CHAPTER XI
A NEW ALARM
The next two minutes seemed an eternity to Frank, spinning rapidlyalong on his trusty wheel as he was. He wanted to know the worst, andyet dreaded to pass beyond the trees where the field would be in fullsight; because it would be distressing if he discovered the shop andhangars blazing, and everything gone.
Still, Frank was not the one to shirk bad tidings. And consequently heincreased his speed all that was possible.
"Bully!"
Such was the exclamation that involuntarily burst from his dry lipswhen, having burst from behind the barrier, he had a clear view of thefield. For the shed was there as intact as ever, and also the twohangars sheltering the aeroplanes. Some distance back, far enoughremoved to avoid any danger to the gasoline in the storage houses, Andywas tending a bonfire; while the other boys seemed to be carryingshavings and trash thither in bags and baskets.
Old Colonel Josiah Whympers was bobbing and bustling around on hiscrutch, and seemingly bossing the "whole shooting-match," as Franklaughingly said to himself.
Of course he saw now what Andy had been doing. For some time the otherhad threatened to clear the shop of all the accumulated rubbish of thewinter; and the notion must have seized him just after Frank left fortown.
"Hello! back again, are you, Frank?" laughed his cousin, as the riderdropped off his wheel close to the bonfire. "Cleaning house, you see.Threatened to do this a long time back; and as we have to sleep in theshop now, thought I might as well get at it. But what's that you'vebrought along, Frank? My goodness, your gun! Now, what sort of gamedo you expect to get with that thing?"
"Don't know," returned Frank, grimly. "Might be Jules Garrone for allI can say!"
At that Andy dropped the long stick with which he had been pushing thetrash into the heart of the blaze, and stared at the other as thoughstunned.
"Didn't I know you had something on your mind though?" he muttered."See here, Frank, ain't I in on this thing too? What d'ye know aboutJules Garrone? Ain't he fixed tight in the stone jug? I'm not fromMissouri, but all the same I want to know!"
"So say we all of us," remarked Larry, who had come up while they wereindulging in these few remarks, and was able to give a good guess as tothe nature of what had been said.
"Please confide in us, Frank; we'll keep mum, sure we will!" pleadedElephant.
Stuttering Nat only wagged his head, and moved his jaws; but thispantomime stood for volumes with those who knew his infirmity.
"It turns out that our old friend Jules gave them leg bail a week ago,along with a couple of other convicts. But though they recaptured thetwo fellows, crafty Jules is still at large!" Frank said, quietly.
At that Andy came near having a fit.
"My goodness gracious! hear that, would you, fellows?" he exclaimed."Now we know who fired that nasty shot at us this morning. And hemeant to hit us, too. Oh! the coward, to stand down there, and justlet us have it, when we couldn't give him back as good as he sent!Frank, is that going to end our flying?"
Andy looked pained at the very idea, and Frank could hardly keep fromlaughing at the miserable face his chum exhibited.
"Oh! I don't know," he replied. "There's no reason it should, that Ican see. We can avoid that section, or else keep high up when passing,so he never would have the least chance at hitting us, going a mile aminute. Besides, perhaps he'll find himself in hot water presently,when Chief Waller gets a line on him."
"Does the Chief know he's loose?" asked Larry.
"He does now, but he never suspected it until I dropped in on him,"replied the other, calmly.
"But see here, how did you know?" demanded Elephant.
"The Chief told me," laughed Frank.
"Oh! say, is this fair, Frank?" complained Andy. "You're just gettingthe whole lot of us balled up. You told the Chief; and the Chief toldyou! Please lift the curtain, won't you, and let us see the game."
So Frank, taking pity on them, condescended to explain. Colonel Josiahhad also joined the group, and was an eager listener to the recital.
The old traveler had himself been through a vast number of adventuresin his time, for he had delighted in exploring odd corners of the worldseldom heard of by ordinary people. Hence, he delighted in listeningto "his boys" when they were narrating some stirring event that hadcome to their experience.
All sorts of exclamations arose when they heard what the warden of theState penitentiary had to say about Jules. Andy even looked about himsuspiciously, as if he might entertain a feeling approaching timidity,lest the desperate escaped convict suddenly appear, and threaten themin some way.
