Chapter V
HIDE AND SEEK
The strong air current which spread horizontally over the thunderheadblew Dorothy's plane sideways and away from the cloud. An instant laterit was roaring downward in the thin air, quite beyond her control, aself-propelled projectile rushing to its doom.
While shooting upward in the cloud, the violent and intensely rapidgyrations of the airship caused her safety belt to become unclasped, andhad her parachute not caught in the cowling, she must have been flungclear of the plane to a horrible death far below.
With her heels still hooked beneath the pilot's seat, she wrenched theparachute loose. Then she closed the throttle and half-suffocated by theforce of the wind and lack of breathable oxygen, she commenced to pullthe stick slowly backward.
A glance at the altimeter showed a height of eighteen thousandfeet--three air miles above earth--and three thousand feet aboveWill-o'-the-Wisp's service ceiling.
Notwithstanding the shut-off engine, the speed of the diving plane wasterrific. Dorothy felt the grinding jar of the wind-strained wings asthe nose began to rise in answer to the pull of the elevators; andwondered helplessly if they would hold.
The air pressure was agony to her eardrums. Her head reeled. She waswell-nigh exhausted. She no longer cared very much what happened.
The plane dropped into a blanket of fog. She felt the wet mist on herface, refreshing and reanimating her. Suddenly she realized that herparachute was starting to fill and would shortly pull her out of thecockpit. With her free hand she reached under the seat and brought fortha sheath knife. A frenzied second later she had rid herself of theflapping bag. As it flew overboard, she tightened her safety belt andplaced her cramped feet back on the steering pedals.
Though still fog-blind, she could at least breathe comfortably now asthe plane lessened speed in descent. Will-o'-the-Wisp still shook andgroaned, but no longer fought the pull of the stick. Up came the nose,slowly but surely and with her ailerons functioning once more, Dorothygained control and sent the plane into a normal glide. The altimetermarked five thousand feet. The dive had been over two miles long.
Another fifteen hundred feet and gradually the mist lightened until itbecame mere wisps of smoky cloud. Long Island Sound had been leftbehind. Below lay the wooded hills and valleys of the Connecticut ridgecountry, cloaked in multi-shaded green. As she still headed north,Dorothy knew now that she had been blown beyond New Canaan. She gave theplane hard right rudder and right aileron and sent it swinging into along half spiral, which, completed, headed her south again. Almostdirectly below, she recognized the Danbury Fair Grounds, with home justtwenty miles away.
Again her hand sought the throttle and as Will-o'-the-Wisp snorted, thenroared, Dorothy breathed a thankful sigh. Fifteen minutes later she hadhoused her plane in its hangar, and was limping up the porch steps ofher home.
Lizzie, the Dixons' servant, met her in the hall.
"Whatever is the matter, Miss Dorothy? You've had an accident--you'rehalf-killed--I know you are! There's blood all over your face--"
Her young mistress interrupted, smiling:
"You're wrong again, Lizzie. No accident, though I know I look prettyawful. I feel that way, too, if you ask me--"
"But the blood, Miss Dorothy?"
"It's from a nosebleed, Lizzie. I assure you I'm not badly hurt. Ifyou'll help me out of these rags and start a warm bath running, I'll beever so much obliged. A good soaking in hot water will fix me up. Then,"she added, "I think I'll be real luxurious and have my dinner in bed."
When the solicitous Lizzie brought up the dinner tray three-quarters ofan hour later, a tired but decidedly sprucer Dorothy, in pink silkpyjamas, was leaning back against her pillows.
"My word, I'm hungry!" She seized a hot roll and began to butter it."I'm off bucking thunderheads for life, Lizzie. But you can take it fromme, that kind of thing gives you a marvelous appetite!"
"Yes, miss, I'm glad," returned Lizzie, who had no idea what Dorothy wastalking about. "You certainly look better."
"By the way, what's become of Daddy? Hasn't he got home yet?"
"Oh, Miss Dorothy, I'm so sorry. Sure and I forgot to tell ye--Mr. Dixonwon't be home for dinner."
"Did he telephone?"
"No, miss. He came home about quarter to five and packed his suitcase.He said to tell you he'd been called to Washington on business and he'dbe gone a couple of days. Arthur drove him to Stamford to catch the NewYork express--he didn't have much time."
Dorothy helped herself to a spoonful of jellied bouillon. "Any othermessage?"
"Yes, miss. He said that Mister Terry hadn't been found yet. I asked himb'cause I thought you'd like to know. That was all he said. I'm suresorry I forgot it when you came in, but I--"
"That's all right, Lizzie, I understand. You come back for the tray inhalf an hour, will you? And if you find me asleep, don't wake me up. I'mtired to death. I need a long rest and I'm going to take it."
When Lizzie came back she found Dorothy deep in the sleep of exhaustion.She lowered the window blinds against the early morning light andpicking up the tray from the end of the bed, tiptoed from the room.
Morning broke bright and clear with no sign of yesterday's mist andrain. Dorothy remained in bed for breakfast and it took but littlepersuasion on the part of Lizzie to keep her there till lunch time. Shestill felt stiff and bruised and was only too content to rest and doze.
Toward noon she rose and dressed in her flying clothes. Immediatelyafter lunch she went out to the hangar. She slipped into a serviceableand grubby pair of overalls, and spent the afternoon in givingWill-o'-the-Wisp a thorough grooming. At quarter to five she was in theair and headed for Long Island Sound.
