A WAIF AND A STRAY.
“Bixby doesn’t own these machines!” exclaimed Carl angrily.
“Who does own them?” demanded Doran.
“We four boys own them!” was the reply.
“Well, you’ve got to show me!” insisted Doran, insolently.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do!” Jimmie announced. “We’ll go right back to
Bixby and put you off the job!”
“Go as far as you like,” answered Doran. “I was put here to guard these
machines and I intend to do it. You can’t bluff me!”
While the boys stood talking with the impertinent guard they saw two
figures moving stealthily about the aeroplanes. Jimmie hastened over to
the _Louise_ and saw a man fumbling in the tool-box.
“What are you doing here?” demanded the boy.
The intruder turned a startled face for an instant and then darted away,
taking the direction the cab had taken.
Carl and Doran now came running up and Jimmie turned to the latter.
“Nice old guard you are!” he almost shouted. “Here you stand talking
with us while men are sneaking around the machines!”
“Was there some one here?” asked Doran in assumed amazement.
“There surely was!” replied Jimmie. “Where are the other guards?”
“Why,” replied Doran hesitatingly, “they got tired of standing around
doing nothing and went home. It’s pretty dull out here.”
“Well,” Jimmie answered, “I’m going to see if this machine has been
tampered with! Get up on one of the seats, Carl,” he said with a wink,
“and we’ll soon find out if any of the fastenings have been loosened.”
The boy was permitted to follow instructions without any opposition or
comment from Doran, and in a moment Jimmie was in the other seat with
the wheels in motion.
Seeing too late the trick which had been played upon him, Doran uttered
an exclamation of anger and sprang for one of the planes. His fingers
just scraped the edge of the wing as the machine, gathering momentum
every instant, lifted from the ground, and he fell flat.
He arose instantly to shake a threatening fist at the disappearing
aeroplane. Jimmie turned back with a grin on his freckled face.
“Catch on behind,” he said, “and I’ll give you a ride!”
“Did you see some one fumbling around the machine?” asked Carl, as
Jimmie slowed the motors down a trifle in order to give a chance for
conversation.
“Sure, I did!” was the reply. “He ducked away when he saw me coming, and
ran away into the field in the direction taken by the cab.”
“Gee!” exclaimed Carl. “Do you think the cabman brought that man out to
work some mischief with the flying machines?”
“I don’t think much about it,” Jimmie answered, “because I don’t know
much about it! He might have done something to the machine which will
cause us to take a drop in the air directly, but I don’t think so.
Anyhow, it’s running smoothly now.”
“Still we’re taking chances!” insisted Carl.
The moon now stood well up in the eastern sky, a round, red ball of fire
which looked to the lads large enough to shadow half the sky a little
later on. Below, the surface of the earth was clearly revealed in its
light.
“We’ll have to hurry!” Carl suggested, “if we get back to the hotel
before daylight, so I’ll quit talking and you turn on more power.”
“I may not be able to find this blooming old valley where we left the
tents,” Jimmie grumbled. “If you remember, son, we left that locality in
something of a hurry!”
“I certainly remember something which looked to me like a jungle scene
in a comic opera!” grinned Carl. “And the noise sounded not unlike some
of the choruses I have heard in little old New York!”
Jimmie drove straight north for an hour, and then began circling to left
and right in search of the little valley from which they had fled so
precipitously. At last the gleam of running water caught his eyes and he
began volplaning down.
“Are you sure that’s the place?” asked Carl, almost screaming the words
into Jimmie’s ears. “I don’t see any tents down there, do you?”
“I see something that looks like a tent,” Jimmie answered. “We are so
high up now that we couldn’t distinguish one of them anyhow.”
As the aeroplane drove nearer to the earth, a blaze flared up from
below. In its red light they saw the two shelter-tents standing in
exactly the same position in which they had been left.
“There!” cried Jimmie. “I had an idea we’d find them!”
“But look at the fire!” cautioned Carl. “There’s some one there keeping
up that blaze!”
“That’s a funny proposition, too!” exclaimed Jimmie. “It doesn’t seem as
if the savages would remain on the ground after our departure.”
“And it doesn’t seem as if they would go away without taking everything
they could carry with them, either!” laughed Carl.
“We can’t guess it out up here,” Jimmie argued. “We may as well light
and find out what it means. Have your guns ready, and shoot the first
savage who comes within range.”
When the rubber-tired wheels of the machine struck the ground which they
had occupied only a short time before, the boys found a great surprise
awaiting them. As if awakened from slumber by the clatter of the motors,
a figure dressed in nondescript European costume arose from the fire,
yawning and rubbing his eyes, and advanced to meet them.
It was the figure of a young man of perhaps eighteen, though the ragged
and soiled clothing he wore, the unwashed face, the long hair, made it
difficult for one to give any accurate estimate as to the years of his
life. He certainly looked like a tramp, but he came forward with an air
of assurance which could not have been improved upon by a millionaire
hotel-keeper, or a haughty three-dollar-a-week clerk in a ten-cent
store.
“Je-rusalem!” exclaimed Jimmie. “Now what do you think of this?”
“I saw him first!” declared Carl.
“All right, you may have him!”
The intruder came forward and stood for a moment without speaking,
regarding the boys curiously in the meantime.