"Now I know why you went after your gun, Frank!" he remarked. "Notthat I blame you a particle, remember. Don't I remember the dark faceof that Jules, and how he stared at me, and ground his white teeth,when they took him away. All this time I've allowed myself to sleepsweetly, under the belief that, since he was bound to stay behind stonewalls at least eight years, I needn't be afraid. But sometimes evenwalls can be scaled. Is it loaded, Frank--your gun, I mean?"
To oblige him Frank laughingly opened the breech, and inserted a coupleof shells.
"Shucks! only Number Tens?" ejaculated Andy. "If it had been me now,I'd have brought a handful of buckshot ones. Much good these would donow if Jules was running away, and had covered a hundred yards."
"Then I'd be willing to let him run," said Frank. "What I want themfor most of all is to meet Jules, if he persists in advancing tooclose."
They were still discussing the matter an hour later; or at least someof them kept it up, while Larry started the fire inside the shop, andbegan the necessary operation looking to a dinner to which the oldColonel had been invited on condition that he relate a few more of hisstrange experiences in China, Thibet and Northern India.
"Look who's coming!" called out Elephant and of course this made themall turn their heads; even Larry running to the door, gun in hand, asthough he had heard the remark, and thought it might refer to thedreaded Jules himself.
A car was coming from the direction of the town, and in a cloud ofdust. Naturally the first thought that came to Frank was that it mightbe Mr. Marsh and his companion, Longley. But as the breeze lifted thecurtain of dust, he immediately discovered that this was not so.
Half a dozen men were crowded in the car and one of these half arose inpassing, to wave a hand vigorously toward the group of boys in thefield.
"That's Chief Waller!" remarked Andy, with more or less eagerness inhis voice.
"And those others are some of his men," Frank went on. "They don'tmean to lose any time about looking Jules up, do they?"
"Hey! are you sure about that?" asked Elephant; "because none of 'emhad a uniform on; and what good are the police in plain clothes?"
"Oh! there are times when they can do more without their uniforms thanin them," Frank remarked. "And this ought to be one of them. Supposenow that keen-eyed Jules happened to be on the lookout, and saw a carloaded down with bluecoats come along, wouldn't he hide, all right?Well, that goes without saying, fellows. As it is he might neversuspect a thing. I've often seen as many fellows jammed in a car, andso have every one of you."
"One good thing is, Waller ought to know that section pretty well,"remarked the old traveler. "He's been brought up here, and scoured thecountry as if he had a fine tooth comb, many a time. He will know howto close in on Jules, if the fellow is hiding there, which I doubt."
"Why do you say that, sir?" asked Frank, who had a genuine respect forthe opinions of the veteran, based as they were on long experience andobservation in all parts of the world.
"It is only a surmise on my part, Frank," replied the Colonel. "We alladmit that Jules is a very clever and long-headed rascal. Very well.Don't you suppose that he may regret having given way to suddentemptation, and fired at you boys this morning? He will, onreflection, fear that you may guess who did it; for of course Julesdoes not know that his escape has been kept a secret all t
his week, inthe hope that he might be recaptured, and nothing need be told. Followme, boys?"
"Oh! yes, sir," Frank declared. "And in that case the Chief will haveall his trouble for his pains, since Jules will have made tracks longbefore this. He may be out of the county by night."
"That is true; providing that he does not allow a fierce desire forrevenge to stay his feet," replied the old man, soberly.
Usually the veteran was not the one to imagine trouble where there wasnone in sight; and knowing this Frank looked at him somewhat uneasily.
But before anything more could be said they were surprised to seeStammering Nat coming toward them on a run, for he had been watchingthe last of the bonfire to make sure it did no harm; and of course, ashe was brimful of excitement, he had lost all power of control over hisvoice.
He tried the best he knew how, to regain the mastery of his vocalchords; even resorting to an old expedient of whistling, that perhapshad served him on some previous occasion. Finding everything of noavail, he clutched Andy by the sleeve, and started dragging him aroundthe corner of the shed.
"Hey! what ails you, Nat?" shrilled the struggling Andy, wonderingwhether the other could have lost his mind because of his greataffliction.
Another moment and the rest heard Andy give tongue in a way thatannounced his complete surrender to the same mysterious source ofexcitement that had mastered Nat. Of course this needed anexplanation; and accordingly Frank and Elephant dashed off, withColonel Josiah stumping along close behind; and even Larry, leaving hiscooking dinner, to come after them, still clinging to Frank's gun.