BY AERIAL EXPRESS.
No more glorious panorama ever enthralled a human spectator than that
upon which the eyes of Harvey Hamilton feasted while gliding northward
on his way to the Adirondack region. There were towns, cities, forests,
streams, and expanses of woodland in his own State of New Jersey and
the white-capped Atlantic rolling to the eastward, with steamers and
sailing craft dotting its surface all the way to the horizon, where the
Atlantic’s convexity dipped and the eye could penetrate no farther.
The second greatest city in the world spread out below him, with
smaller ones continually rising and sinking from view as he coursed
up the Hudson valley, sometimes to the right, then to the left and
again straight over the picturesque stream whose crafts of all kinds
were hieing away from or to the metropolis. Absorbed as was the young
aviator in the mission on which he had started he could not help gazing
below and drinking in the indescribable beauty of the ever-changing
picture.
“How much those who went before us lost!” he sighed; “and what delight
awaits those that are coming upon the stage of life! Aviation will
bring the greatest revolution mankind has ever known. It is my happy
fate to be one of the pioneers. I wonder what remains before me and
others. At any rate none can feel more thankful than I for the goodness
of Heaven in permitting me to see this day.”
As he progressed up the romantic valley after leaving Troy, his
thoughts came back to the serious work before him. He had set out to
save his colored friend from a dreadful fate, and to that he must bend
all his energies until success or hopeless failure came.
Basing his action upon the theory that Professor Morgan had not yet
started on his aerial voyage across the Atlantic, his pursuer aimed
to return to the vicinity of his headquarters. It was important that
he should go as near to them as he could without exposing himself to
discovery. It would never do for the crazy inventor to learn that
the youth’s withdrawal from the field was a trick. The moment such
discovery was made, that moment the last vestige of hope would be
snatched from the would-be rescuer.
Harvey therefore made a circuit around Troy and Albany, and when he
turned in the direction of the little country town of Dawson, became
more alert than before. The local geography of the section was so
impressed upon his memory that he recognized the leading points as he
swept over them. Besides directing his machine, he made frequent use of
his field glass. He scanned the heavens in search of the Dragon of the
Skies, that he might flee from it in time. If the Professor was abroad
he would not be looking for the pursuer, who counted upon detecting him
first and dodging out of his sight.
When he identified Dawson in the distance he knew his supply of liquid
fuel was pretty low. He could renew it at that town, but it would have
been imprudent to do so, for his whole scheme would be disclosed. In an
effort to avoid attracting the attention of the inhabitants, he veered
to the right, sailing as near the ground as was safe. If Professor
Morgan should learn that an aeroplane had been observed in the sky, his
suspicions would be excited and he would see through the trick that had
been played upon him.
Eight or ten miles to the northeast, in the direction of Schroon River,
which empties into the lake of the same name, Harvey saw the village
of Purvis, containing less than one-half the population of Dawson.
Gasoline is so common an article that he was sure he could buy all
he wished in that place and he shifted his course accordingly. He was
still flying so low that he was not noticed until he descended in a
large field a little way to the eastward. He had hardly come to rest,
however, when he heard wild shouts and saw not only men and boys, but
women and girls running toward him in a high state of excitement.
Harvey was uneasy until he found that their curiosity did not decrease
their friendliness.
“Say, Mister, can’t you give a feller a ride in that gimcrack?”
The questioner was a barefooted gawky youth with big projecting front
teeth. He wore a ragged straw hat, and his nankeen trousers were held
up by a single leathern suspender, skewered with a nail in front.
Harvey thought he might win the good-will of the crowd by gratifying
the applicant and perhaps several others.
“I don’t mind if you’re not afraid to trust yourself with me,” he
replied, surveying the grinning, freckle-faced countryman.
“Gosh! what am I afeard of? If the blamed thing can carry you round the
kentry, why can’t it tote me, eh?”
And he laughed so hard that his shoulders bobbed up and down and the
wrinkles obscured his eyes.
“All right; take your seat and hold on tight; you must sit very quiet,
for if you move the least bit you may upset the machine and kill us
both.”
The lad, nothing abashed, climbed to his place with the help of Harvey
and still grinning broadly announced that he would not so much as bat
an eye while aloft.
“Let her whiz! I’m ready and I don’t keer--.”
At that moment a tall, muscular woman strode from the crowd, caught
hold of one of the ankles of the boy above the bare foot, and jerked so
hard that seemingly elongated by the energetic pull, he came bumping
from his seat and struck the ground so hard that it made him grunt.
“I’ll teach you how to play the fool, Josiah Bilkins! The idee! You
sailing up into the sky! What are you thinkin’ of yourself? Do you hear
me? Take _that_!”
By this time Josiah had struggled to his feet, and with his hands over
his ears to ward off the cuffs that were rained upon them, and amid the
jeers of his acquaintances, he started on a run across the open space.
But his mother was fleeter than he and kept up her castigation as they
passed out of sight around the corner of a house.
None laughed harder than Harvey at the scene, and when the turmoil had
subsided he said to those remaining:
“If any one would like to take a ride, I shall be glad to give it to
him.”
To his surprise, a middle-aged man, likewise without coat or waistcoat,
wearing a dilapidated straw hat with his trousers tucked into the tops
of his cowhide boots came forward. When Harvey looked into his tanned,
grinning face, and noted the yellow tuft of chin whiskers, and the
fast-working jaws, he recalled Uncle Tommy Waters, the weather prophet
of Chesterton. Encouraging shouts were uttered by the man’s friends,
but they quickly ceased to allow him to talk with the visitor to their
town.
“Sure the blamed thing won’t kick up its heels?” asked the
stoop-shouldered man, whom his neighbors called “Gin’ral.”
