CHAPTER XIV.
AGAIN ON THE WING.
Sergeant Strogoff's elation over the solution of the pursuit problem wasmanifested by a sounding slap on his knee, forgetting that it was theleg most bruised by his recent fall, and his beaming face was comicallytwisted by a wince of pain.
"Have at them, chief!" he cried. "But we must appeal to the militaryauthorities for the airships, and the experts to guide them. With yourpermission, sir, I will put the emergency to Colonel Malinkoff this veryhour."
The chief, undisturbed, checked this proposition of hasty action with agesture of dissent.
"Daylight will do for that, sergeant, and a few hours more or less willnot matter. With sixty or seventy miles an hour as our advantage, thereis no question as to the outcome of the chase."
The cold-gray eye of the chief, lighting upon the boys, standing withStrogoff's comrades near the door, he imperiously demanded:
"Are these new recruits in your service, sergeant?"
"Bless me, sir," quickly responded the officer addressed; "let me tellyou that if it had not been for them I might have been filling anuncovered grave to-night."
"Put it all in your report, sergeant. You had better be eating andsleeping while I prepare a statement that will induce the militarybranch to act and aid promptly."
The summons for the chief's secretary was sounding when the sergeant andhis young companions left the office.
"I think a half hour in the chop house around the corner will be goodmedicine to start with," remarked the big officer, who was a famousfeeder, and who had missed several meals since his hold-up in the rearof the silversmith's shop.
In the continuous run of excitement following their discovery ofStrogoff trussed up on the counting house floor in the old warehouse thepoliceman had never made a single inquiry as to the boys' identity. Ifhe had noticed them on the day they were posing as would-be customers inthe shop of the silversmith, and when he served summons on Ricker toappear as an expert witness, there had been no sign of the fact.
As Billy said, in an aside to his chum, "He thinks, maybe, that wedropped out of the sky just to help him out of a scrape."
Strogoff, having gorged himself with a mammoth beefsteak flanked byonions, and the boys fully satisfied with their own prowess at table,the trio hied themselves back to police headquarters.
"Andreas," said the sergeant to the desk man, "we are going to take asnooze in the rest room, and if the chief wants me never stop shakinguntil you get my eyes open. And, what is more, do not come too soon ifyou can help it, but by the powers do not come too late if you know it."
The desk man grinned and nodded understanding. Three hours later he felllike a fire alarm on the snoring officer, and as the latter rubbed thesleep out of his eyes, handed him an envelope, sealed with red wax. Itwas addressed to Colonel Malinkoff.
It was in the gray dawn that the sergeant and the boys set out for armyheadquarters.
Stopped by a sentry, Strogoff displayed his badge and also produced theletter from the police chief.
They were passed without further question, and found the colonel, everan early riser, preparing for breakfast. Such was the bulk of thepoliceman that the boys in line behind him were completely hidden fromview.
Opening the envelope, Colonel Malinkoff noted the contents, penciled afew words on the margin, and instantly remarking:
"Request granted forthwith. Orderly," turning to a soldier in the room,"go with this officer to aviation quarters."
As Strogoff stepped aside, that the aide might lead, the colonel saw theboys.
"'Pon my word, young men, you are early visitors. What has gone wrongwith you?"
Much to the astonishment of the policeman, the colonel extended awelcoming hand to each of the youngsters.
"You know them, colonel?"
"Rather well acquainted," laughed Malinkoff. "Hope you have not arrestedthem, officer."
"Not me," stoutly declared the sergeant; "I owe them my life. But may Itell about that later, colonel? Time presses."
Malinkoff waved consent, and a few minutes later Strogoff handed theletter and order to the aviation chief, with the presentation, saying:
"If it pleases you, sir, we would ask the services of aviators who cango the route with the greatest skill and speed."
"There is a pair of them behind you this minute," was the quick answer.
Strogoff simply stared at the youths, who now stepped forward to salutetheir chief.
"What next?" The question was in his eyes.
The arrangement was that two biplanes were to go, it being deemedessential that there be carried one observer vested with the authorityof the military branch.
Captain Walki was assigned to the duty, and to the biplane which Henriwas to pilot.
"I am the boy with the ballast," joked Billy, when he learned thatStrogoff was to ride behind him.
"Don't you think for a second that he is entirely new as an airpassenger," quietly advised the aviation chief, who had heard Billy'sfacetious remark; "several times to my knowledge, and for hours at atime, he has leaned over the side of a speeding aeroplane, watching cityroofs for contraband wireless apparatus."
Within twenty minutes after the order had been presented by Strogoff,such is the efficiency and expedition of all proceedings with whichtrained soldiers have to do, the aviation party were off in swift andunerring pursuit of the transport, now many miles away churning againstthe current of the river Vistula.
In the open country near Gombin, having encountered a fierce gale whichwhirled them out of the line of the river course, the aviators decidedto alight, and wait for a lull in the storm.
Though chafing at the delay, Strogoff wholly agreed with Captain Walkithat possible overstraining of the rigging and mechanism of the aircraftwas something that must be avoided.
As it was, Billy and Henri had their hands full in repairing some damagealready done.
"You boys wear a couple of level heads," admiringly commented the bigpoliceman, when landing was made; "there is more ventilation aloft thismorning than I have ever experienced, but perhaps you are used to it--atleast it did not seem to bother you much."
"If it had, Mr. Strogoff," jollied Billy, "you might have been spreadall over the ground by this time."
Shortly after the noon hour the high wind shifted, and when flight wasresumed the gusty force was behind the biplanes, which served toincrease their speed to a tremendous degree.
Notwithstanding this, however, the long stop had served to vastlyincrease the lead of the transport, which had never ceased to plow aheadby the impulse of its powerful propellers.
The vessel was steaming into Vloclavek harbor when the onrushingbiplanes neared this port.
By the time the aviators could reach the ground, the ship was at anchor,with many small boats plying about her.
Captain Walki immediately approached one of the ship's officers, who wasstanding on the quay, and explained the situation.
"There was quite a number shoveling below as we came up," said theofficial addressed, "and the only thing to do is to go on board and lookthem over. There's a gig at your service."
Strogoff was the first in the proffered boat, and the rowers that mannedit did not pull any too fast to suit him.
With a file of soldiers the searching party went below, but among allthe smutty-faced, stripped-to-the-waist workers in the furnace room themen wanted could not be found. No more successful was the further andthorough search made in every conceivable hiding place on upper andlower decks.
"Duped again," raged Strogoff. "What is your opinion, captain?" heappealed to Walki.
Captain Walki, who had been fully advised of the clue which had causedthe pursuit of the transport, reflectively stroked his short beard andlaconically remarked:
"I think the sailor on the collier lied!"