CHAPTER XIV
A FALSE CLEW
Full in the glare of the powerful beam from the light there wasrevealed the giant and the man he was pursuing. The latter neitherTom, nor any one on the airship, knew. All they could see was thathe was racing away at top speed, with Koku vainly swinging his clubat him.
"Bless my chicken soup!" cried Mr. Damon. "Is anything damaged,Tom?"
"No, Koku was too quick for him." yelled the youth, as he, tooleaped over the rail and joined in the pursuit.
"Stop! Stop!" called Koku to the man who had sought to damage thegreat searchlight. But the fellow knew better than to halt, with anangry giant so close behind him. He ran on faster than ever.
Suddenly the stranger seemed to realize that by keeping in the pathof the light he gave his pursuers a great advantage. He dodged toone side, off the path on which he had been running, and plungedinto the bushes.
"Where him go?" called Koku, coming to a puzzled halt.
"Ned, play the light on both sides!" ordered Tom to his chum, whowas now on the deck of the airship, near the wheels and levers thatoperated the big lantern. "Show him up!"
Obediently the young bank clerk swung the searchlight from side toside. The powerful combined electric current, hissing into the bigcarbons, and being reflected by the parabolic mirrors, made thegrowth of underbrush as brightly illuminated as in day time. Tomdetected a movement.
"There he is, Koku!" he called to his giant servant. "Off there tothe left. After him!"
Raising his club on high, Koku made a leap for the place where thefugitive was hiding. As the man saw the light, and sprang forward,he was, for a moment, in the full glare of the rays. Then, just asthe giant was about to reach him, Koku stumbled over a tree root,and fell heavily.
"Never mind, I'll get him!" yelled Tom, but the next moment the manvanished suddenly, and was no longer to be seen in the finger oflight from the lantern. He had probably dipped down into somehollow, lying there hidden, and as of course was out of the focus ofthe searchlight.
"Come on, Koku, we'll find him!" exclaimed Tom, and together theymade a search, Mr. Damon joining them, while Ned worked the lantern.But it was of no avail, for they did not find the stranger.
"Well, we might as well go back," said Tom, at length. "We can'tfind him. He's probably far enough off by this time."
"Who was he?" panted Mr. Damon, as he walked beside Tom and Koku tothe airship. Ned had switched off the big light on a signal from theyoung inventor.
"I don't know!" answered Tom.
"But what did he want? What was he doing? I don't quite understand."
"He wanted to put my searchlight out of commission," responded ourhero. "From that I should argue that he was either one of thesmugglers, or trying to aid them."
And this theory was borne out by Mr. Whitford, who, on calling thenext morning, was told of the occurrence of the night. Koku relatedhow he had found it uncomfortable in his bunk, and had gone out ondeck for air. There, half dozing, he heard a stealthy step. At oncehe was on the alert. He saw a man with a gun creeping along, and atfirst thought the fellow had evil designs on some of those aboardthe Falcon.
Then, when Koku saw the man aim at the big searchlight the giantsprang at him, and there was a scuffle. The gun went off, and theman escaped. An examination of the weapon he had left behind showedthat it carried a highly explosive shell, which, had it hit thelantern, would have completely destroyed it, and might have damagedthe airship.
"It was the smugglers, without a doubt," declared Mr. Whitford. "Youcan't get away from this place any too soon, Tom. Get a new hidingspot, and I will communicate with you there."
"But they are on the watch," objected Ned. "They'll see where we go,and follow us. The next time they may succeed in smashing thelantern."
"And if they do," spoke Tom, "it will be all up with trying todetect the smugglers, for it would take me quite a while to makeanother searchlight. But I have a plan."
"What is it?" asked the government agent.
"I'll make a flight to-day," went on the young inventor, "and sailover quite an area. I'll pick out a good place to land, and we'llmake our camp there instead of here. Then I'll come back to thisspot, and after dark I'll go up, without a light showing. There's nomoon to-night, and they'll have pretty good eyes if they can followme, unless they get a searchlight, and they won't do that for fearof giving themselves away. We'll sail off in the darkness, go to thespot we have previously picked out, and drop down to it. There we canhide and I don't believe they can trace us."
"But how can you find in the darkness, the spot you pick out indaylight?" Mr. Whitford wanted to know.
"I'll arrange some electric lights, in a certain formation in treesaround the landing place," said Tom. "I'll fix them with a clockworkswitch, that will illuminate them at a certain hour, and they'll runby a storage battery. In that way I'll have my landing place allmarked out, and, as it can only be seen from above, if any of thesmugglers are on the ground, they won't notice the incandescents."
"But if they are in their airship they will," said Mr. Damon.
"Of course that's possible," admitted Tom, "but, even if they seethe lights I don't believe they will know what they mean. And,another thing, I don't imagine they'll come around here in theirairship when they know that we're in the neighborhood, and when thespy who endeavored to damage my lantern reports that he didn'tsucceed. They'll know that we are likely to be after them anyminute."
"That's so," agreed Ned. "I guess that's a good plan."
It was one they adopted, and, soon after Mr. Whitford's visit theairship arose, with him on board, and Tom sent her about in greatcircles and sweeps, now on high and again, barely skimming over thetreetops. During this time a lookout was kept for any otheraircraft, but none was seen.
