THE PILOT OF THE MERMAID
"So, it's Todd Pemberton, is it?" remarked Frank, "I think it'll pay us
to slow down a little, and look into this white rag-waving business."
"Goodness gracious! you can't be thinking that Todd is in touch with the
bank robbers, can you, Frank?" Andy exclaimed, astounded, apparently, at
the very thought of such a thing.
"Oh! I'm not up to that point of saying anything--yet. But all the same
it's what I call interesting, you know," the other replied; and from
this Andy could easily guess that while Frank might have notions about
the matter, he did not care to commit himself so early in the game.
"Yes, that's so," Andy replied, still having his eyes glued to the
binoculars.
"What's doing now?" continued Frank.
"Nothing that I c'n see," replied the other.
"No more white handkerchiefs waving around the point, eh, Andy?"
"Not a blessed thing; and Todd's quit too. Guess they've come to some
sort of an understanding. Wish I knew what seven, three, five meant;
something pretty interesting, I'll be bound." Andy went on to mutter,
half to himself.
"Well, we can only guess, and that's the extent of it," Frank was
saying, in a rather serious tone, as though he believed there might be
more in connection with the little affair than a mere exchange of
civilities.
"How about Todd Pemberton, Frank?" asked the boy with the glasses.
"Well, you know him as well as I do, perhaps better," returned his
cousin.
"I mean, wasn't there once something against him? I know, Frank, that my
guardian signed a paper about getting Todd his position with the
steamboat company this last spring; they always get him to sign
everything going, he's so good-natured and what you call an Easy Mark."
"Yes, they came to my father too, and he put his name down, I remember.
As near as I can say, it was a petition to ask the company to give Todd
the position of pilot; and stated the belief of all those who signed
that he would make good. He used to be a pilot on Lake Sunrise, and
before that on one of the Great Lakes."
"But, Frank, why the petition, if he was able to fill the place you'd
think all he had to do was to make application, and then jump in?"
"Well, it seemed to be pretty generally known about Bloomsbury that Todd
had not always been as straight as he is today; and lots of people
believed he would never hold his place a week; but he's had it all
summer now, and seems to be giving satisfaction, all right," Frank went
on to say.
"But there was a past, you mean; Todd had gone the pace, and used to
drink and gamble, I suppose. Perhaps, now, he even used to herd with a
tough set. How about that, Frank?"
"It's so all right. Todd got down pretty low, and was even a hobo, I
heard, before he took a brace, and came back to Bloomsbury to make a man
of himself again."
"Gee! I'm real sorry to hear that," Andy muttered.
"What? That he reformed?" demanded the cousin, in pretended surprise.
"Shucks! no; but about his having been a tramp; because, don't you see,
Frank, it makes things look black for Todd. Remember, don't you, about
what the Chief said when he spoke of the yeggs knowing so much about
things, that he thought they must have had inside information; and that
somebody familiar with Bloomsbury ways helped them figure it all out.
Looks bad for Todd, that's what, Frank."
To hear Andy talk you would think that the party in question must have
been a personal friend, at least, when, in truth, he only knew Todd
Pemberton to speak to, as he did a thousand other people in and around
the home town.
"By that you mean you're afraid he's fallen in with some old companions
in crime and been tempted, or forced to join them in this raid on the
bank?" was the way Frank put the matter direct.
"You've covered what I do believe, as sure as my name's Andy Bird."
"Well, let me say that I think the same way you do," Frank went on to
remark.
"Good!" cried Andy, in a delighted tone. "Sometimes we agree, and again
we have different minds; but in this case it looks like we might be on
the same raft."
"Take another good squint at the point, Andy, and see if you can pick up
that man again, the fellow who was doing all that tall Wigwagging."
"I'm looking, Frank."
"What d'ye see there now?" the other continued.
"Nothing--that is, there are stones, and moss, and trees, and perhaps
birds flying around this way and that; but never the first sign of a
human being can I discover anywhere, Frank."
"Still, we know there's one man there at least, perhaps a pair of them
hiding somewhere around that desolate place. Why, Norton's Point is, I
guess, about the meanest and loneliest place of all the Disston Swamp
lumber company. Nobody hardly ever goes there except to shoot snipe and
woodcock in the fall, and yet we happen to know there's one person
hiding out there, and that he knows Todd Pemberton, for they've been
exchanging signals through the wigwag code."
"Looks suspicious, Frank, don't you think?"
"Looks like it might pay to investigate a little closer, Andy."
They were by this time passing over the identical strip of country where
Andy had watched the signal waving. By looking almost directly down, he
could see between the tall trees as only an aviator ever has a chance of
doing.
