THE AEROPLANE DESTROYED.
With one bound Harvey Hamilton leaped out of bed and jerked open the
door. Bohunkus Johnson stood before him, atremble with excitement.
“What is it you say?” demanded the young aviator.
“De airyplane am smashed all to bits! It am kindling wood and nuffin
else!” replied the dusky lad, who staggered into the room and dropped
into a chair, so overcome that he was barely able to stand.
Never did Harvey dress so quickly. While flinging on his garments, his
tongue was busy.
“Have you any idea who did it?”
“Gee! I wish I had! I’d sarve him de same way!”
“Is any one near it?”
“Not a soul; dat is dere wa’n’t anyone when I snoke out dere and took a
look. Ain’t it too bad, Harv? We’ll have to walk home.”
“We can ride in the cars; that isn’t worth thinking about.”
Talking in an aimless way, the youths a minute later ran along the hall,
skittered down stairs and dashed out to the sheds at the rear of the
hotel. The landlord, who was alone in the bar-room, stared wonderingly
at them as they shot through the door, but asked no questions.
Bohunkus had scarcely exaggerated in his story. No aeroplane that gave
out in the upper regions and slanted downward to rocky earth was ever
more utterly wrecked. One or more persons had evidently used a heavy axe
to work the destruction. Both wings had been smashed, fully two-thirds
of the ribs being splintered; the lever handles were broken and even the
two blades of the propeller had been shattered. The machine had been
hacked in other places. The engine, carbureter and magneto were about
all that remained intact, and even they showed dents and bruises as if
attempts had been made to destroy them.
Harvey walked sadly around the ruin and viewed it from every angle. His
face was pale, for his indignation was stirred to the profoundest
depths. He said nothing until his companion asked:
“Who’d you think done it?”
“I have no more idea than the man in the moon. There may have been only
one person, or there may have been half a dozen. Ah, if I knew!”
Several men straggled into the open yard and to the shed where they
gathered about the two youths. Harvey looked around and saw there were
six, with others coming into sight. Somehow or other the news of such
outrages seems to travel by a system of wireless telegraphy of their
own. In a short time a score of spectators were gathered, all asking
questions and making remarks.
The thought struck Harvey that among this group were probably the
criminals. He looked into their faces and compressing his lips said:
“I’ll give a hundred dollars to learn what scoundrel did this.”
“I’ll gib fourteen million,” added Bohunkus enthusiastically.
A tall, stoop-shouldered young man shook his head.
“Whoever he was he oughter be lynched and I’d like to help do it.”
The suspicion entered the mind of the young aviator that it was not at
all unlikely that the speaker was the guilty one. With him might have
been joined others and Harvey studied their faces in the hope of gaining
a clue, but in vain. Knowing his father would back his action he said:
“That was done by some person in Chesterton; you know the people better
than I do; if you would like to earn two hundred dollars find who he or
they were.”
Something in the nature of a reaction came over our young friend.
Ashamed of his weakness, he turned his back on the group, walked rapidly
to the hotel and went to his room. And it must be confessed that when he
reached that, he sat down in his chair, covered his face with his hands
and sobbed as if his heart were broken. Bohunkus, who was at his heels,
faced him in another chair, and unable to think of anything appropriate
for the occasion, held his peace, frequently crossing and uncrossing his
beam-like legs, clenching his fists and sighing. He yearned to do
something, but couldn’t decide what it should be.
Harvey’s outburst lasted only a brief while. He washed his face and
deliberately completed his toilet.
“There’s no use of crying over spilt milk, Bunk,” he remarked calmly;
“let’s go down to breakfast.”
“I knowed dere was something I’d forgot,—and dat’s it. Seems to me I’m
allers hungry, Harv.”
“I have thought that a good many times.”
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do, so’s to git rewenge on ’em.”
“What’s that?” asked Harvey, who, as is sometimes the case in mental
stress, felt an almost morbid interest in trifles.
“Let’s eat up eberything in de house, so de rest ob de people will
starve to def; de willain dat done dat will be among ’em and dat’s de
way we’ll get eben wid him.”
“You might be able, Bunk, to carry out your plan, but I couldn’t give
you much help. Come on and I’ll try to think out what is the best thing
to do.”
