A TOWN IN TROUBLE
For a few minutes after rising in the airship, the boys were busy
adjusting machinery and looking at various gauges to see that
everything was running smoothly. The _Comet_ had never behaved better,
and was sailing along like a bird.
“Some class to this, eh?” inquired Bob, who, in addition to his
appetite, had another failing--that of using slang occasionally.
“She’s running as well as we could expect, and a little better,
considering the treatment she had at the hands of Noddy Nixon,”
responded Jerry. “I’ll speed her a bit, now.”
He adjusted the lever controlling the motor and propellers, and the
big blades, in front of the airship, that served to pull it forward,
whizzed around so swiftly that they looked like blurs of light. Then,
fastening the side rudder, so that the craft would head due west,
Jerry left the pilot house, and joined his companions in the main
cabin, where Professor Snodgrass was busy looking over his specimens,
to ascertain if any had suffered harm when they escaped from the box
during his rush through the crowd.
“How did you happen to hear we were going to make another trip, Mr.
Snodgrass?” asked Bob.
“Why, your father mentioned it in a letter I had from him a few days
ago,” answered the scientist. “I wrote, as I do, once in a while, to
inquire how you all were, and when he replied he stated that you were
going on a trip West, but he did not say what for. As it happened,
the museum with which I am now connected, and for which I travel,
collecting specimens, needed a flying lizard. They are very scarce,
and only one museum that I know of has a specimen. So I decided to get
another. These lizards are supposed to exist in certain parts of our
country, and I think the west is as likely to contain them as is any
other section. So as soon as I learned you were going there I hastily
packed up, and came along. But I very nearly missed you.”
“Yes, a few minutes more and we would have been gone,” observed Ned.
“But you didn’t bring your trunk with you, Professor.”
“No, I couldn’t manage it with my box of specimens, spare cases in
which to put new specimens I may get, my net and other things,” and,
truly, it did seem as if the professor could not have carried another
thing, for every pocket bulged with something, and over his shoulders
and around his waist were strapped boxes and cases, besides various
nets, and other instruments he used in his capture of insects and
reptiles. “I will buy extra clothing at the first place we stop,” went
on the scientist. “But you boys haven’t yet told me why you are going
West, and your father didn’t mention it, Bob.”
“We are going out to inspect our mine,” spoke Jerry quickly, at the
same time guardedly motioning to Bob and Ned not to say anything about
the incident of Jackson Bell, the former hermit. “We have heard that
some one may try to get possession of it and we want to stop him.”
Jerry decided it would be just as well, for the present, not to mention
the trouble they had had with Noddy Nixon, and he also resolved to keep
silent regarding the strange mystery they hoped to solve.
“Well, your plans will not be interfered with by me,” continued Uriah
Snodgrass. “I will go anywhere you do, and look for the flying lizard.”
The professor went on, and told of his hurried trip to Cresville, that
he might join his friends. They talked of former trips, of his pursuit
of the wonderful butterfly in the everglades of Florida, and of his
search for the horned toad in California.
All this while the airship kept on, increasing her distance from the
home of the boys. Jerry had sent the _Comet_ up about two thousand
feet, and finding favorable currents of air there kept her in that
position. It was an easy matter to go higher or lower as they desired.
In about an hour, during which time many reminiscences had been
exchanged, Bob exhibited signs of uneasiness.
“What’s the matter, Chunky?” inquired Ned. “Has one of the professor’s
pink fleas got inside your clothes?”
“I sincerely trust not,” said the scientist in apprehension.
“No, it isn’t that,” replied the stout lad, somewhat awkwardly.
“I--er--that is--I was just wondering if I hadn’t better go and see
about getting dinner.”
“Dinner? Why, you lobster, it’s only ten o’clock!” cried Jerry.
“I know it,” answered Bob, “but I’ll have to start the gasolene stove,
and it will take some time. I guess I’d better begin. I’ll cook,” he
added, generously.
