CHAPTER III.
A TRAMP WITH FIELD-GLASSES.
The boys lost no time in explaining to their mother when they reachedtheir home on Madison Avenue the nature of the enterprise in which theyhad enlisted their services. That she was unwilling at first for them toembark on what seemed such a dangerous commission goes without saying,but after a lot of persuasion she finally yielded and gave her consentand the delighted boys set out at once for White Plains where the largeaerodrome in which they had constructed the _Golden Eagle I_ was stillstanding. The place was equipped with every facility for theconstruction of air craft and so no time was lost in preliminaries andtwo days of hard work saw the variadium steel framework of the _GoldenEagle the Second_ practically complete.
The craft was to be a larger one than the _Golden Eagle I_, which had awing-spread of fifty-six feet. The planes of her successor were seventyfeet from tip to tip and equipped with flexible spring tips that playeda very important part in assuring her stability in the air. Like thefirst _Golden Eagle_ the boys had determined that the new ship, shouldcarry wireless and the enthusiasm of Schultz and Le Blanc, their twoassistants, was unbounded as Frank placed before them his workingdrawings and blue prints which bore on paper the craft which theyexpected to eclipse anything ever seen or heard of in the aerial worldfor speed and stability.
The old _Golden Eagle_ had been equipped with a fifty horse-powerdouble-opposed engine with jump spark ignition. The boys for the newcraft had determined to invest in a one hundred horse-power machine ofsimilar type and equipped with the same ignition apparatus. As in theother ship they planned to have the driving power furnished by twinscrews but, whereas in the first ship the propellers had been of oiledsilk on braced steel frames in the new _Golden Eagle_ the screws were oflaminated wood, razor sharp at the edges and with a high pitch.
Except for her increased size the _Golden Eagle II_ did not differ inother respects from her predecessor. Her planes were covered with thesame yellow-hued balloon silk that had given the first craft her nameand the arrangement of pilot-house and navigating instruments was muchthe same. The boys, however, planned to give her a couple of lowtransoms running the length of each side of the pilot-house on which theoccupants could sleep on cushions stuffed with a very light grade ofvegetable wool. A light aluminum framework, which could be covered inwith canvas in bad weather, or mosquito netting in the tropics, formingin the former case,--a weather-tight pilot-house with a mica window infront for the steersman, was another improved feature.
Billy Barnes was astonished when a few days later, having resigned hisnewspaper job, he was met at the White Plains station by Frank andHarry, and found, on his arrival at the aerodrome a framework which wasrapidly beginning to assume very much the look of a real air-ship. Theenthusiastic reporter crawled under it and round it and pulled it andpoked it from every possible angle till old Schultz, angrily exclaimed:
"Ach, vas is dis boy crazy, hein?"
Billy was nearly crazy with joy he exclaimed and the old German's heartwarmed toward him for the interest he displayed in the craft whichSchultz regarded as being as much his own creation as anyone else's.
"Well, you certainly look like business here," exclaimed Billy as hegazed about him. What with the lathes, the work-tables, the blue printsand plans, the shaded drop-lights and the small gasolene motor,--used totest propellers and run the machinery of the shop,--Frank and Harry wereindeed as Billy said, "running a young factory."
"You picked out a private spot," exclaimed Billy, gazing out of the tallaerodrome doors at the low, wooded hills that surrounded them.
"Well," laughed Frank, "if we hadn't we'd have half the population ofWhite Plains around here trying to get on to what we were doing andspreading all sorts of reports."
"Oh, by the way," asked Billy, "did you have any more manifestationsfrom our dark-skinned friend on your way to New York?"
"No," replied Frank, "he sat in his chair and read the papers andapparently paid no more attention to us. I really begin to think that wemay have been mistaken."
"I guess so," said Billy lightly; "maybe he was just some rubber-neckwho was surprised to hear three boys talking so glibly about invadingthe Everglades in an airship."
With that the subject was dropped, for Harry, who had just entered theworkshop from the small barn outside, where he had been putting thehorse up, carried Billy off to show him the "camp" as the boyslaughingly called it. The eating and sleeping quarters were in a smallportable house, a short distance from the main aerodrome. It was dividedinto a dining and a sleeping room. The latter neatly furnished withthree cots--a third having been added to Frank and Harry's for Billy'suse that very morning. On its wall hung a few pictures of notedaviators, a shelf of technical books on aviation and the usual odds andends that every boy likes to have about him. The two mechanics tooktheir meals in the house and slept in the aerodrome. The cooking wasdone by Le Blanc who, like most of his countrymen, was a first-ratechef.
"Camp!" exclaimed the admiring Billy after he had been shown over thelittle domain, "I call it a mansion. Different from old Camp Plateau inNicaragua, eh?"
"And you came very nearly been shaken out of even that;" put in Harrywith a laugh.
"I should say so," rejoined the reporter. "B-r-r-r-r! it makes my teethchatter now when I think of the rain of stones that came from the Toltecravine. By the way," he broke off suddenly, "where is good old BenStubbs?"
The boys laughed knowingly and exchanged glances.
