A TRAMP WITH FIELD-GLASSES.
The boys lost no time in explaining to their mother when they reached
their home on Madison Avenue the nature of the enterprise in which they
had enlisted their services. That she was unwilling at first for them to
embark on what seemed such a dangerous commission goes without saying,
but after a lot of persuasion she finally yielded and gave her consent
and the delighted boys set out at once for White Plains where the large
aerodrome in which they had constructed the _Golden Eagle I_ was still
standing. The place was equipped with every facility for the
construction of air craft and so no time was lost in preliminaries and
two days of hard work saw the variadium steel framework of the _Golden
Eagle the Second_ practically complete.
The craft was to be a larger one than the _Golden Eagle I_, which had a
wing-spread of fifty-six feet. The planes of her successor were seventy
feet from tip to tip and equipped with flexible spring tips that played
a very important part in assuring her stability in the air. Like the
first _Golden Eagle_ the boys had determined that the new ship, should
carry wireless and the enthusiasm of Schultz and Le Blanc, their two
assistants, was unbounded as Frank placed before them his working
drawings and blue prints which bore on paper the craft which they
expected to eclipse anything ever seen or heard of in the aerial world
for speed and stability.
The old _Golden Eagle_ had been equipped with a fifty horse-power
double-opposed engine with jump spark ignition. The boys for the new
craft had determined to invest in a one hundred horse-power machine of
similar type and equipped with the same ignition apparatus. As in the
other ship they planned to have the driving power furnished by twin
screws but, whereas in the first ship the propellers had been of oiled
silk on braced steel frames in the new _Golden Eagle_ the screws were of
laminated wood, razor sharp at the edges and with a high pitch.
Except for her increased size the _Golden Eagle II_ did not differ in
other respects from her predecessor. Her planes were covered with the
same yellow-hued balloon silk that had given the first craft her name
and the arrangement of pilot-house and navigating instruments was much
the same. The boys, however, planned to give her a couple of low
transoms running the length of each side of the pilot-house on which the
occupants could sleep on cushions stuffed with a very light grade of
vegetable wool. A light aluminum framework, which could be covered in
with canvas in bad weather, or mosquito netting in the tropics, forming
in the former case,--a weather-tight pilot-house with a mica window in
front for the steersman, was another improved feature.
Billy Barnes was astonished when a few days later, having resigned his
newspaper job, he was met at the White Plains station by Frank and
Harry, and found, on his arrival at the aerodrome a framework which was
rapidly beginning to assume very much the look of a real air-ship. The
enthusiastic reporter crawled under it and round it and pulled it and
poked 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 heart
warmed toward him for the interest he displayed in the craft which
Schultz regarded as being as much his own creation as anyone else's.
"Well, you certainly look like business here," exclaimed Billy as he
gazed about him. What with the lathes, the work-tables, the blue prints
and plans, the shaded drop-lights and the small gasolene motor,--used to
test propellers and run the machinery of the shop,--Frank and Harry were
indeed as Billy said, "running a young factory."
"You picked out a private spot," exclaimed Billy, gazing out of the tall
aerodrome doors at the low, wooded hills that surrounded them.
"Well," laughed Frank, "if we hadn't we'd have half the population of
White Plains around here trying to get on to what we were doing and
spreading all sorts of reports."
"Oh, by the way," asked Billy, "did you have any more manifestations
from our dark-skinned friend on your way to New York?"
"No," replied Frank, "he sat in his chair and read the papers and
apparently paid no more attention to us. I really begin to think that we
may have been mistaken."
"I guess so," said Billy lightly; "maybe he was just some rubber-neck
who was surprised to hear three boys talking so glibly about invading
the Everglades in an airship."
With that the subject was dropped, for Harry, who had just entered the
workshop from the small barn outside, where he had been putting the
horse up, carried Billy off to show him the "camp" as the boys
laughingly called it. The eating and sleeping quarters were in a small
portable house, a short distance from the main aerodrome. It was divided
into a dining and a sleeping room. The latter neatly furnished with
three cots--a third having been added to Frank and Harry's for Billy's
use that very morning. On its wall hung a few pictures of noted
aviators, a shelf of technical books on aviation and the usual odds and
ends that every boy likes to have about him. The two mechanics took
their meals in the house and slept in the aerodrome. The cooking was
done by Le Blanc who, like most of his countrymen, was a first-rate
chef.