“Cook! I guess that’s about all you _will_ do on this trip,” remarked
Ned with a laugh, as his fleshy chum disappeared in the galley. “I
never saw such a chap--never,” he added.
“Well,” remarked Professor Snodgrass, trying to think of some excuse
for Bob, “we have to eat, you know. Even horned toads and flying
lizards eat. And--one moment I beg of you--don’t move, please!” he
exclaimed suddenly to Ned.
“Why not; am I going to fall overboard?” inquired the lad, in some
alarm.
“No, but a new and rare kind of upper-air mosquito has just alighted on
your shoulder,” spoke the professor, eagerly. “One moment and I will
have it!” He stretched out his hand, containing a tiny net, and the
next moment the insect was buzzing in it.
“Ah, I have you, little beauty!” exclaimed the bald-headed man,
enthusiastically, and into a small bottle went the mosquito.
“I’m glad he didn’t bite me,” remarked Ned, who, just then saw Jerry
beckoning to him from the pilot house. When the two chums were
together, Jerry cautioned Ned about speaking of the possible solution
of the mystery connected with Mr. Bell.
“Don’t say anything about it to the professor,” said Jerry. “We’ll wait
until we get to the mine, and see how matters develop there. It may be
that there is nothing to this, and that we are on the wrong track about
Mr. Bell,” but it was not long before Jerry was to learn that there was
even more in the mystery than he suspected. “Tell Bob,” he went on to
Ned. “Then you can help him with grub. I’m beginning to feel a little
hungry myself.”
The meal was served at noon, about a mile high in the air, with the
_Comet_ shooting along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, for the wind
was favorable.
“It doesn’t seem so much of a novelty now,” remarked Bob, munching a
sandwich, and looking down at the green earth spread out below him. “I
remember the first trip we made I was a little nervous.”
“Well, I was the time when the professor nearly fell overboard trying
to capture a queer insect,” said Jerry. “Don’t do anything like that
again, please, Mr. Snodgrass,” he added.
“I’ll not,” agreed the scientist, who was trying to eat, and at the
same time enter in his note book some observations about insects of the
upper air.
Until the middle of the afternoon, the travelers flew along, high in
the air. About three o’clock, when Ned was steering in the pilot house,
there came a sudden gust of wind that heeled the airship over at a
sharp angle.
“Quick! Try the lower currents!” called Jerry, from the engine room.
“It may be quieter down near the earth.”
Ned shifted the deflecting rudder, and the _Comet_ shot earthward on a
long slant. As Jerry had predicted, it was more quiet there, the wind
blowing gently.
Their course was now southwest, and, judging by the speed and the
length of time they had been in motion, they figured that the airship
was over Pennsylvania. As it raced along, about five hundred feet above
the surface, and over a rather sparsely settled country, Bob, who was
looking through a telescope, suddenly uttered a cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jerry.
“Why there’s a big crowd just ahead there,” replied the fat lad. “About
two thousand people on the bank of a river. It looks as if something
had happened.”
“Maybe some one has fallen in,” suggested Ned.
“Speed her up, and we’ll soon find out,” directed Jerry, and Ned yanked
over the propeller lever.
As the airship came nearer, it could be seen that there were two
good-sized towns, one on either side of a swiftly flowing river, that
appeared to be swollen from floods. Gathered on the banks of the stream
were two large crowds, and they appeared to be signalling to each other.
“I wonder what’s happened?” came from Ned.
“We’ll soon find out,” answered Jerry. “Go a bit slower.”
“There’s trouble of some kind; that’s sure,” was the opinion of
Professor Snodgrass. “The people in the larger town seem to be in
distress.”
Hardly had he spoken than from the midst of the larger crowd there came
a flash of fire, and a volume of white smoke rolled out. Then came a
dull boom.
“They’re firing! Firing a cannon!” cried Bob. “The people on one side
of the river are shooting at those on the other side! What can be the
matter?”