"You know what I'm hoping to discover, Frank?" he remarked as he
continued to scan every part that was at all exposed by openings among
the trees.
"Percy's lost biplane, I take it," came the prompt reply.
"Yes, because they couldn't very well have landed without a certain
amount of open space. We know how hard it is to drop into a hole, and
worse still to climb up out of one. Didn't we have the toughest of times
down there in that South American forest finding open spots where we
could land with some chance of ever getting out again, without cutting
trees down that were as big around as a young house?"
"But I don't hear you shouting out that you've made any sort of
discovery, up to now, Andy?"
"Well, no, for a fact I haven't. But Frank, I wish you could take the
glass and let me hold the wheel for a minute."
"You can tell me just as well, I think," replied the other.
"It's about the sandy beach in front of the point," remarked Andy.
"What ails it then?" Frank inquired, seeing his cousin hesitate.
"Why," Andy went on to say, "you know how powerful this glass is, and
how it shows up the smallest of things when the sun is just right? It's
doing that now. I can look down on the sand spit at the point; and for a
lonely spot where hardly a man ever comes from November to June, it
looks pretty well trampled up to me."
"Trampled by men or animals?" the pilot inquired.
"I think by two-legged animals," answered the one who held the powerful
lenses to his young eyes. "And it struck me that perhaps the biplane
came down right there early this morning. It was headed this way when I
saw it, and not so very high up; though that flock of crazy crows
knocked me out of watching it for some times."
"Do you mean it fell there; that they had an accident of some kind,
Andy?"
"Might be that; and then, again, perhaps they dropped down on purpose;
p'raps they mean to have another warm session around Bloomsbury before
skipping out of this section for good. With the aeroplane to make a
quick get-away, they might think of some rich haul they want to gather
in. Am I away off in my guess, Frank, or do you kind of lean the same
way?"
"I think you are getting pretty close to the truth, Andy, and that's a
fact," replied the other. "But it would clinch it if you could only
glimpse the biplane hidden away somewhere down there under the brush or
the trees."
"That's what I've been hoping for," returned Andy, a little fretfully,
"but so far without meeting any success that you could notice. But what
ought we to do about it, Frank?"
"Go on, and take a wide sweep around," came the steady reply. "Perhaps
we might run across another leading clue, and then this one would look
foolish. We'd be sorry then, that we thought so bad of Todd. Perhaps,
after all, he was only making signals to one of the men connected with
the logging camp, up on the Point for something or other."
He allowed the motor to work at the reduced speed that it had been
carrying on ever since quitting the home field, where the workshop and
the hangar stood. Andy still continued to use the glasses, as though he
had not quite given up all hope of making some sort of discovery.
Once, however, they had left the northern end of the lovely lake behind
them for good, and only the forest lay below, Frank quickened matters
somewhat. Truth to tell, he hardly knew what to think, and whether what
they had witnessed could really have any bearing on the solution of the
puzzle or not.
Certainly if the hunt was only kept up in automobiles, that required
fairly decent roads to allow of their getting along, there was not much
chance of the authorities ever discovering the concealed hobo thieves;
for they could not get within a mile of the shore up there at Norton's
Point by such methods. The only way it could be reached was by boat; or
possibly through the means of an aeroplane, such as the Bird boys were
now using. Few places but could be spied upon, when one had the means
for passing over the most inaccessible thickets and rocky hills.
After a time they had gone many miles. Occasionally a small hamlet was
seen below; and then would come once more the woods that extended over
such a large space of territory in this part of the country. This was
generally because of the swampy nature of the ground, which prevented
farming operations being carried on, while the difficulty of getting the
logs out of the bogs had deterred lumbering thus far.
Andy had done his part of the work faithfully. He had scoured the
territory over which they passed, and never did a break occur, however
small, but he clapped his eyes upon it, and examined the open space
thoroughly.
"There's Rockford ahead, and we've passed over the whole stretch of
swamp and forest. Suppose, now, we dropped down on the commons, and get
Bloomsbury on the long distance phone; perhaps they might have some news
they could give us," and as Andy at once agreed to the proposal, for he
was thirsty anyhow, and wanted a drink of soda water the worst kind,
Frank began to descend gracefully.
They had about half the population of the place gaping at them as they
finally landed on the big green. Frank asked his cousin to stay by the
machine while he sought police headquarters, and asked to get in touch
with the home town.
He had no sooner made the connection, and heard some one answer him
after he told who he was, when there was sent along the wire some
information that rather gave Frank a shock, because of its nature, and
the fact that it seemed to fully dispose of the theory he and his cousin
had already formed.