some time been expecting arrived. It was larger than that which had
accompanied them, and Mr. Appleton threw up his hands with a dismay that
was not wholly feigned when he saw how many additional mules had been
required for the transport of the aeroplane.
"You said two or three," he remarked to Bob as the laden beasts defiled
along the path; "but I'm sure there are seven or eight more than my
stuff needed."
"I expect it's the petrol," said Bob humbly.
"You didn't mention petrol."
"No; but of course we couldn't work the engine without it, and I left
word to send up a good quantity. I didn't suppose you had any on the
spot."
"And wasn't there a single sensible creature to tell you that you can't
go skylarking with an aeroplane in the Hindu Kush? Whoever sold you the
petrol must have laughed in his sleeve."
"He seemed uncommon glad to sell it, anyway," said Bob, a trifle
nettled.
"Of course he was. There are no end of sharks always on the watch for a
griffin. He sold the petrol, and he sold you. And the expense of it!
D'you know how much it costs to bring a mule from India here?"
"You can dock it out of my screw," growled Bob.
"And money absolutely flung away. You have seen for yourself that
there's no level space hereabout for running off. And even supposing
you could use the thing, it would be madness to do so. You'd be bound
to come to grief; all flying men do sooner or later, and at the best you
might find yourself landed thirty or forty miles away, with nothing but
peaks and precipices between you and home. There are no repairing shops
to fall back upon; no garages 'open day and night,' or anything of that
sort. In short----"
"Don't rub it in, Uncle," said Lawrence. "The thing's here now, and
we've got to make the best of it. Come on, Bob; let's go and look after
the unloading; those fellows are sure to smash something."
The mules were led across the drawbridge to the west side of the gorge,
and the separate parts of the machine were stacked near the dwelling
house until a new shed could be constructed.
"What on earth we're to do with the petrol I don't know," said Mr.
Appleton. "We daren't have it within reach of the native workmen.
They're as careless as they are inquisitive, and we don't want a flare
up."
"Isn't there room for the cans in the dynamite shed?" asked Lawrence.
The explosive was kept in a specially devised cache. The space between
the house and the cliff was boarded in. A doorway led from the house
into this space, which was divided by a partition, in which another door
opened into a kind of strong room excavated in the hill side. There was
room for the cans beside the boxes of dynamite.
"I shan't sleep at night now that we've got two explosives at our
doors," said Mr. Appleton.
"Why didn't you store the stuff farther from the house?" asked Bob.
"Well, as a matter of fact wherever it was stored in the neighbourhood
of the mine the result would be pretty much the same if it exploded. The
best chance of safety was to have it under lock and key where nobody
could get at it but myself. In for a penny, in for a pound. Trundle
your cans through: if I'm not a false prophet they'll stay there until
doomsday untouched."
When the boys entered the dark chamber between the house and the cliff,
following Mr. Appleton, who carried an electric lamp, Bob uttered a
sudden exclamation.
"I say, hanged if there isn't a machine gun!"
He pointed to a corner of the room, where the muzzle of the gun
protruded from a nest of boxes.
"A very neat little machine," said Mr. Appleton. "I got it as a
precaution against a second raid, and the difficulty of smuggling it
through turned my surviving hairs grey. It came in parts among some
engine fittings; the invoices are very interesting! A clear case of gun
running, of course; but there was no other way; the government would
never have allowed it to pass complete. Nobody here knows of it but
you; I put it together myself; and if you know anything about such
things, Bob, I'll be glad if you'll overhaul it one of these days, and
see if my amateurish efforts have been successful. Some of those boxes
contain ammunition: smuggled in as dynamite. Now stack your cans, and
when you've finished bring me the key. I'll have duplicates cut for
you."
Later in the day the boys had a consultation.
"It's no good putting the aeroplane together until we've found a
starting-place," said Lawrence.
"I know. I've looked all about, and can't find one. It's pretty
rotten, and the old man is so ratty about it that I almost wish we'd
never brought the thing."
"Oh, he'll come round. I bet you what you like that he'll be as keen as
mustard if we can only get the thing going. We'll go out exploring;
we're sure to hit on some place by and by."
