A FARMER’S CLEW
The boys, with Sud, were soon at Jerry’s house. Mrs. Hopkins, looking
from the window of her sitting room, saw their excited manners, and,
fearing that something had happened, hurried down stairs.
“What’s the matter, Jerry?” she cried. “Is anyone hurt?”
“Only me, Mrs. Hopkins,” replied Sud, who was not a little proud to
be thus the centre of attraction. “And I’m not hurt so very much,” he
added. “It’s my feelings more than anything. The idea of me letting
Noddy Nixon and Jack Pender tie me up the way they did.”
“You couldn’t help it,” commented Bob, while Jerry soon related to his
mother what had occurred, and told of their plan to set off in search
of the missing airship.
“Now, please be careful, boys,” the widow begged. “That Noddy Nixon is
getting to be a desperate character. He may do you some injury.”
“I’d like to see him!” cried Ned. “If we get within sight of him and
Jack they’ll jump overboard out of the _Comet_ without waiting for us.
But I think, Jerry, that we ought to have him and Jack arrested for
stealing our airship. Let’s swear out a warrant for those two chaps,
and then we can ask the aid of the police in locating them.”
“That’s what I’d do,” put in Sud, who was rubbing his head, where
there was a lump, caused by the tussle with the two bullies. “Have ’em
arrested, and I’ll make a charge of something or other against ’em.”
Bob also thought it would be a good plan to take formal action.
“Well, we’ll see what your fathers say,” remarked Jerry, who had
none of his own to consult. “We’ll go over and see Mr. Slade and Mr.
Baker,” he added, turning to his mother, “and be guided by them. In the
meanwhile, Sud, get out the automobile, will you, and see that it’s in
shape for a long trip.”
“Oh, are you going away again, Jerry?” asked Mrs. Hopkins, in some
distress. “I was in hopes that you would remain at home a few weeks
this vacation.”
“We were just planning our vacation in the airship, when Andy Rush
brought word that it had been stolen,” replied Ned. “I guess now we’ll
have to stay home, or else go on a trip in the auto.”
“That’s right, I discovered that the _Comet_ was gone!” exclaimed
the excitable Andy. “Doors busted open--Sud unconscious--everything
upside down--great excitement--tell the police--get a gun and shoot at
Noddy--whoop!” and the little chap had to stand on his tiptoes to get
out the last few words.
“There, there now, Andy,” spoke Jerry, soothingly. “Come on, fellows,
we’ll take some advice on this. Get at the auto, Sud, that is, if you
feel able.”
“Oh, I’m all right now,” answered the watchman, as he started toward
the garage, which had recently been built at the side of Jerry’s house.
In turn Mr. Slade and Mr. Baker were informed of the theft of the
airship, and asked as to the necessity of swearing out a warrant
against Noddy and Jack. Both gentlemen were opposed to it, and Mr.
Baker said:
“If you do get the warrants, and arrest those lads, you will also be
obliged to arrest Mr. Bell, the hermit, as you call him. He was with
the lads when they took the airship, you think, and, in the eyes of the
law, is just as guilty. You don’t want to have him taken into custody,
do you?”
“No, indeed,” replied Jerry. “Mr. Bell is a good friend of ours, and,
though we can’t just understand what he is doing with Noddy and Jack,
nor about the mysterious rescue of his friends, we know he has been
deceived by those two chaps. No, we’d better not get any warrants.
We’ll hunt for ’em on our own account, and settle with ’em when we find
’em. Come on, boys, back to my house, and then for an auto trip!”
“I wish I could come,” said Andy wistfully. Jerry looked at Bob and
Ned. Both nodded in a friendly manner.
“All right, Andy, come along,” answered the widow’s son. “You did us a
great service in letting us know, so soon, that the airship was stolen,
and you’re entitled to some reward. Only there is one favor I’m going
to ask of you.”
“What’s that?” inquired Andy quickly.
“When we sight Noddy in the airship, just keep cool,” went on the tall
lad. “If you get excited and talk as much hot air as you usually do,
you may explode the gas in the balloon, and then it will be worse than
having the _Comet_ stolen.”
“I’ll keep quiet,” promised Andy very earnestly. “I’ll not say a word.”
The four lads were soon back at Jerry’s house, and found Sud busy
tinkering with the auto, for he knew something about cars. The gasolene
tank was full, and he was putting water in the radiator.
The car was now ready to start, and the boys climbed in. Ned and Bob
had notified their folks that they might be gone all day, and probably
part of the night, and Andy Rush had, by telephoning home, secured
permission to accompany them.