"Camp!" exclaimed the admiring Billy after he had been shown over the
little domain, "I call it a mansion. Different from old Camp Plateau in
Nicaragua, eh?"
"And you came very nearly been shaken out of even that;" put in Harry
with a laugh.
"I should say so," rejoined the reporter. "B-r-r-r-r! it makes my teeth
chatter now when I think of the rain of stones that came from the Toltec
ravine. By the way," he broke off suddenly, "where is good old Ben
Stubbs?"
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 rubies
as his share of the loot of the One-eyed Quesals and as a partial
recognition of his bravery in rescuing us from the White Serpents."
Billy nodded and waited eagerly for Frank to resume. Ben Stubbs, the
hardy ex-sailor, prospector and adventurer, whom they had discovered
marooned in an inaccessible valley in the Nicaraguan Cordilleras, was
very dear to the hearts of all the boys.
"What do you suppose he did with the money after he had sold the ruby
for 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 a
tug-boat and has been doing well with it in New York harbor. We met him
when we were in New York a couple of days ago and partially outlined our
plans 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 this
morning."
He drew from his pocket a telegram and the boys all shouted with
laughter as he read it aloud. It was characteristic of their old
comrade.
"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 from
the living quarters to the aerodrome, "he's a trump."
"I don't know of anyone I would rather have along in an emergency and on
such an expedition as this, his experience and resourcefulness will be
invaluable to us," declared Frank.
The next morning Frank and Billy left the others busy at the aerodrome
applying the waterproof compound to the _Golden Eagle II's_ planes and
started for town behind the venerable old steed that Billy had
christened "Baalbec," because, he explained, "he was a remarkably fine
ruin." The first train from New York pulled into the station just as
they were driving into the town of White Plains and a minute later the
ears 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 and
ability and his mighty muscles fairly bulged under the tight-fitting,
blue serge coat he wore. He carried an ancient looking carpet bag in
which as he explained he had his "duds," meaning his garments. The
greetings between the three were hearty and after Frank had made a few
purchases up-town and Ben had laid in a good supply of strong tobacco
they started for the aerodrome.
As they drove down the street a thick-set man, with a furtive sallow
face, came out of a store and as he did so saw the boys. With the
agility of an eel he instantly slipped into a side street. But not so
quickly that Billy's sharp eyes had not spied him and recognized him.
"Bother that fellow," he said with some irritation, "he gets on my
nerves. 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 Congressional
Limited,--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 they
emerged 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 the
air-skimmer which was growing like a living thing under their hands.
They all agreed enthusiastically and Frank even suggested that it might
be possible, at the rate the work was progressing, to make the start in
less time than he had at first thought feasible.
"Oh, by the way," said Harry suddenly, "rather a funny thing happened
while you were gone, Frank!"
"Yes?" said the elder brother, "what was it?"
"Oh, nothing very exciting," replied Harry, "nothing more than a visit
we 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 left
there, found that instead of going very far the fellow was up in the
wood back there and watching the place with a pair of field-glasses."
"Whew!" whistled Frank with a long face, "a tramp with
field-glasses?--that's a novelty."
"I sent Schultz up to tell the man that he was trespassing on private
property," went on Harry, "but as soon as he saw the old fellow coming
the tramp made off. He, however, dropped this bit of paper."
Harry handed his brother a crumpled sheet marked with faint lines. Frank
scrutinized the paper carefully and a frown spread on his face.
"This bit of paper, as you call it, Harry," he said, "is nothing more
nor less than a very creditable sketch map of the location of this
aerodrome."
"By jove, so it is," exclaimed Harry, "how stupid of me not to have
realized that. What does it all mean do you suppose?"
"It means," replied Frank, "that we will not leave the aerodrome
unguarded for a minute day or night till we are ready to make our start
for Florida."