They spent the spare time of two or three days in ranging up and down
stream in search of a suitable starting-place. Every morning at
breakfast Mr. Appleton dropped some quizzing remark that sorely tried
Bob's temper. "How's the white elephant?" he would say; or "When is the
ascent to take place?" Meanwhile the dismembered aeroplane lay under
tarpaulin at the side of the house, and the Babu irritated Bob by kind
enquiries.
"Will tender plant suffer, sir?" he asked one morning, when a sprinkling
of snow lay upon the ground.
"What do you mean?" said Bob.
"Packages were marked 'fragile with care,' sir, and having been myself
once fragile, delicate infant, sir, I have fellow feeling, that makes me
wondrous kind."
"Well, be kind enough to shut up," said Bob.
At length, after much searching, they discovered a spot which, so far as
space was concerned, promised the solution of their difficulty. About a
hundred yards up stream, at a somewhat higher level than the ledge upon
which the mine buildings were situated, there was a similar ledge of
about the same extent and on the same side of the gorge. But it was
very difficult of access. It could not be approached from the mine,
owing to the sheer wall of cliff that separated the two ledges. Nor
could it be gained by bridging the river, for not only was the stream at
this point much broader than lower down, but there was no rock in
mid-channel that would serve as support. After a good deal of
cogitation, Bob hit upon a plan which he determined to attempt.
On the way up, their caravan had crossed a stream by means of a bridge
constructed on the cantilever principle, as is common in that country.
It occurred to Bob that there was a possibility of constructing a walk
along the face of the cliff on the same principle.
"It will be a series of bridges made of overlapping planks," he said to
Lawrence when explaining his idea. "There's plenty of timber in the
shed."
"Which Uncle won't allow to be used."
"I'll talk him over."
"But I don't see how you're going to manage it. There are no supports."
"They are easily managed. All we've got to do to is drive beams into
the rock, say twenty feet apart."
"Exactly; but how are you going to make holes in the rock? There's
nothing to stand on, and we can't rig up scaffolding from the bottom of
the river."
"I think we can do it all the same. What we have to do is to go to the
extreme edge of the ledge of the silver mine, bore a couple of holes in
the rock level with our heads, and drive in poles strong enough to
support a swinging platform. You've seen house painters use them on
house fronts at home. We can extend that with some planks, and so reach
a position where similar holes can be bored a little farther away, and
so on until we reach the farther ledge. A couple of stout miners on the
platform can easily bore the holes, level with it, that we require for
the larger beams, and when they are placed it will be a comparatively
simple matter to lay planks upon them, and carry our cantilever walk the
whole way. We can use the upper poles too: connect them by a rope,
which we can cling to as we push the parts of the machine along on
trolleys."
"It will take a very long time," said Lawrence dubiously.
"Not so long as you think if we can only persuade the old man to let us
have a couple of men to work at it continuously. I'll tackle him
to-night after supper when he's comfortably settled with a cigar."
Mr. Appleton happened to be in a very amiable mood when Bob broached the
subject, and though he uttered doleful warnings and foretold broken
limbs, and declared that he washed his hands of all responsibility, he
told the boys that they might do as they pleased. Next day they invited
volunteers from among the Kalmuck miners, and were somewhat surprised
when Nurla Bai was the first to offer his services, explaining that he
was an expert in carpentry. Taking this as a sign of grace, Bob engaged
the man, and told him to choose his own assistant. Nurla at once
suggested a dwarfish man named Tchigin, a thick-set, muscular fellow
with a huge head covered with jet-black hair. Mr. Appleton called him
Black Jack. They began work, and Bob was well pleased with their
industry and skill. Before night there was a row of half-a-dozen of the
smaller poles in position, and all was ready for the drilling of the
larger hole for the first of the stout beams that were to support the
wooden path.
On the subsequent days, with the number of workers increased to six, the
work was carried on even more rapidly. The greatest difficulty
encountered was a bend in the cliff a few yards before it opened out on
to the ledge on which the aeroplane was to be put together. It cost a
good deal of labour to shape the planks to the curve, and to fix the
beams; and the boys regarded it as a further disadvantage that the ledge
would be out of sight from the mine. Not that they could suppose that
the aeroplane, when set up in its hangar there, would be in any danger
of molestation, for the only approach was from the Pathan compound, and
Mr. Appleton thought that the Pathans might be trusted. But they would
have preferred that their flying machine should always be in sight.