Jerry went into the house to bid his mother good-bye, and, as he came
out, Bob stood up in the tonneau of the car, where he had taken his
place with Andy.
“I say, Jerry,” began the stout lad, eagerly, “what about grub? It will
soon be dinner time, and----”
“Oh, good land! I might have known that was coming!” and Ned fairly
groaned. “There you go again, Chunky!”
“Well, I guess it will soon be dinner time, won’t it?” and the lad, who
had gained a reputation in the way of always being hungry, appealed to
Jerry.
“It will, if time continues to fly as it has this morning, Bob,” was
the answer.
“Of course, and we’ll have to eat. Hadn’t you better take along a
lunch? Or, if your cook is too busy to put up one, drive around to our
place, and I’ll get a few sandwiches.”
“They keep ’em in barrels at Bob’s house,” explained Ned to Mrs.
Hopkins, who was a smiling observer of the scene. “All Bob has to do is
to push a button for whatever kind of sandwich he wants between meals.
They know his failing. I dare say the cook is at this moment buttering
bread, and cutting meat in anticipation of hearing Chunky’s despairing
cry of ‘I’m hungry,’ at almost any minute.”
“Oh, you dry up!” commanded Bob, indignantly. “You’d think I was the
only one in this crowd who ever ate anything.”
“Well, boys, if you think you’ll not be home before lunch,” began Mrs.
Hopkins, “perhaps you had better----”
“No, mother, thank you,” interrupted Jerry, anticipating what she
was going to say. “We’ll stop and buy our dinner on the way. We have
delayed too long as it is.”
“Oh, well, as long as we’re going to eat sometime, that’s all I want,”
commented Bob, with a sigh of relief, as he took his seat again. Jerry
climbed up, and assumed charge of the steering wheel, while Ned cranked
up, and with a series of “chugs-chugs” the auto started off, the boys
waving a farewell to Mrs. Hopkins.
“It seems like old times to be traveling this way, doesn’t it?” asked
Ned, of Jerry, as they went swinging along the country road. “Maybe
we’ll have to take our vacation in this, after all.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad,” was his chum’s opinion, as he suddenly steered
to one side, to avoid running over an angry dog, who seemed to object
to the progress of the car.
“That’s so, we were talking about where we would spend our vacation,
when Andy came along with his news,” put in Bob, from the tonneau.
“Now, don’t start that dispute again,” begged Jerry. “We are going to
have a rather strenuous time, if I’m any judge, before we get through
with this search.”
“Oh, I wasn’t going to start any dispute,” remarked Bob quickly. “I was
going to say that I’d leave it all to you, where we’ll go this summer.
I don’t care, as long as we get the _Comet_ back.”
“Me either,” added Ned. “I’ll leave it to Jerry.”
“Then what do you say that we fulfill the agreement, which Noddy seems
falsely to have made with our hermit?” asked the tall lad.
“You mean to go to the rescue of his friends?” inquired Ned, with a
queer look at his chum’s face.
“That’s what I mean,” went on Jerry, quietly. “Wherever or whoever they
are, let’s go to their rescue in the _Comet_. They must be in some
peculiar situation or an airship would never be needed to save them.
We’ll take Noddy’s place, and help our old friend, Jackson Bell.”
Jerry then went into details about his plan of pursuit. He proposed
that they proceed in their auto, along the main, or state road,
in a westerly direction, for Jerry believed that would be Noddy’s
destination. It was Jerry’s belief that Noddy would not dare to run the
airship at full speed, which would make it possible to overtake him in
the auto.
“We’ll probably be gone on our quest several days,” went on the leader
of the lads, and when Andy Rush heard this he expressed a fear that his
parents would not like him to be away over night. It was then agreed
that, in case Noddy was not overtaken that day, to send Andy back home
by train.
A little later the search was under way, and, as the speedy machine
swayed along over the hard road, the boys scanned the sky for any
speck, large or small, which might proclaim the presence of the
_Comet_. From time to time they stopped, to make inquiries from other
autoists or persons driving, as to whether or not an airship had been
sighted that morning.
Some of their questions were met with puzzled looks, as if the persons
thought they were being made the butt of a joke. Others were interested
enough, and made all sorts of inquiries, as to why the boys were
searching, but they had seen nothing of the craft of the air.
The lads made a stop for dinner at a country hotel, and when Bob heard
that there was to be chicken pot-pie his broad face was wreathed in
smiles.
