THE LONELY FARMHOUSE
Regarding this place of landing Mr. Hardy could give the boys and the
detective no clew. He could only point out the direction taken by the
men when they left his hotel, and that was down the main country road.
He said he had soon lost them in the darkness.
“And I didn’t see which way they came, so I can’t even tell you that,”
said the innkeeper. “But they were surely two suspicious men if I ever
saw any.”
“Could you get any line on their conversation?” asked Jerry.
“No, for they talked in whispers when I was around. I did hear ’em
speak about the broken wing tip, or something like that, but I didn’t
take any stock in it. I never dreamed of an airship. I was thinking of
an auto all the while.”
“They were in an airship all right,” declared the tall lad. “And as
they would have to have quite a level place on which to land and get a
start from again, we’ll look for that. Come on, we’ll get back to the
_Comet_.”
They rose high in the air, and circled about the country looking for
the most favorable spot near the hotel of Mr. Hardy, where it was
likely an air ship would have landed.
“Yet as it was night, they couldn’t have had much choice fellows,”
spoke Bob.
“Especially with a broken warping wing,” added Ned.
“That last may have been only talk,” declared Jerry. “Brown and Black
are sharp enough for that. Besides, with a powerful search light, such
as they carried on their machine the first time we saw it, they could
pick out a clearing in the trees.”
“There’s a clearing down there now,” remarked the stout lad, pointing
to an opening in the forest. It was the first large one they had
sighted, and it was at once decided to drop down to it.
But they got no clews there. The glade was carpeted with long green
grass, and even if an airship had landed there the marks of the wheels
would scarcely have made an impression. Or, if there had been such
marks, the wind would soon have effaced them.
“Try again,” suggested Jerry, as they got ready to rise as a balloon,
for there was hardly room enough to manipulate the _Comet_ as an
aeroplane.
The rest of that day they circled about, descending into several
clearings in the hope of coming upon the one where Brown and Black had
temporarily left their machine. But it was of no use.
“I guess I’d better get back to my hotel,” announced the detective, as
night came on. “I can’t do anything more for you boys, and I want to
wire a report to Mr. Carter. There’s no use of me staying in Newton any
longer, for it’s evident now that Brown and Black are far away.”
“Yes, so far that I doubt if we ever catch them,” remarked Ned
dubiously.
“Oh, yes we will,” exclaimed Jerry confidently. “We’ll not give up yet.
We’ll keep on going west, for I believe that’s where we’ll find them.”
“And that’s where we’ll get my flying frog,” put in the professor.
Night saw the boys heading due west in their craft, the detective
having alighted on the outskirts of the town, to make his way back to
his hotel. He wished them all success.
“We’ll travel all night,” decided Jerry to his chums, “for I believe
those men will make long flights, and it’s no use looking for them
within several hundred miles of this place. They’d want to put as
great a distance as possible between themselves and Harmolet.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned, who was now converted to the views of his
two chums. “We’ll keep on until daylight, and then go down and make
inquiries as to whether or not any airships have been seen lately.”
The hours of darkness passed without incident, and when morning came
the boys found themselves over a small country town. They were flying
low enough so that the craft was speedily made out by some early
risers. The word quickly went around, and soon there was a good-sized
crowd gazing earnestly upward.
“Shall we go down?” asked Jerry.
“Might as well,” decided Ned.
But their anxious inquiries resulted in nothing. There had been no
signs of any other airship, and theirs was the first the inhabitants of
the town had ever seen. Nor had any one heard the noise of the motors
of one of the craft passing onward in the night.
When they were ready to start again, Professor Snodgrass, as usual, was
not on hand. They made a search for him, and found him on the bank of
the mill pond, industriously catching frogs in his net. He had engaged
half a dozen enthusiastic boys, promising that whoever found the
flying frog would get five dollars. The boys had dozens of the hapless
creatures in tin cans, but all proved to be of the ordinary kind.
“I guess we’ll have to look farther west,” admitted the scientist with
a sigh, as he accompanied the boys back to the air ship. “Though when I
saw those insects I thought sure I’d have my frog. However, I’m on the
right track, I’m positive of that.”
“I wish we were just as positive,” remarked Jerry, as he and Ned
started the gas machine, and sent the _Comet_ aloft again.
Once more on the wing, the airship made rapid progress through space.
The boys swept about in great circles, now scanning the sky dome with
powerful glasses for a possible sight of the _Silver Star_, and again
descending to some quiet country town to make inquiries. They avoided
the big cities, since they argued that Brown and Black, in their
efforts to escape observation, would do the same thing.
But as the days passed, and they were no nearer the trail of the
thieves, the confidence of even the optimistic Jerry began to wane.
Still he had no thought of giving up. The boys took a lesson from
Professor Snodgrass, who, though disappointed many times in finding his
flying frog, always approached every new pond full of confidence.
“I’ll get it yet!” he declared sturdily.
“And we’ll get Brown and Black!” asserted Jerry.
It was nearly a week since they had set out from Harmolet. In that time
they had communicated with President Carter several times, but only
to say that they were still on the trail. In turn the bank president
had wired that there were no new developments at his end. The boys had
telegraphed to their folks, and had received messages and greetings in
return.
Toward the close of a warm, sultry afternoon, when they were sailing
over a lonely stretch of country, Jerry called to Ned to look at the
barometer.
“Why, what’s up?” asked Ned.
“It feels like a storm, and if one’s coming I think we’d better go down
and wait until it’s over. Is the mercury falling?”
“By Jove! It is going down,” reported the lad. “I guess we’re in for
it.”
A little later there was noticed a bank of dark and angry-looking
clouds in the west, and from them came fitful flashes of lightning,
while the distant rumble of thunder could be heard.
“Better go down,” advised Bob. “It’s going to break soon.”
“I was waiting until I saw a little better place to make a descent,”
answered Jerry, peering anxiously ahead through the gathering
murkiness. “It’s a pretty rough country here--nothing but woods.”
“Well, we can stay in the air ship cabin,” retorted Ned. “Go ahead down
Jerry.”
“All right,” assented the tall lad. He pulled the deflecting lever,
and, as he did so there was a sharp snapping sound.
“What’s that?” cried Bob in alarm.
“Lightning!” answered Ned.
“No, something broken,” declared Jerry. “It’s a main brace, too,” he
added a moment later. “We’ll have to go down now whether we want to or
not. That brace will have to be heated, and welded together before we
can run the machinery at full speed. Here we go!”
The _Comet_ shot downward on a long slant, and a moment later there was
a vivid flash of lightning, followed by a crashing peal of thunder.
The night was brilliantly illuminated for an instant, and Bob cried
out:
“There’s a house. Head for that, Jerry!”
Jerry and Ned had also seen, revealed in the flash of celestial fire,
a lonely farmhouse in the midst of a little clearing. The airship had
suddenly shot over it on her downward course.
“That’s a good place to land!” cried Jerry above the noise of another
clap of thunder. “Head for the barn yard!”
An instant later there came a deluge of rain, and in the midst of it
the airship came to the earth rather suddenly, for a gust of wind upset
Jerry’s calculations with the rudder.
As the _Comet_ came to rest, after shooting across the yard in front of
the barn, a man came running from the farmhouse.
“By Peter! Another one of the critters!” he cried. “Hey, you fellers!
Come on in the house! Come in the house!”
“No, we’ll go in the barn, after we fasten down the ship!” shouted
Jerry.
“Come in the house I tell you! Keep out of that barn! Come in the
house!” And the farmer who seemed greatly excited over something,
fairly grasped Jerry by the arm, as the widow’s son alighted from the
ship, and led him toward the house.