However, there came a time when they were very thankful for the
projecting corner of the cliff which had given them so much extra toil.
Their proceedings naturally caused a good deal of curiosity and
excitement among the miners and the domestic staff. No one was more
deeply interested than Ditta Lal, who numbered among his many
accomplishments a smattering of theoretical engineering picked up in the
course of his studies at Calcutta University. He talked very learnedly
of strains and stresses, and often laid before the boys scraps of paper
on which he had worked out magnificent calculations and drawn elaborate
diagrams for their guidance. This amused them at first, but it became
rather exasperating as the work progressed. He had a formula for
everything; taught them exactly, to the fraction of an inch, how far the
timbers should project from the ends of those supporting them, and what
strain each portion of the structure could bear. As the successive
bridges were completed, he proved, as he supposed, the accuracy of his
calculations by venturing his own portly person upon them, at first with
some timidity, but with more and more confidence as time went on. Mr.
Appleton, on the other hand, watched the work from the security of the
compound until it passed from sight round the shoulder of the cliff.
"You're a heap braver than I am," he said once to Ditta Lal. "I
wouldn't trust myself on the thing for a pension, and you're heavier by
three or four stone."
"Ah, sir, conscience makes cowards of us all," replied the Babu; "by
which I understand immortal bard to mean, ignorance makes you funky.
With my knowledge of science, imbibed from fostering breast of Alma
Mater, Calcutta University--of which, as you are aware, I have honour to
be B.A.--I know to a T exact weight planks will support, all worked out
by stunning formulae, sir. Knowledge is power, sir."
"Well, if you quote proverbs at me, I'll give you one: 'A little
knowledge is a dangerous thing.'"
"A thousand pardons, sir, and with due respect, you have made a bloomer:
misquotation, sir. Divine bard wrote: 'A little _learning_ is a
dangerous thing;' and I understand him to mean, if even a _little_
learning in a man is dangerous to critic who tries to bowl him out, how
much more dangerous is a fat lot!"
Mr. Appleton found it necessary at this point to break away, and Ditta
Lal's further exposition was lost.
One evening, when the work of the bridge makers was nearing completion,
the accepted explanation of Pope's line was brought home to the Babu by
a rather unpleasant experience. He had walked along the finished portion
of the pathway, which consisted of two lines of stout and broad planks
supported by the cantilevers, these resting on the thick beams firmly
embedded in the rock. The workmen on their swinging platform, Nurla Bai
and Black Jack, had just laid the planks forming one bridge section
across the gap, and were about to knock off work for the day. Ditta Lal
was so eager to prove the soundness of his calculations, and demonstrate
the valuable share he believed himself to have had in this engineering
feat, that he took it into his head to walk across the planks to the
other side. He had sufficient caution to hold on to the rope which had
been carried along the smaller poles just above the level of his head.
"Hi, Ditta Lal! Come back!" shouted Bob from behind him. "The planks
aren't nailed down yet."
The Babu halted and looked round with an air of pained astonishment.
"Sir," he said, "it is as safe as eggs. Planks are held firm by my own
avoirdupois. I have worked it out."
Still holding the rope with one hand, with the other he drew from his
pocket a sheet of paper on which he had made his last calculation.
"The weight which these planks will tolerate," he continued, "is eleven
hundred and eighty-six pounds fifteen point eight ounces gross. My
weight is two hundred and forty-four pounds and a fraction nett, by
which I mean my own corpus without togs. Q.E.D. Suppose I jump, even
then energy I develop is innocuous. I demonstrate the quod."
He replaced the paper in his pocket, took the rope in both hands, and
lifting his feet, to the boys' horror came down ponderously on the
planks. The result was alarming. One of the planks was jerked off the
beams on which it rested, and fell with a splash into the swirling river
below. The other turned up on its edge; Ditta Lal sought to keep his
footing, but his feet slid off, the plank fell, and he was left hanging
on the rope alone, which sagged deeply under the tremendous strain.
The boys shivered as they saw the portly man dangling over the river.
They expected every moment that the rope would break and plunge him into
the depths, carrying with him the workmen on their platform below. It
seemed impossible to give him any aid, for a gap of sixteen feet, now
unbridged, separated them from him. But luckily there was lying near
them a plank intended for use farther on. They caught it up, and pushed
it within reach of the workmen, who hastily threw it across the gap in
such a way that the Babu could just reach it with his knees.
