly abouther feet. Other straps bound her in the seat so that by no possibilitycould she fall or be thrown out.
The girl had grown a shade paler and was all in a flutter, but she didnot show the least inclination to draw back from an exploit that wouldstart most people into hysterics.
Dave went into the tent where he and Hiram and Grimshaw ate and slept,and came out in aviation garb. He took some time looking over a guidebook. Meanwhile his two helpers had been working about the _Gossamer_,getting everything in order.
Grimshaw made no comment on the occasion. While he always resented anyintrusion of outsiders at aerodrome or meet, he had long since made uphis mind that Dave knew his business and was just about right ineverything he did. The old expert went over the _Gossamer_ as thoroughlyas if the machine was bound on a long distance non-stop flight. He sawto it that nothing was lacking that an air navigator might need. He evenset the green lantern on the right side and the red to the left,steamship code, in case of some delay or accident, whereby the_Gossamer_ might drift up against night work.
“Look out for a change in the wind,” was Grimshaw’s parting injunction.
“It looks like a coming squall in the northwest,” replied Dave; “but Ithink this head wind will hold till we get out of range
. All ready, MissWinston?”
“Yes, sir,” fluttered the little lady, holding tightly to the arms ofher seat behind the operator’s post, although she was securely tied in.
“All free,” said Dave simply, and his helpers stood aside as theself-starter was set in motion.
The _Gossamer_ rose lightly as a bird. Just above the fence line,however, Dave slightly turned his head at an unusual sound. He had justa glimpse of two figures acting rather wildly immediately beyond theenclosure.
One was the foppish fellow who had recently been repulsed by Grimshaw,and who had made the strange threat that he would bring somebody withhim who would settle affairs.
Apparently this vaunted individual was now in his company. He was arichly dressed lad, somewhat older than Dave. He seemed to be a gooddeal excited about something; acted, as Grimshaw had described it, as ifhe owned the world.
His companion was waving his cane angrily as the airship shot skyward.The boy himself shook his fists toward the _Gossamer_, and shouted outfuriously some command or threat the young aviator could not make out.
Dave wondered what this second visit meant. He had no time nor thoughtto spare, either staring or guessing, however. Eye, hand and brain werecentered intently upon his task. Dave for the moment forgot everything,except that he was directing to a safe, steady course a mechanism asdelicate and sensitive as the works of a fine chronometer.
He caught the echo of a low, quick respiration from the girl behind him.The suddenness of the ascent had acted on her as it did on every novice,producing a startled feeling. Then, as the _Gossamer_ whirled threehundred feet high, and the swaying, gliding exhilaration of perfectmotion followed, a long-drawn breath told of relief and satisfaction.
“Don’t be frightened, Miss Winston,” called out Dave, venturing a quickglance at his passenger, whose wide-open eyes surveyed the panoramabeneath them in speechless wonderment.
“Oh, I am not, indeed,” cried Amy Winston. “It is only the strangeness.”
“You are perfectly safe,” assured the young aviator. “We have made asplendid start. Just think of home—and your mother,” he added verygently. “I feel certain that we can make Easton inside of two hours.”
“I am so glad; oh, so glad,” replied Amy, with grateful tears in hereyes.
Dave was pleased that his course towards Easton took him due southwest.A six-mile breeze was coming from that direction. This was a perfectcondition for even, stable progress. Over towards the northwest a bankof ominous black clouds were coming up, threatening a gale and a delugeof rain. The young pilot of the _Gossamer_ planned and hoped to dodgethis storm by fast flying.
The southern edge of the big cloud began to cover the sky ahead of Dave.Once or twice there were contrary gusts, and he had to do some skillfulengineering to preserve a safe balance. He felt considerably relieved toobserve that the _Gossamer_ was safely out of range of the real stormcenter. Some ragged-edge masses thrown out from the main body were,however, scudding ahead of him. There were one or two spatters of rain.
To the far right of him Dave could tell that a momentary tornado wassweeping the tops of the trees. He set the lever to the limit notch,made a long volplane and then a wide circuit to the south.
“I believe we are out of range,” Dave told himself, hopefully.
Then, as a sudden and unexpected shock announced the meeting of twopowerful forces, he sat motionless and helpless.
The young aviator faced a mishap most dreaded of all that threaten thesafety of the expert aeronaut.