PROVEN GUILTY--CONCLUSION.
“Hurrah! found at last! Didn’t I tell you I’d run it down sooner or
later, Frank? And just to think that this sneak had it all the while;
grabbed it some time when perhaps it fell out of my pocket. It’s the
greatest thing ever! I’m glad I came up here!”
So Andy kept on crying, to the secret amusement of his cousin.
Evidently the other found more real joy in the sudden and unexpected
recovery of his missing monkey wrench, than in the great victory which
the little monoplane had won.
“Look out! There come both of them, Andy! Drop flat!” he yelled, as he
saw the circling eagles start to swoop down again.
Andy just saved himself by following directions, for one of the eagles
barely missed him. Sandy was sitting up, and rubbing the back of his
head, where it had come in contact with the hard rock. He appeared half
dazed, and evidently there was little use demanding any explanation
as to how the precious tool chanced to be in his possession. Truth to
tell, Andy never did find out, and had to jump at conclusions.
The great birds continued to wheel and dart at the intruders, so that
all of the boys were soon engaged in defending themselves.
“They think we mean to rob their nest of the two eaglets you can see
there,” was Frank’s explanation. “Perhaps if we go over to the other
side of the plateau they may haul off, and let us embark again. I
wouldn’t like to hurt them, boys.”
“And I’d kill the whole outfit, if I had my way,” grumbled Sandy, whose
clothes were torn and marked with blood, where the sharp talons of the
furious bird had clawed along his person.
“Oh! well, we’ll leave you here to clean ’em out, if you say so,”
remarked Puss, who was himself anxious to get down from that dizzy
height as soon as possible, and feeling ugly toward all creation, as
fellows who make a bad mess of things usually are.
“Not much you don’t,” said Sandy quickly. “I’m going when you get good
and ready, bet your life on it. Wouldn’t ketch me staying up here
alone. Wow! even if I had a rope long enough to reach down, I’d be
afraid to chance it. Come along, Puss, we ain’t got no call to stay
here any longer. Let’s vamose.”
The biplane was the first to start off, and Frank was a little nervous
as to whether the thing could be successfully navigated in so short a
space. But nothing went wrong, and presently those who manned the other
aeroplane also took their places and made the trial.
The flag had been left fluttering in the breeze, Andy having fixed the
short pole in a crevice of the rocks, where he could wedge it fast.
With the aid of any fairly decent glasses it could be seen from town;
and would doubtless serve to stimulate many boys in the endeavor to
accomplish some similar feat of daring.
The eagles were still soaring in great circles, now rising, and again
swooping down on their broad pinions. Frank even feared that they might
take a notion to strike the strange bird that had dared invade their
eyrie home; but evidently the eagles had come to the wise conclusion
that they need fear nothing from the visit of the two aeroplanes, for
they followed them but a short distance, to return, and perching on a
crag give utterance to what might be called a victorious scream.
“Say, what d’ye think of that?” demanded Andy, laughing as the sound
floated to them while speeding along. “They reckon they’ve licked us,
good and plenty.”
“Well,” said Frank, quickly, “so they have in one sense, for we gave up
the field to them. But looks to me as though Puss and Sandy somehow
don’t want to return to the aviation field. They’re veering off as if
they meant to go home.”
“Humph! guess that’s the best thing they could do anyhow, after what
happened!” grunted Andy.
“Meaning that sand bag they let drop?” remarked his cousin. “If I were
you, Andy, I wouldn’t say anything about that, unless asked. Perhaps it
was an accident, and they didn’t mean to do us any harm.”
“Accident! You know just as well as I do, Frank Bird, that it was
meant, every time,” exploded the impulsive Andy. “It’s just the kind of
dirty trick Puss and his cowardly shadow are always playing on those
they don’t like.”
“Well, could you swear to it?” asked Frank.
“On general principles, yes I could,” answered the other, shaking his
head in an obstinate fashion.
“Then you saw Sandy unfasten the cord, or cut it loose?” Frank went on.
“No--no, I can hardly go as far as that. He seemed to be handling the
bag, and I just guessed what he had in mind,” Andy admitted.
“Well, since we couldn’t prove our assertion it would be better to keep
mum on the subject. They’ll hatch up a story, and swear they were just
going to cast the bag over-board, thinking they might hit up a faster
pace, and didn’t see us below. You ought to know Puss Carberry by this
time; did you ever see him wanting a good excuse for anything he did?
And he can put on such an innocent face, too. Let it drop, Andy. We
won, and can afford to be generous, you know.”
Andy could never stand out against this convincing tone of Frank’s.
“Oh! all right, if you say so, Frank, though I think you’re by long
odds too easy on the skunks. Why, if that bag had struck us in a
certain way, we might be as dead as herrings long before now. Makes me
shiver every time I look down. And after a fall of more than a thousand
feet, a fellow wouldn’t look good at his own funeral. But since you say
forget it, I’ll try to.”
When they hovered over the big field there was a whirlwind of shouts
that must have been pleasant music to these two young victorious air
voyagers returning from their recent exploit.
The next half hour was filled with plenty of excitement all around.
Frank had to guard his precious little monoplane from the crowds of
curious and applauding people who had witnessed their plucky race.