“Well,” Jimmie said in a moment, “what about it?”
“I thought you’d be back,” said the other.
“Where are the savages?” asked Carl. “Didn’t you bump into a war party
here?”
The stranger smiled and pointed to the tents.
“I am a truthful man,” he said. “I wouldn’t tell a lie for a dollar. I
might tell six for five dollars, but I wouldn’t tell one lie for any
small sum. My name is Sam Weller, and I’m a tramp.”
“That’s no lie!” exclaimed Jimmie. “Unless appearances are deceiving!”
“Perhaps,” Carl suggested, “we’d better be getting out of here. The
natives may return.”
“As soon as you have given me time to relate a chapter of my life,” Sam
Weller continued, “you’ll understand why the savages won’t be back here
to-night.”
“Go on!” Jimmie grunted. “Tell us the story of your life, beginning with
the poor but dishonest parents and the statement that you were never
understood when you were a baby!”
“This chapter of my life,” Sam went on, without seeming to notice the
interruption, “begins shortly after sunset of the evening just passed.”
“Go ahead!” Carl exclaimed. “Get a move on!”
“While walking leisurely from the Isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn,” Sam
began, “I saw your two flying machines drop down into this valley. At
that time,” he continued, “I was in need of sustenance. I am happy to
state, however,” he added with a significant look in the direction of
half a dozen empty tin cans, “that at the present moment I feel no such
need. For the present I am well supplied.”
“Holy Mackerel!” exclaimed Carl. “But you’ve got your nerve.”
“My nerve is my fortune!” replied Sam whimsically. “But, to continue my
narrative,” he went on. “It seemed to me a dispensation of providence in
my favor when you boys landed in the valley. In my mind’s eye, I saw
plenty to eat and unexceptionable companionship. You were so thoroughly
interested in landing that I thought it advisable to wait for a more
receptive mood in which to present my petition for—for—well, not to put
too fine a point upon it, as Micawber would say—for grub.”
“Say!” laughed Carl. “It’s a sure thing you’ve panhandled in every state
in the union.”
Sam smiled grimly but continued without comment.
“So I hid myself back there in the tall grass and waited for you to get
supper. Don’t you see,” he went on, “that when a boy’s hungry he doesn’t
radiate that sympathy for the unfortunate which naturally comes with a
full stomach. Therefore, I waited for you boys to eat your supper before
I asked for mine.”
“You’re all right, anyhow!” shouted Jimmie.
“But it seems that your meal was long-delayed,” Sam went on, with a
little shrug of disgust. “I lay there in the long grass and waited,
hoping against hope. Then you two went after fish. Then in a short time
I heard cries of terror and supplication. Then your two friends rushed
out to your assistance. Then, being entirely under the influence of
hunger and not responsible for my acts, I crawled into one of the tents
and began helping myself to the provisions.”
“And you were there when the savages flocked down upon us?” asked Carl.
“You saw what took place after that?”
“I was there and I saw,” was the reply. “When you boys came running back
to the machines I stood ready to defend you with my life and two
automatic revolvers which I had found while searching through the
provisions. When you sprang into the machines and slipped away, leaving
the savages still hungry, I felt that my last hour had come. However, I
clung to the guns and a can of a superior brand of beans put up at
Battle Creek, Michigan.”
“How did you come out with the Indians?” asked Carl. “Did you tell them
the story of your life?”
“Hardly!” was the laughing reply. “I appeared at the door of the tent in
a chastened mood, it is true, ready for peace or war, but when I saw the
savages lying upon their hands and elbows, faces bowed to the tall
grass, I reached the conclusion that I had them—well Buffaloed!”
“The machines did it?” asked Jimmie.
“The machines did it!” replied Sam. “The Indians bowed their heads for a
long time, and then gazed in awe at the disappearing aeroplanes. As I
said a moment ago, they were Buffaloed. When they saw me standing at the
door of the tent, they looked about for another machine. So did I for a
matter of fact, for I thought I needed one just about then!”
“Can you run a machine?” asked Carl.
“Sure I can run a machine!” was the reply. “I can run anything from a
railroad train to a race with a township constable. Well, when the
machines disappeared, the savages vanished. Not a thing about the camp
was touched. I appointed myself custodian, and decided to remain here
until you came back after your tents.”
“Then where are you going?” asked Carl.
“With your permission, I will place three days’ provisions under my belt
and be on my way.”
“Not three days’ supplies all at once?” questioned Jimmie.
“All at once!” replied Sam.
The two boys consulted together for a moment, and then Jimmie said:
“If you’ll help us pack the tents and provisions on the machine, we’ll
take you back to Quito with us. That is, if the _Louise_ will carry so
much weight. I think she will, but ain’t sure.”
“It surely will be a treat to ride in the air again!” declared the
tramp. “It has been a long time since Louis Havens kicked me out of his
hangar on Long Island for getting intoxicated and filling one of the
tanks with beer instead of gasoline.”
The boys smiled at each other significantly, for they well remembered
Mr. Havens’ story of the tramp’s rather humorous experience at the Long
Island establishment. However, they said nothing to Sam of this.
“And, in the meantime,” the tramp said, pointing upward, “we may as well
wait here until we ascertain what that other machine is doing in the air
at this time of night!”