"If they are spying on us, which is probably the case," said Tom,"they will wonder what we're up to. I'll keep 'em guessing. I thinkI'll fly low over Mr. Foger's house, and see if Andy has his airshipthere. We'll give him a salute."
Before doing this, however, Tom had picked out a good landing placein a clearing in the woods, and had arranged some incandescentlights on high branches of trees. The lights enclosed a square, inthe centre of which the Falcon was to drop down.
Of course it was necessary to descend to do this, to arrange thestorage battery and the clock switch. Then, so as to throw theirenemies off their track, they made landings in several other places,though they did nothing, merely staying there as a sort of "bluff"as Ned called it.
"They'll have their own troubles if they investigate every place westopped at," remarked Tom, "and, even if they do hit on the one wehave selected for our camp they won't see the lights in the trees,for they're well hidden."
This work done, they flew back toward Logansville, and sailed overAndy's house.
"There he is, on the roof, working at his airship!" exclaimed Ned,as they came within viewing distance, and, surely enough, there wasthe bully, tinkering away at his craft. Tom flew low enough down tospeak to him, and, as the Falcon produced no noise, it was notdifficult to make their voices heard.
"Hello, Andy!" called Tom, as he swept slowly overhead.
Andy looked up, but only scowled.
"Nice day; isn't it?" put in Ned.
"You get on away from here!" burst out the bully. "You aretrespassing, by flying over my house, and I could have you arrestedfor it. Keep away."
"All right," agreed Tom with a laugh. "Don't trespass by flying overour ship, Andy. We also might have a gun to shoot searchlightswith," he added.
Andy started, but did not reply, though Tom, who was watching himclosely, thought he saw an expression of fear come over the bully'sface.
"Do you think it was Andy who did the shooting?" asked Ned.
"No, he hasn't the nerve," replied Tom. "I don't know what to thinkabout that affair last night."
"Excepting that the smugglers are getting afraid of you, and want toget you out of the way," put in the custom official.
That night, when it was very dark, the Falcon noiselessly made herway upward and sailed along until she was over the square in theforest, marked out by the four lights. Then Tom sent her safelydown.
"Now let 'em find us if they can!" the young inventor exclaimed, as hemade the craft fast. "We'll turn in now, and see what happensto-morrow night."
"I'll send you word, just as soon as I get any myself," promised Mr.Whitford, when he left the next morning.
Tom and Ned spent the day in going over the airship, making someminor repairs to it, and polishing and oiling the mechanism of thesearchlight, to have it in the best possible condition.
It was about dusk when the wireless outfit, with which the Falconwas fitted, began snapping and cracking.
"Here comes a message!" cried Tom, as he clapped the receiver overhis head, and began to translate the dots and dashes.
"It's from Mr. Whitford!" he exclaimed, when he had written it down,and had sent back an answer, "He says: 'Have a tip that smugglerswill try to get goods over the border at some point near NiagaraFalls to-morrow night. Can you go there, and cruise about? Betterkeep toward Lake Ontario also. I will be with you. Answer.'"
"What answer did you send?" asked Ned.
"I told him we'd be on the job. It's quite a little run to make, andwe can't start until after dark, or otherwise some of the smugglersaround here may see us, and tip off their confederates. But I guesswe can make the distance all right."
Mr. Whitford arrived at the airship the next afternoon, stating thathe had news from one of the government spies to the effect that abold attempt would be made that night.
"They're going to try and smuggle some diamonds over on this trip,"said the custom agent.
"Well, we'll try to nab them!" exclaimed Tom.
As soon as it was dark enough to conceal her movements, the Falconwas sent aloft, not a light showing, and, when on high, Tom startedthe motor at full speed. The great propellers noiselessly beat theair, and the powerful craft was headed for Lake Ontario.
"They're pretty good, if they attempted to cross the lake to-night,"observed the young inventor, as he looked at the barometer.
"Why so?" asked Ned.
"Because there's a bad storm coming up. I shouldn't want to risk it.We'll keep near shore. We can nab them there as good as over thelake."
This plan was adopted, and as soon as they reached the great body ofwater--the last in the chain of the Great Lakes--Tom cruised about,he and Ned watching through powerful night glasses for a glimpse ofanother airship.
Far into the night they sailed about, covering many miles, for Tom ranat almost top speed. They sailed over Niagara Falls, and then wellalong the southern shore of Ontario, working their way north-east andback again. But not a sign of the smugglers did they see.
Meanwhile the wind had arisen until it was a gale, and it began torain. Gently at first the drops came down, until at length there wasa torrent of water descending from the overhead clouds. But those inthe Falcon were in no discomfort.
"It's a bad storm all right!" exclaimed Tom, as he looked at thebarometer, and noted that the mercury was still falling.
"Yes, and we have had our trouble for our pains!" declared Mr.Whitford.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I believe that we have been deceived by a false clew. Thesmugglers probably had no intention of getting goods across at thispoint to-night. They saw to it that my agent got false information,believing that we would follow it, and leave the vicinity ofLogansville."
"So they could operate there?" asked Tom.
"That's it," replied the agent. "They drew us off the scent. There'sno help for it. We must get back as soon as we can. My! This is abad storm!" he added, as a blast careened the airship.