Half an hour later, with an altitude of ten thousand feet, she wascruising over yesterday's course above the Long Island shore, when shespied a biplane coming across the Sound. In an instant she had her fieldglasses out and focussed on the newcomer.
"That's him!" she murmured ungrammatically, though with evident relief."Now for a pleasant little game of hide-and-seek!"
The Mystery Plane was flying far below, so continuing on her course atright angles, she watched it with hurried glances over her shoulder.When she reached the Long Island Shore line, it was a mile or so behindand below Dorothy's tailplane. So waiting only long enough to be surethat her quarry was headed across the Island, she banked her plane andsent it on a wide half circle to the right. Long Island, at this point,she knew was about twenty miles wide.
Dorothy's plan for trailing the Mystery Plane and doing so without beingseen, was as simple as it was direct. The farther end of her circularcourse would bring her over Great South Bay and the South shore of LongIsland at approximately the same point for which the other plane seemedto be bound. She would arrive, of course, a minute or two behind theother aviator. And as she planned, so it happened.
From her high point of vantage, Dorothy, swinging on her arc a mile orso to the east, was able to keep the other amphibian continually insight. She watched him pursue his southerly course until he came overthe town of Babylon on Great South Bay. Here her glasses told her thatthe bearded aviator turned his plane to the left, heading east and upthe bay in her direction.
Below her now lay the Bay, hemmed in from the Atlantic by long narrowstretches of white sand dunes. For a second or so Dorothy thought theywould pass in the air, her plane far above the other. But before shereached that point, she saw the other make a crosswind landing and taxitoward a dock which jutted into the Bay from the dunes. Just beyond thedock an isolated cottage stood in a hollow on the bay side of the dunes.There was no other habitation in sight for over a mile in eitherdirection.
"Aha! Run to earth at last!" muttered Dorothy contentedly. Maintainingher altitude, with Babylon across the bay to her right, she continuedher westward course above the dunes.
A few miles past the cottage she flew over Fire Island Inlet. When shewas opposite Amityville, she ca
me about. Shutting off her engine, shetilted the stick forward and sent Will-o'-the-Wisp into a long glidewhich eventually landed her on the waters of Babylon harbor.
Dorothy stripped off her goggles and scanned the waterfront. Slightly toher left she spied a small shipyard, whose long dock bore a large signwhich carried the legend: "Yancy's Motor Boat Garage."
"Good. Couldn't be better!" exclaimed Miss Dixon in great satisfaction."Atta girl, Wispy! We're going over to have a talk with Mr. Yancy."
She gave her plane the gun and taxiing slowly over the smooth water,through the harbor shipping, presently brought up at the Yancy wharf andmade fast.
"Hello, there! Want gas?" sang out a voice above her, and Dorothy lookedup. A smiling young man, dressed in extremely dirty dungarees waswalking down the wharf toward her.
"Hello, yourself!" she returned as he came up. "No, I'm not out of gas,thank you. I want to hire a boat."
"Better come ashore, then." The man wiped his palms on a piece of cleancotton waste and gave her a hand up. "We've got plenty of boats--allkinds, lady. Got 'em fast and slow, big and little. Just what kind of acraft do you need?"
"Something with plenty of beam and seaworthy, that I can run withouthelp. I'm not looking for speed. I may want to take her outside--I don'tknow."
The young man pointed down the wharf to where a rather bulky motor boat,broad of beam and about thirty feet waterline was moored head out to astaging.
"Mary Jane--that's your boat," announced Mr. Yancy. "She's old and sheain't got no looks, but she's seaworthy and she'll take you anywhere.You could run over to Paris or London in that old craft if you couldpile enough gas aboard her."
"She looks pretty big," Dorothy's tone was dubious. "Think I can handleher by myself?"
"She is big," he admitted readily, "but she runs like a sewing machineand she's all set to be taken out this minute if you want her."
"I'll look her over anyway," she declared and led the way to the landingstage.
Stepping aboard the Mary Jane, she peeped into the small trunk cabinwhich was scarcely bigger than a locker, but would give shelter in caseof rain. She observed that there were sailing lights, compass, horn anda large dinner bell in a rack, and two life preservers as well. In oneof the lockers she came upon a chart. Stowed up in the forepeak were ananchor with a coil of line and three five-gallon tins of gasoline. Aquick examination showed the fuel tank to have been filled.
The motor was a simple and powerful two-cylinder affair, withmake-and-break ignition, noisy, but dependable; the sort of engine onwhich the fishermen and lobstermen along the coast hang their lives inoffshore work. It seemed to Dorothy that it ought to kick the shallowold tub along at a good ten-knot gait. The boat itself though batteredand dingy, appeared to be sound and staunch so far as one could see.
"I'll take her," decided Dorothy. "That is, if she's not too expensive?"
"I guess we ain't goin' to fight about the price, mam," asserted Yancy."How long will you be wantin' her and when do you expect to take herout?"
"Not before nine tonight--and I'll hire her for twenty-four hours."
"O. K. mam. You can have her for a year if you want her. How about yourair bus?"
"She'll be left here. I want you to look after her. I don't thinkthere'll be any wind to speak of. She'll be all right where she is."
"We're going to get rain in a couple of hours, so if you'll make hersecure, I'll have her towed out to that buoy yonder. I'll rest easierwith her moored clear of this dock."
"I'll pull the waterproof covers over the cockpits and she'll be allright," returned Dorothy. "Then we can go up to your office and fix upthe finances."