READY TO "LET GO ALL"
In the confusion that followed the sudden extinction of the candle,
while Ned was freeing Alan and Jack Jellup was uttering heartrending
groans, the marshal's confederate lost his nerve and made his
escape. When a lantern had been procured, immediate attention was
given to the stricken man.
Ned hastened to secure a bucket of water. Wrapping the corner of a
blanket about the handle of a tin dipper he ladled out a spoonful of
the liquid hydrogen and, although the numbing chill ran through his
fingers and up his arm, he managed to pour the hydrogen into the
contents of the bucket.
The pail of lukewarm water became almost instantly a cake of solid
ice. As Ned dropped the tin dipper to the hard adobe floor it flew
into a hundred pieces. The inconceivable cold had crystallized the
metal until the slightest shock was sufficient to break it into
pieces.
At the sound of the crashing tin Ned instantly thought of the belt
of gold yet in the hydrogen jar. But a human being was in pain, and
he gave his first attention to the suffering marshal. He had made
the ice to use in drawing the frost out of Jellup's frozen arm. In
a few moments he had mashed a portion of the ice into small bits,
and using a blanket to make a pack, he soon had Jellup's rigid arm
encased in the fine ice. This he applied for the same reason that
snow and ice water are applied to frozen ears and noses. But his
treatment was of no avail.
The rain was now falling steadily and it was dark, but Ned found
that it was nearly day--a little after four o'clock. Jellup's
suffering was so extreme that the boys had given him a hypodermic
insertion of morphine, using their "snake-bite" outfit, and in a few
minutes the man's ravings ceased and he quieted into a deep sleep.
While awaiting this, attention was given the gold. Feeling free to
approach the now open jars with a light it was seen that a portion
of, the belt protruded above the liquid. A cord with a sailor slip
knot was lowered over the extended bit of leather, drawn taut with a
jerk and the belt was slowly lifted out. A folded blanket had been
placed on the floor to receive it. As Ned expected, the leather
crumbled and broke like glass as the belt fell on the soft blanket.
"If you want change for a twenty-dollar gold piece just tap one of
those with a stick." said Ned, laughing and pointing to the gold
pieces scattered among the broken fragments of the belt.
"Not I," exclaimed Alan, "not after what happened to the tin
dipper."
Leaving Alan to watch over the unconscious Jellup and the frozen
gold, Ned dressed himself, and in spite of the rain hastened out in
the just perceptible dawn to carry out a plan he and Alan had agreed
upon. An hour later, with the assistance of Mayor Bradley, the
marshal, now somewhat easier, was placed in a bed in his own home.
Unless the silent Mexican told it no soul in all Clarkeville other
than Mayor Bradley and the air ship boys knew why Jellup was absent
from his haunts and his post of duty that day. Nor did many of them
ever know, when Jellup reappeared on the streets after weeks of
suffering, how he had been injured. They only knew that his right
arm was gone and that he was no longer marshal.
The rain ceased with the coming of the day.
"If we don't get away pretty soon," suggested Alan, as Ned was
getting into dry clothing preparatory to tackling another of Mrs.
Buck's meals, "this thing will be getting on my nerves."
"Well," answered Ned philosophically, "there is mighty little worth
having in this world that isn't hard to get."
If all went well that day the boys hoped to be ready to make their
departure that night or the next morning. Therefore they went to
work with a vim. Both felt more comfortable when, after finding
that the gold coins had returned to their normal condition, they had
again concealed them. The propeller, rudder and aeroplane guides
were now put in place and tested.
As the engine, with a speed of 1,400 revolutions but geared down to
800, began to turn the shaft and the twelve-foot propeller began to
revolve, Ned swung his hat in the air. Without a break the speed
increased to 500, 600, and then 700 revolutions a minute.
"Shut her off," exclaimed Alan joyously, as the white arms flew
round and round and the air shot backwards on both sides of the long
car. At 750 revolutions the car was rocking and lurching as if it
would soar birdlike into the air. At 800 the powerful pulling
propeller began to overcome the rigidity of the framework on which
the car rested and as Alan caught and held the car, fearful that it
was about to fly away under the propeller power alone, Ned shut off
the engine.
The next instant the two boys, with clasped hands, were doing an
Indian war dance in their glee.
It was not long until the rudder wires and the aeroplane shafts had
been attached to their proper guide wheels in the lookout or pilot
portion of the engine cabin. Then came the preparation of the
balloon bag itself. Here again Ned showed what he had accomplished
in the six weeks he had spent in the East.
Clearing a space near the generating tanks, they placed the one
hundred sand bags, weighing forty pounds each, in parallel rows.
These sacks, with convenient loops on each for attaching the rigging
of the bag as it was being filled, had already been prepared by the
"greaser" laborers, but the placing of the two tons of dead weight
was not a joke, and the boys regretted that they had not kept a few
men around. But by noon this was done, and then the great
waterproof fiber trunk containing the silk bag was rolled out
between the retaining bags. The boys could not carry it, as the
balloon itself weighed seven hundred and twenty pounds, but they
improvised rollers and with many a laughing "yo he ho" finally
accomplished the task.
The bag had been made by one of the leading aeronautical engineers
of America, whose factory, strangely enough, was in one of the small
inland towns of New York State. In a spirit of humor the
manufactory had been termed the "Balloon Farm," and so famous was it
that Ned had even planned to spend a part of his summer vacation
visiting it. When Major Honeywell gave him the opportunity, Ned was
at once determined to utilize every advanced idea of the skilled
owner, whatever the cost.
The result was a machine-varnished and, as nearly as such a thing
was possible, hydrogen gas-proof bag. In the construction of this
the experienced manufacturer and engineer, who was no other than
Professor Carl E. Meyers, the hero of hundreds of ascents, had used
a new machine which applied simultaneously to both sides of the bag
fabric several thin films of elastic varnish. The bag itself
consisted of two layers of Japan silk between which was a layer of
rubber, all being sewed together and then vulcanized.
But the balloon trunk was not opened at once. The pipe to convey
the gas from the cooler and purifying tank had been brought in
four-foot lengths of light wood, cemented and shellacked. Eight
lengths of these were laid to the center of the cleared place and
then the joints were wound with binding cement tape. When these
things had been satisfactorily adjusted it was mid-afternoon.
Everything now seemed ready for the filling up of the generating
tanks, the inflation, the flight, and "good-bye."
Therefore, a final consultation was held. Wind tests conducted each
day had shown the prevailing breezes favorable, or at least not
against the aeronauts. The inflation would require approximately
ten hours. If begun at once this would make the departure possible
about midnight. This was not undesirable as the absence of the hot
southwestern sun would make the gas easier to control. But another
thing had to be taken into consideration. Only four days had
elapsed since Elmer and Bob and Buck had started. Were they yet at
the rendezvous?
"I don't see what difference that makes," said Alan. "We expect to
sail directly north and east of the foothills. If they have not
reached their camp they must be nearly there and on the way. We've
got to locate them with our glasses anyway. Let's start and pick
them up where we find them."
"True enough," answered Ned. "The way the engine is working, in
this light favoring wind, we ought to make eighteen miles an hour
anyway. If we leave at midnight, by five o'clock in the morning we
can be ninety miles north. The only trouble is in the handling of
the bag. It's going to take at least twenty men to move the
inflated bag from the retaining weights to the car and we can't make
the rigging fast in the dark. We'd better begin work at four
o'clock to-morrow morning, as soon as it begins to be light, and get
away about two in the afternoon. I think we'll see our friends
about seven or just at dark, if we do."