And the silver cup was indeed a beauty, well worth all the effort they
had put into their work. No one was more extravagant in praise than
Colonel Josiah Whympers, who toddled around with crutch and cane,
telling everybody he met what wonderful things Andy and Frank were
going to do some day. While most people were of the opinion that he
“put the cart before the horse” when using those two names in that
fashion, still they could forgive him, because Andy was naturally
everything to the doting old man.
Of course after that it was demanded that the Bird boys give a few
exhibition flights, just to let the gaping crowd see to what an
astonishing degree the modern aviator could guide his novel craft
through the air.
So Frank ascended to a height of nearly fifteen hundred feet, boring
his way upward after a fashion much in vogue among these pilots
who lead the world in aerial navigation; after which he descended
in spirals, being averse to attempting the risky stunt known as
volplaning, until he had learned the ropes better.
But it was all a grand circus for the thousands who viewed these
wonderful feats for the first time. And great was the uproarious
applause that greeted the young aviators after they had landed again.
Before evening came the Bird boys once more went up, and headed for the
home field, tired but satisfied.
Dr. Bird had insisted that Frank come home for the night, since he had
been away so very long now.
“I guess there’s no danger about the monoplane,” Frank remarked, as
they locked the doors, and Andy for the twentieth time drew out his
recovered little monkey wrench to examine it carefully. “You know Chief
Waller nabbed those two men, Jules and Jean, and has them locked up
tight. Besides, now that the race is over, Puss and Sandy will have no
reason to want to injure our machine.”
“Perhaps not,” said Andy, “but Colonel Josiah ain’t going to take any
risks. He told me he had hired a watchman to sleep here in the shed
every night, just as long as we want. I’m going to hang around and wait
for him. I don’t trust Puss or his crony one little bit.”
“Well,” said Frank, as he prepared to depart on his wheel, “we’ve had a
grand day of it, old fellow; and I doubt if we ever see such a great
time again.”
“Just what I was thinking,” replied Andy, half regretfully, as though
he felt badly because all pleasant things must have an end. “There’ll
be no more races for us to win, and things will get mighty humdrum,
unless something turns up shortly.”
Little did either of the Bird boys, fresh from their victory of the
air, dream of the astonishing adventures that were soon to fall to
their portion, beside which those they had experienced, as narrated
between the covers of this book, would appear almost insignificant.
In good time the reader may be taken into our confidence, and allowed
to share in the knowledge of those stirring times that is in our
possession.
A few days later Frank and Andy happened to be among a group of boys
gathered on the campus in front of the high school building. Although
school had long since been dismissed for the summer vacation, still the
boys often congregated here by the famous Bloomsbury school fence, to
talk over things in general, such as interested lads in a country town.
Baseball matters were being discussed, and the possibilities of a
good football season in the Fall. Frank and Andy were not so deeply
interested in these matters as usual though they did not see fit to
tell their friends just why.
Frank had been watching for an opportunity to carry out a little scheme
he had in mind, and which he had talked over with Andy, Elephant Small,
Larry Geohegan, and one or two other good fellows.
“Here he comes, Frank!” said Andy finally, as Puss Carberry and his
eternal shadow, Sandy Hollingshead, were seen approaching from the
direction of town.
Just as they were passing Larry stepped forward.
“I say, Puss, does this belong to you?” and he held out a card--none
other than the one which had been found in the hangar of the monoplane
the day after that trick of cutting the canvas of the planes had been
accomplished.
Puss was for once taken off his guard.
“Why, yes, I believe it does, Larry,” he said, immediately pulling out
a pack of fine cards. “You know I brought these up with me from the
city. See, it has the Indian on the back, and the words ‘Red Hunter.’
I’ll run them over, and see if the jack of spades is missing.”
He did so in an adept manner that told how accustomed he was to
handling such things.
“You see, it is missing,” he said triumphantly, “so I’ll thank you for
returning my black jack to me. Where did you pick it up, Larry?”
“Oh! you’re not indebted to me for its return,” declared Larry, turning
up his nose in disgust. “Frank here found it; he can tell you just
where.”
And Puss grew fairly scarlet, he hardly knew why himself, as he turned
his gaze upon the accusing face on the one whom he had done so much to
injure.
“You dropped it out of your pocket the night you visited our hangar,
and cut the canvas of our monoplane wings to flinders. I have been
saving it for you. Thank you, Puss, for admitting that you were the
author of that dirty trick,” and Frank turned his back on the confused
rogue.
Unable to frame a reply, Puss and his crony walked hastily away. And
before night the whole of Bloomsbury knew of what they had been guilty;
because Larry and Elephant refused to keep it to themselves.
But it was not to be expected that this would cause such fellows as
Puss Carberry or Sandy Hollingshead to see the error of their ways. On
the contrary, it was only apt to make them the more bitter against the
Bird boys; and in time to come they would wish more than ever that they
could find some way by means of which they might injure those who had
so skillfully guided their little air craft to victory in the race to
the crest of Old Thunder Top.
Whether that opportunity would ever come, as well as many other things
in the line of adventure which were fated to befall the Bird boys,
must be left to another volume, which the reader, who has followed
our venturesome young aviators thus far, will be pleased to know has
already been issued under the title of “The Bird Boys on the Wing; or,
Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics.”
THE END.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.