Frank Walton

“ You always do seem to blunder into the right procession. You located the outlaws for us, and now you’re going out to be the candy boy in the sleuth game. You’re all right, Kit!”
“What are you going to do?” demanded the boy.
“Look here,” Jimmie declared. “We came out here to do some flying machine stunts, didn’t we?”
“That’s the idea!” answered Kit.
“Well, we haven’t done any stunts yet,” Jimmie went on. “We just plugged across the continent, half asleep all the time, like an old horse pulling a cross-town car in New York. ”

“ A few moments later, when Jimmie and Kit were awakened by the clatter of the Louise’s motors, they crawled sleepily out of their shelter-tent and looked up into the starry sky.
“That’s a joke on us!” Jimmie said.
“Yes,” Kit admitted. “We didn’t understand that they could operate the machine themselves, so we went to sleep. Now we’ve lost the murderers and what’s worse, we have lost the Louise!”
“And the Bertha,” added Jimmie, “and Ben, and Carl, and Mr. Havens, and the whole bunch!” ”

“ And so, flying swiftly, stopping only to rest for a few hours at time, and for gasoline and provisions, Havens crossed the continent in his powerful machine, and, one morning, caught sight of the pretty little city of Monterey, nestling on the border of the bay of the same name. ”

“ As Ben explained about the first stopping-place, the two beacons, the schooner, the caves, and the swarm of Celestials, Gilmore drew him into the hotel and into the smoking room. Here he seated the entire party notwithstanding the frowns of the clerk, and closed and locked the door.
“Do you know,” he asked, after a moment’s thought, “that you boys have made a discovery which is likely to bring you a large amount of money?”
[223] “I guess they can use it, all right,” laughed Havens. “They want a new flying machine every time they see a new model!” ”

“ Kit replied.
“They would take me along while they could use me,” answered Jimmie, “and that would be the last of yours truly. Those fellows are cold-blooded murderers! I wish the other boys would come!”
“I’m afraid something has happened to them,” Kit replied soberly.
Twilight fell as the outlaws planned murder and the boys planned capture. As the latest finger of light touched a summit to the southwest an aeroplane was seen slowly moving toward the valley. It was plain even to the outlaws that she was seriously crippled. ”

“ Ben asserted. “I don’t believe any one could get out without using a flying machine!”
“Of course, he’s here!” Carl answered.
The boys walked closer to the face of the crag and turned their lights on the broken walls.
“It would be just like him to follow Jimmie in there,” Carl observed.
“Sure it would!” replied Ben.
“But what gets me,” Carl went on, “is that he went away without asking for anything to eat! The kid is second only to Jimmie in the capacity of his stomach. He’s always hungry, especially after a short sleep.” ”

“ Jimmie called out, as Ben pressed the starter and the wheels under the aeroplane began to revolve. “Hold her tight and steady, and push on the bottom of the seat when you get over the ocean. If you drop, whistle!”
“Cut it out, you little idiot!” stormed Carl. “That’s no fool of a trick Ben’s trying to do! The air massed before and under the machine as it moves along over the ground will push over the precipice, and then the aeroplane will shoot downward, no matter if the wheels do leave the surface before she comes to the edge.” ”

“ Carl said in a moment, “we don’t want to go away and leave the machines, not even for a minute, not even if we are in a lonely spot, but some one ought to go and look for Jimmie. You know there’s a lot of places a boy might fall into in these mountain caverns!”
“All right,” Ben said, rising from the ground, “I’ll go and wake Kit. He was so sleepy when I brought the Bertha down that I lifted him out of the seat and laid him away against a wall! I don’t think he ever knew when I took him off the machine. I’ll give him a searchlight and send him to look after Jimmie.” ”

“ After exacting the promise from the surgeon and the night matron, Havens ordered every workman about the place to remain on guard until morning and, calling his chauffeur, departed for New York in a high-powered touring car. Worn out with the anxiety and exertions of the night, he fell asleep on the soft cushions of the machine, and awoke only when the chauffeur shook him gently by the shoulder and announced that they were at the Grand Central station. ”

“ Havens sprang to the ground and opened a conversation with the first man he saw.
“I understand that the man who took the machine claims to be an officer,” he said. “Will you point him out to me?”
“I am the officer!” said the fellow sticking out his chest.
“Where are your papers?” demanded Havens.
“A man don’t need no papers,” was the insulting reply, “in order to take possession of stolen property, wherever he can find it!”
Stroup now pushed his way through the crowd to Havens’ side and looked the fellow over with threatening eyes. ”

“ Jimmie answered. “I got a view of his face from almost every angle! He’s a low-browed brute, with ears like wings, and a hunch in his shoulders which makes you think of one of the muckers at Croton dam.”
“He certainly can run a machine, though!” Carl Nichols declared, “and he has an aeroplane that can go some, too!”
“But what’s the idea?” asked Ben. “Why should he be chasing you around in that impudent way?”
“I’ve got a notion,” Jimmie replied, “that he wanted to try out the Louise. He resorted to every trick known to airmen to induce me to make some kind of an error in handling the machine. ”

“ JUST A CLEVER GAME. When the old hag glanced cautiously about the disreputable apartment, Havens began to hope that the bribe of twenty thousand dollars which he had offered her might secure his release. It seemed to him that the old woman was strongly tempted to accept the money.
“You can do it easy enough,” the young millionaire said, as the woman helped herself to a drink of liquor and restored the bottle to a pocket. “You can get me out of here without danger to yourself, and then you can disappear with the money. No one will ever know.”
Havens had been born and reared in New York. ”