The description of his appearance which the boys afterwards gave made
their uncle laugh heartily.
"His face was positively green," said Lawrence, "and his eyes were
rolling like the eyes of a giant in one of those moving magic lantern
slides. He was yelling at the top of his voice--invoking strange gods
by the sound of it. When he felt the plank beneath his knees he began
to shuffle along sideways, but away from us instead of towards us; he
was in such an awful state of funk that he didn't know which way he was
going. When he got to the beam he threw his legs across it and sat there
shaking, with the rope under his arms. We couldn't get him to budge
even when we had laid another plank across, so that the way back was
perfectly safe. He looked just like a 'varsity stroke pumped out at the
end of a race--bar the complexion, of course. We tried to persuade him
to get up and walk back, but he did nothing but shake his head and moan.
He wouldn't speak for a bit; at last he said that he must wait till
morning light. 'Buck up!' I said: 'make an effort!' but he only rolled
his eyes and groaned and sighed. You can't do anything with a chump
like that."
Ditta Lal indeed refused all entreaties, and kept his perch through the
cold night. Lawrence sent him a bowl of soup, but he declined to
unwreathe his arms from the rope. Only when, early next day, the planks
had been firmly nailed to their supports did he allow himself to be
wheeled in a trolley--for his limbs were numbed and useless--back to the
mine. For the rest of the day he was not seen. For a week he avoided
the boys, and made no more calculations except the elementary addition
and subtraction of his store book-keeping.
CHAPTER THE FIFTH
THE LIGHT IN THE GALLERY
The cliff pathway being at last completed, the boys cleared the farther
ledge of accidental obstructions, and so formed a fairly smooth surface
about sixty yards in length by half as many in breadth. While the
workmen were erecting a shed at one end of the space, the boys
themselves carried over the parts of the aeroplane, and set about
putting them together, with the assistance of Fazl the Gurkha. It was a
monoplane of a recent type, with a length of thirty feet and a span of
forty-three, the area of the main planes being about three hundred and
fifty feet. The fabric-covered fuselage was of approximately
stream-line form, deep enough forward to accommodate the pilot so that
only his head protruded above the cockpit. This was arranged to seat
two, the pilot in front, the passenger in his rear. The elevator was of
fixed monoplane design, with rotating ailerons. The engine, a
four-cylinder machine of 100 h.p., being of the water-cooled variety, a
radiator was necessary: this was incorporated with the lower sloping
front of the body. Bob had provided himself with a second carburetter,
so that paraffin could be used if petrol ran short. The landing chassis
was composed of oval section steel tubes, which ran together at two
apexes. At each of these, on a universal bearing, was a laminated spring
split into two arms at the rear, with a rubber-tyred wheel between them.
The forepart of the spring was attached by an elastic rubber shackle to
the top of the chassis, and a similar attachment connected the single
wheel with the rear-part of the machine. The material employed in the
construction of the machine was mainly wood, which was more easily
repairable than steel. Its total weight was about 1000 lbs. and its
maximum speed seventy miles an hour in still air.
It was a great day at the mine when the young airmen essayed their first
flight. Mr. Appleton had looked forward to it with a nervousness he did
his best to conceal. He had ceased to joke about the matter, and wore a
grave and thoughtful look during the week in which the boys made their
final preparations. Their enthusiastic discussion of details at
meal-times and in the evening set his nerves on edge; but he was too
wise to let his nephews see how they were distressing him, and they did
not know until long afterwards how nearly he had come to an absolute
prohibition from using their machine. Only as they left him, to try
their wings, did he venture on a word of caution.
"I say, you fellows, you'll be careful, you know," he said.
"Of course, Uncle," said Bob. "I've got my certificate, remember."
"And Ditta Lal had his calculations!" he muttered.
"Well, they gave him a night out," said Lawrence, quite unconscious how
his light answer jarred upon his uncle.
They walked along the path and disappeared from sight. It was an hour
before they were seen again. Then from round the shoulder of the cliff
there suddenly came into view a thing resembling a monstrous grasshopper
in flight, and through the air sounded a low grinding hum. The servants
rushed into the compound; the miners at work in the open uttered a
shrill cry, which brought their comrades in a flock from the galleries;
and they stood at gaze as the strange machine wheeled into the gorge,
and flew, skimming the river, until it was lost to sight.