"Go ahead and tell him, Frank," urged Harry.
"Well," said Frank, "as you know, Billy, we gave Ben one of the rubiesas his share of the loot of the One-eyed Quesals and as a partialrecognition of his bravery in rescuing us from the White Serpents."
Billy nodded and waited eagerly for Frank to resume. Ben Stubbs, thehardy ex-sailor, prospector and adventurer, whom they had discoveredmarooned in an inaccessible valley in the Nicaraguan Cordilleras, wasvery dear to the hearts of all the boys.
"What do you suppose he did with the money after he had sold the rubyfor twelve thousand dollars?" resumed Frank.
The reporter shook his head.
"I can't guess," he said; "bought a farm?"
"Not much," chorused the boys, "he invested part of the money in atug-boat and has been doing well with it in New York harbor. We met himwhen we were in New York a couple of days ago and partially outlined ourplans to him. Nothing would do but he must come along."
"We couldn't have a better camp-mate," cried Billy.
"I agree with you," said Frank. "So I told him we'd think it over."
"Well, is he to come?" demanded Billy.
"Don't be so impatient," reproved Frank. "Listen to this. I got it thismorning."
He drew from his pocket a telegram and the boys all shouted withlaughter as he read it aloud. It was characteristic of their oldcomrade.
"Have sold the tug and will be in White Plains to-morrow. Ben Stubbs,(skipper retired)."
"Good for him," cried Billy, as the three boys made their way back fromthe living quarters to the aerodrome, "he's a trump."
"I don't know of anyone I would rather have along in an emergency and onsuch an expedition as this, his experience and resourcefulness will beinvaluable to us," declared Frank.
The next morning Frank and Billy left the others busy at the aerodromeapplying the waterproof compound to the _Golden Eagle II's_ planes andstarted for town behind the venerable old steed that Billy hadchristened "Baalbec," because, he explained, "he was a remarkably fineruin." The first train from New York pulled into the station just asthey were driving into the town of White Plains and a minute later theears of both boys were saluted by a mighty hail of:
"Ahoy there, shipmates, lay alongside and throw us a line."
The person from whom this unceremonious greeting proceeded was a short,sun-bronzed man of about fifty. He had an unusual air of confidence andability and his mighty muscles fairly bulged under the tight-fi
tting,blue serge coat he wore. He carried an ancient looking carpet bag inwhich as he explained he had his "duds," meaning his garments. Thegreetings between the three were hearty and after Frank had made a fewpurchases up-town and Ben had laid in a good supply of strong tobaccothey started for the aerodrome.
As they drove down the street a thick-set man, with a furtive sallowface, came out of a store and as he did so saw the boys. With theagility of an eel he instantly slipped into a side street. But not soquickly that Billy's sharp eyes had not spied him and recognized him.
"Bother that fellow," he said with some irritation, "he gets on mynerves. I wish to goodness he'd keep away from where I am."
Frank looked up.
"What on earth are you talking about, Billy?" he asked.
"Why that fellow we saw at the Willard, and again on the CongressionalLimited,--or his double,--just sneaked down a side street," said Billy."I am certain he saw us and was anxious for us not to observe him."
"Meeting him a third time like this could hardly be a coincidence,"mused Frank.
"Not much," struck in Billy, "that fellow means some mischief."
"I think myself that he will bear watching," replied Frank, as theyemerged from the street into the open country.
"Pretty good for a week's work, eh?" remarked Harry with some pride as,after the joyous re-union with Ben Stubbs, they all stood regarding theair-skimmer which was growing like a living thing under their hands.
They all agreed enthusiastically and Frank even suggested that it mightbe possible, at the rate the work was progressing, to make the start inless time than he had at first thought feasible.
"Oh, by the way," said Harry suddenly, "rather a funny thing happenedwhile you were gone, Frank!"
"Yes?" said the elder brother, "what was it?"
"Oh, nothing very exciting," replied Harry, "nothing more than a visitwe had from a tramp."
"From a tramp?" asked Frank wonderingly.
"Yes, he came here to look for a job," he said.
"And you told him--?"
"That we hadn't any work, of course, and then, apparently, he went away.But Schultz, when he went over to the house for some tools he'd leftthere, found that instead of going very far the fellow was up in thewood back there and watching the place with a pair of field-glasses."
"Whew!" whistled Frank with a long face, "a tramp withfield-glasses?--that's a novelty."
"I sent Schultz up to tell the man that he was trespassing on privateproperty," went on Harry, "but as soon as he saw the old fellow comingthe tramp made off. He, however, dropped this bit of paper."
Harry handed his brother a crumpled sheet marked with faint lines. Frankscrutinized the paper carefully and a frown spread on his face.
"This bit of paper, as you call it, Harry," he said, "is nothing morenor less than a very creditable sketch map of the location of thisaerodrome."
"By jove, so it is," exclaimed Harry, "how stupid of me not to haverealized that. What does it all mean do you suppose?"
"It means," replied Frank, "that we will not leave the aerodromeunguarded for a minute day or night till we are ready to make our startfor Florida."