“It never has done so.”
“How fur have you kim?”
“From beyond the city of New York.”
“Ye ain’t lying, sonny?”
“No; do as you please about trusting or believing me.”
“I’m consarned if I don’t try it,” remarked the General, stirred by the
taunts of his neighbors.
He climbed gingerly to his seat, aided by Harvey, who was much
entertained by his experience thus far in Purvis. The passenger rigidly
grasped a support on each side, and chewing more vigorously than
before, nodded his head:
“I’m ready; let the blamed thing go!”
Cautioning him again not to shift his position while aloft, but to
keep perfectly motionless, Harvey also seated himself, and asked one
of the men to give the propeller a whirl. The roar and racket of the
machine were deafening, but it began creeping over the grass, rapidly
increasing its pace, until the moment came for the aviator to tilt the
front rudder upward. At the instant the bound took place, the crowd,
who were watching it all, saw the General make a dive from his seat,
sprawl through the air like a frog and, lighting on his face, roll over
several times before coming to a stop. The frightened Harvey made as
quick a circle as he could and returned to his starting point to find
the General standing among his friends, who were chaffing him for his
sudden loss of courage.
“What was the matter?” asked Harvey, though he knew well enough that
his passenger had yielded to a sudden panic.
“Why, I happened to think jes’ as we started that I’d promised to meet
Bill Smithers at his home and it wouldn’t do fur me to make him wait,
so I jumped.”
“I was here all the time a-lookin’ at you,” replied the sarcastic
Smithers.
“That’s so,” said the unabashed General, “but I didn’t know it till I
observed you.”
“What did you want to see me fur, Gin’ral?”
“To git you to pay me that two dollars you borrered t’other day.”
Smithers joined in the laugh at his expense and Harvey inquired whether
any one else wished to take a ride with him. But the panic of the only
passenger at liberty to accept the invitation seemed to have its effect
upon the others, and no one went forward.
Harvey now engaged one of the bystanders to bring him a supply of oil
and gasoline and filled his tank. Then he bade his new friends good-bye
and sailed away.
His plan was to go as near as was safe to the shop of Professor Morgan,
then descend, leave his aeroplane and make his further investigations
on foot. He could do this so guardedly that there was little danger of
detection. To attempt it with his machine would bring certain discovery.
As before, he rose only high enough to clear the large trees, many of
which were taller than any of the buildings. The surrounding country
was wooded and mountainous. To the northward he made out two peaks
with a hazy ridge in the horizon and knew that many miles of craggy
wilderness stretched beyond. He was all nerves while drawing near the
workshop, a half mile to the north of Dawson, for necessity drove him
forward fast and the danger of detection increased with every hundred
yards he advanced.
Convinced that he had gone as far as was prudent he sought out a
suitable landing place, fixing upon what had once been a cultivated
field of several acres, but was now lush grass, inclosed on all sides
by woods and matted undergrowth. As nearly as he could tell he was
within less than a mile of the building from which all trespassers
had been warned under peril of death. He had no time now to give to
anything except the work of landing and he did that with a skill that
would have won the praise of Professor Sperbeck, his old instructor in
the difficult science of aeronautics, could he have seen it.
As soon as the wheels stopped running over the ground, Harvey stepped
out and pushed the aeroplane to the side of the meadow and as near the
forest as possible. He even shoved it a little way into the brush and
under the limbs of the trees, taking care to injure none of its parts.
The reason for this precaution he explained to himself:
“Professor Morgan has the eye of a hawk, and if I leave the machine in
the open, he will catch sight of it if he passes within a mile. He will
hardly see it, now that it is so well screened.”
There was risk of another nature in all this, but he could think of
no way to avoid it. If the weather should turn bad, the apparatus was
not well protected. He would have given a good deal for the verdict
of Uncle Tommy Waters, but made himself believe that no change of the
character feared was likely to occur.
If any persons had observed the descent, they might make their way to
the spot and wreck the machine or disable it through their curiosity,
but he had to take the chances in that respect also, and since there
was no choice he did not hesitate. He had located the shop of the
Professor so clearly while in the air that he was in no doubt as to the
course to take. He saw no signs of a path or trail, and travel was as
rough as that encountered on his former visit.
Standing on the edge of the rocky forest, the young aviator raised his
field glasses and began a study of the visible heavens, and within five
minutes of doing so he made a startling discovery.
Far in the northern sky he descried an object that looked like a
stupendous eagle, soaring through the air on its way southward. It was
traveling fast and steadily increased in size. Careful scrutiny left no
doubt that it was an aerocar, and a second look revealed that it was a
monoplane!
“It is the Professor!” exclaimed Harvey, keeping the binoculars in
place. “How fortunate that I hid my machine when I did! He doesn’t
dream that I’m within hundreds of miles of him.”
The course of the car was toward the spot where the mysterious cabin
stood in the woods. All doubt that the air man was going thither was
removed. Harvey’s theory was verified. The crazy inventor was not yet
ready to start on his momentous voyage and was experimenting before
doing so. Now that he had driven his pursuer off the scent as he
believed, he could complete his investigations in his own shop where no
one dared disturb him.
As the monoplane coursed swiftly through the air, a faint fear that it
might not be the Dragon of the Skies caused Harvey to listen intently.
Had the machine been of the ordinary kind he would have heard its
racket some minutes before, but his straining senses caught no sound.
“It’s the Professor and no mistake; I can see his erect body in his
seat and almost recognize those long, grizzled whiskers.”
But now when the monoplane had come still nearer, Harvey Hamilton made
the alarming discovery that the crank inventor was alone in his flying
ship.
_Where was Bohunkus Johnson?_