The second descent of the boys was a contrast to their first. They
showed little or no trace of agitation, as they walked into the
dining-room and sat down at the long table where three other guests had
preceded them. Harvey was so disturbed that he ate only a few mouthfuls,
but hardly less than an earthquake would have affected the appetite of
his companion.
In turning over in his mind the all-absorbing question, Harvey Hamilton
could think of only one explanation. He believed the destruction of his
aeroplane was due to simple wantonness, for many a man and boy do
mischief just because it _is_ mischief and they know such action is
wrong on their part. It was impossible that he should have an enemy in
this country town. It might be the guilty one or ones were actuated by
an unreasoning jealousy or a superstitious belief that the strange
machine was likely to inflict evil upon the community.
Something like this we say was his theory, though he was not entirely
rid of a vague belief that some other cause might exist. This was an
occasion when he needed the aid of the detective, Simmons Pendar, who
was not in the dining-room nor had he seen him about the hotel. In the
hope of discovering his friend Harvey strolled into the sitting-room and
took the seat he had occupied the day before. The man in gray was
invisible, as were the two foreign looking individuals who were under
suspicion by the officer.
The question which the young aviator was asking himself was as to the
right course for him to follow. Deprived in this summary fashion of his
air machine, he was without power of giving Pendar any help in his
attempt to recover little Grace Hastings from the kidnappers. Any essay
on his part in that direction, now that he was confined to earth, was
sure to hinder more than to aid.
He was still in a maze of perplexity when Bohunkus came ponderously to
his feet and started through the door connecting with the hall which led
up stairs. Harvey naturally looked up to learn why he did so. With the
door drawn back and the negro in the act of stepping across the
threshold, he turned his head, grinned and winked at his friend. Then he
passed out, closing the door behind him, and the mystified Harvey heard
his muffled footsteps along the hall and ascending the stairs.
“What can he be driving at?” Harvey asked himself; “that wink looked as
if it was an invitation for me to follow him.”
Thus early in the day the two were the only ones in the sitting-room, so
that no one could have noticed the action of the two. Nor is it easy to
understand why Bohunkus should have relied upon a wink of the eye, when
it was as easy and would have been much clearer had he used his gift of
speech; but we know how fond his race are of mystery.
When Harvey reached the top of the stairs, where the view was
unobstructed along the hall, he saw Bunk standing at his door, as if
waiting for him. The space between the two was such that this time the
dusky youth instead of winking flirted his head. Then he stepped into
Harvey’s room and stood just beyond the partially open door and awaited
his friend.
Harvey did not forget that they were near the apartment of Detective
Pendar as well as that of the suspected parties, and while moving along
the passage way he did his utmost in the way of looking and listening.
He made no attempt to soften the noise of his footsteps, for that of
itself would have betrayed him. He strode forward and through the doors
and stood beside the waiting Bohunkus, who stealthily turned the key in
the lock. Then he beckoned to Harvey to bring his chair and place it
alongside the one in which the African softly seated himself on the far
side of the room.
By this time the white youth was beginning to lose patience.
“What is the matter with you, Bunk?”
“Sh! not so loud,” replied the other, placing a forefinger against his
bulbous lips.
“Use a little common sense if you have such a thing about you. If you
don’t speak out and explain things, you must get out of my room.”
“All right den; Harv, _I know who smashed yo’ airyplane!_”
“You do! Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Wanted to break it to yo’ gentle like.”
“Who was it?” demanded the astounded youth.
“Perfesser Morgan!”
Harvey stared in amazement for a moment and then asked:
“How do you know it was he who did it?”
“I seed him!”
“Are you crazy or only a fool, Bunk? Explain yourself. Do you mean to
tell me that you saw Professor Morgan destroy my aeroplane?”
“Didn’t perzactly see him doot, but I seed ’nough.”
“How much did you see?”
“When I fust went out ob de hotel and round de corner in de yard by de
sheds I seed a tall man, wid his long linen duster, slip fru dat place
where two boards had been ripped off. Jes’ as he was slipping fru, he
turned and looked at me; dere was de long part-gray whiskers and de
black debilish eyes. Oh, it war him and no mistake, Harv,” added
Bohunkus with an air of finality.