“I’m glad we didn’t bring any lunch along,” he remarked, “because
we couldn’t have taken anything more than sandwiches. But chicken
pot-pie--Ah, um!” and he sniffed the air suggestively.
They were under way again that afternoon, but as they proceeded mile
after mile, and saw no signs of the airship, and heard nothing from
the many inquiries they made, they all began to get a bit discouraged.
It was about four o’clock, when Andy Rush, who had stared up into the
sky so steadily that his neck was getting stiff, uttered an exclamation:
“There he is!” cried the little chap. “Stop the auto--get a gun--shoot
him--make him stop--we’ve got him!” and he stood up and pointed at a
black speck in the sky. Clearly it was not a bird, for it was moving
too slowly, and it looked as if it might be some sort of an airship.
Jerry jammed on the brakes, after shutting off the power, and took up
a pair of powerful field glasses. These he trained on the speck, while
his companions waited anxiously:
“It’s only a box kite,” said Jerry at last. “It’s pretty high up,
though. Too bad, Andy.”
They went on again, and as the afternoon passed they began to give up
hope, and talked of where they would spend the night, for they were
determined not to go back home without some news of their airship. They
had come prepared for a night’s stay at a hotel, and, not many miles
from where they now were, was a railroad station, where Andy could get
a train home.
As they were chug-chugging along a quiet road, Jerry saw, just ahead
of him, a farmer driving toward them a spirited team of horses.
“Guess I’ll slow up a bit when passing them,” the tall lad remarked to
his chums. “I don’t want a runaway.”
The team seemed so skittish as they approached that, for fear of
frightening them, Jerry shut off all power, and the auto came to a stop.
“I’m much obliged to you,” called the farmer, as he held in the animals
when passing the car. “It ain’t often that automobile fellers is as
considerate as you be. I appreciate it. Besides, my team hasn’t gotten
over a fright they had early this morning.”
“How was that?” asked Ned, while the farmer pulled up, the two fine
horses evincing less fear of the auto, now that it was quiet. “Did a
car scare them this morning?”
“Well, not exactly an automobile,” was the answer, “that is, unless
autos run overhead in the air.”
Jerry caught at that remark at once:
“What do you mean?” he asked quickly.
“Why just this,” was the unexpected answer. “When I was going to
market, about three o’clock this morning, my horses nearly ran away
when something about as big as ten automobiles scooted along through
the air, over their heads. It was some sort of a balloon.”
“Are you sure it was a balloon?” inquired Jerry.
“Well, some sort of a balloon,” replied the farmer. “You see, there
was some moonlight, but I couldn’t make it out very well. It was an
airship, I know, because I’ve seen pictures of ’em. It was shaped like
a cigar, about a hundred feet long, or more, I guess, and sticking out
from the sides, were big white wings. By Golly; but it scared me at
first!”
“That’s our airship!” cried Bob.
“Your airship?” inquired the farmer, visibly astonished.
“Yes, we are in search of one stolen from us in Cresville,” said Jerry.
“The one you saw may have been it. Which way was it going?”
“It come from that direction,” replied the man, pointing back toward
Cresville, “and it was headed almost west, along this road you’re on
now. First I knowed I heard a humming, buzzing sound, and I took a
tight hold on the reins, as I thought an auto was coming. Then when I
looked around, for the noise was in back of me, I seen a big light in
the air. I thought it must be an all-fired big auto, that had a light
so high up, and the next I knew the blamed thing was right over my
head, and not more than fifty feet up. Then I knowed it was an airship,
but I come near knowing nothing else right after, for my horses started
to run, and I had all I could do to hold ’em. Well, the airship, or
whatever it was, swooped on out of sight in the darkness, and I didn’t
get my animals down to a walk for nearly a mile.”
“And it was going this way?” asked Ned, pointing in the same direction
as that in which the auto was headed.
“It was,” answered the farmer. “But I don’t believe you’ll catch it.
Them airship fellers don’t leave any trail behind.”
“Oh, we’ll catch him!” cried Jerry, determinedly. “We’re much obliged
to you for this clew.”
“Oh, you’re welcome, I’m sure. Whenever anyone does me a good turn,
I like to return the compliment. I hope you catch them,” and the
farmer was about to drive on. “But what makes you think that was your
shebang?” he asked.
“From the peculiar shape of it,” answered Jerry. “Ours is a combined
dirigible balloon and aeroplane, and that’s what you saw. Besides, it
came from the right direction. Come on, fellows,” he added. “We’re on
the trail at last. Now to catch Noddy Nixon!”