"Marvellous achievement, sir," said Ditta Lal at Mr. Appleton's elbow.
Mr. Appleton did not answer: there was a look of anxiety upon his face.
"I perceive, sir," said the Babu, "that your countenance is sicklied
o'er with pale cast of apprehension. Nothing is here for tears; in
short, there is nothing to be afraid of; I have worked it out. Engine
makes 1500 revolutions per minute: propeller geared down to 750:
ascensional velocity, by my calculations----"
"Your calculations be hanged!" cried Mr. Appleton, whose wonted urbanity
gave way under the strain of Ditta Lal's loquacity. "Get out!"
Ditta Lal looked hurt, but tried to smile. It was an hour before the
aeroplane reappeared, and another hour before the boys rejoined their
uncle.
"We made a splendid flight," said Bob, who was in the highest spirits.
"Everything worked perfectly. You must come for a trip yourself,
Uncle."
"No, thank you. I am vastly relieved to see you back safe and sound.
The Babu has begun calculating again, and got on my nerves."
"Calculating, is he?" said Lawrence. "I should have thought he had had
enough of that. I wonder if we can cure him."
He called to Ditta Lal, who was standing at the door of his store-shed.
"What weight do you suppose the aeroplane will carry?" he asked.
"I do not suppose, sir," replied the Babu. "I have worked it out.
Permit me to express jubilation at successful trip, sir. You ask about
weight." He drew a paper from his pocket. "Here are correct figures.
You can carry fifteen hundred and eighty-six pounds six ounces, with
four decimals of no account."
"What do you scale, Bob?" asked Lawrence.
"Twelve stone two."
"I'm eleven stone eight: together we make about three hundred and thirty
pounds. Ditta Lal, _there's just room for you_!"
For a moment the Babu looked puzzled. Then he said:
"It is human to err, sir. I must have made trifling error in my
additions. I revise my calculations."
And he went away, evidently determined to discover either that the
aeroplane would not support so great a load as he had calculated, or
that his own weight considerably exceeded twelve hundred pounds.
A daily flight became part of the boys' programme. They did not tell
their uncle of the difficulties they had to contend with, but these were
real enough. To start from and alight on so narrow a platform as the
ledge furnished was in itself a severe test of airmanship; but the
problems of actual flight were still more serious. The gorge was so
narrow that it gave them little room for evolutions. There were only
one or two spots, either up or down stream, at which they could turn
with safety; and when the wind came in sudden gusts down the mountain
side the act of turning, even in these comparatively open spaces, was
attended with much danger. They could only avoid the peril by ascending
to altitudes which as yet Bob was unwilling to attempt. But a few
weeks' practice developed in them a kind of instinct for dodging the
risks to which the circumscribed space rendered them liable; and though
they had one or two lucky escapes they met with no real mishap.
All this time they got a good deal of quiet amusement out of their
uncle's attitude. At first he affected to regard the aeroplane as a
plaything, and a somewhat dangerous plaything, much as an elderly person
watching a child playing with fireworks expects him sooner or later to
burn his fingers. In the early days of their flying he was indeed
genuinely nervous, and tried by means of hints and warnings to wean them
from their sport. But as time passed, and none of his fears were
realised, they perceived that he was becoming less uneasy and more and
more interested. One day he actually accompanied them to the shed,
which he had never yet visited, and watched them as they drew the
aeroplane out on to the ledge, made a methodical inspection of the
engine, and prepared for their flight.
"A neat piece of mechanism," he said. "Much stronger than it looks from
a distance."
Lawrence surreptitiously winked at Bob.
"Yes, it's strong enough," said Bob, smiling as he continued his task of
cleaning one of the cylinders.
"What load can you carry?" asked Mr. Appleton presently. "I don't trust
the Babu's calculations."
"A thousand pounds or more," replied Lawrence, who was examining the
gearing of the propeller.
"You've only two seats," Mr. Appleton went on, after an interval of
silence. "Some machines will carry three, I suppose."
"Oh yes," answered Bob. "We could easily rig up a third seat. Pity you
dislike the thing so much, Uncle."