“ Shivering from his bath in the river, faint from the excitement and exertion of the night, the millionaire waited at the head of the pier on the chance of seeing a taxicab.
None appeared, however, and he was obliged to walk some distance before seeing one of the nighthawks which prowl the streets of New York between midnight and morning. Without stopping a moment for refreshment, he ordered the chauffeur to drive with all speed to his city garage. His own chauffeur was awakened with difficulty, but finally the journey to the hangar in Westchester county was fairly begun. ”

“ Carl explained, “is how we’re going to get off this bald-headed old peak. We might be able to tumble down into one of the valleys below, but we wouldn’t be any better off there than we are here. Besides,” he went on, “our making our way down wouldn’t help us any with the machine.”
“If Jimmie would only show up with the Louise, now, we might borrow enough gasoline to get us back to level ground again. And still,” Ben went on, “we wouldn’t have fuel enough to do much racing until the tanks were filled. It’s a rotten scrape we’re in, and that’s no fairy tale.” ”

“ Jimmie asserted. “There’s always trees falling down from the timber line and rotting in the canyons. I’ll find wood, all right, if we can find a place where it’s safe to build a fire,” he added with a chuckle of delight at the thought of a large meal. “What I need right now is plenty of sustenance!”
“Go to it!” laughed Ben. “Mr. Havens advised us to camp out in some spot about like this, and make excursions over the mountains in search of Phillips and Mendosa, so I don’t see why we’ll have to move our camp at all. Therefore, a neat little kitchen won’t come amiss.” ”

“ After speaking most respectfully to the millionaire and nodding carelessly to the boys, he proceeded to make an examination of the injured man. Havens and the lads stood by waiting anxiously for his decision.
If the man was really likely to die from his wound, that would end all hope of learning from him the names of those associated with him in the crime. If the fellow would soon recover, then a clue to the whole chain forged by the friends of the murderers for the destruction of the boys might be discovered.
[22] “Well?” asked Havens as the surgeon lifted his face in a moment. ”

“ As the farmer concluded his threatening sentence, Jimmie and Carl sprang to the Louise and pressed the button which set the motors in motion. For a moment the farmers were too dazed to do more than follow the swiftly departing machine with their eyes. ”

“ Jimmie declared. “It’s all right to rescue the perishing, and all that, but if some forest ranger should come along here and find us mixed up with a Chinaman, we’d all be pinched!”
“Do they smuggle on this coast?” asked Carl.
“Of course they do!” replied Jimmie scornfully.
“Smuggle what?”
“Chinks and opium!”
“Then I see myself owning the Night and Day bank when I get back to New York!” Carl exclaimed. “There’s a government reward for the capture of men who run in Chinks and smuggle opium!”
“Well, we may as well be getting back to the machines,” urged Ben. ”

“ The Chinaman gazed stupidly from one boy to the other and then turned away. The lads gazed after him in amazement.
“Where are you going?” asked Ben, and the Chinaman turned back.
“Savvee you, alle same!” he replied and pointed off to the north. “Savvee you, alle same,” he repeated. “No can do.”
“Go to it!” shouted Carl. “Trot along and play you’re in a Chinese laundry on Pell street. We love to see you eat, but we don’t like the exuberance of your conversation!”
In ten minutes’ time the Chinaman, climbing the steep dip of the bowl toward the north, disappeared from view in a thicket. ”

“ However, he poured out a small portion of whiskey and waited for an opportunity to toss it away. The captain of the schooner eyed him maliciously, his undershot jaw set like that of a bulldog.
“So you don’t drink, eh?” the captain said, with a snarl.
“You may be mistaken!” answered Havens.
“Sometimes I do.”
“Mistaken, yourself!” shouted the captain. “You thought you’d bribed Mother DeMott, didn’t you? You thought you’d be dropping off the Nancy in the morning and turning us all over to the police, didn’t you?”
Havens eyed the man for a moment, too dazed to speak. ”

“ There was no moon as yet, although there would be one later on, but the light of the stars was quite sufficient for them to look over the entire valley in which the Louise lay.
Once beyond the circle of fire they could see quite distinctly up to the rim of the thicket at the sides of the bowl. They conferred together for a moment, and then Mendoza crouched down on the ground, drawing Phillips with him and drew a revolver.
“What is it?” asked Phillips.
“There, at the edge of the thicket!” replied Mendoza. “There is some one creeping along the ground!” ”

“ The boys circled about for an hour or more, and then, weary of remaining so long in one position, dropped down to a peak which, far above the clouds, glimmered in the light of the rising moon.
“We can see from here just as well as from the seats,” Kit suggested, “and we may as well get all the rest we can.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Jimmie answered, “that we ought to go to the south, but I’m going to break this for once and stay right here. We’re not far from the home of the smugglers, and, on the theory that thieves flock together, our outlaws ought to be in the vicinity.” ”

“ He’s an expert himself, and he evidently wanted to know whether I am capable of operating a peach of a flying-machine like the Louise.”
“I don’t believe it was just idle curiosity that made the fellow stick to you in that way,” Carl interrupted. “I’ve been thinking that the purpose of our trip to the Pacific coast may have become known to friends of Phillips and Mendosa, the men who are believed to have dynamited the safe of the Buyers’ Bank and murdered the night-watchman. The crooks may have men on guard here!” ”

“ Jimmie circled about the canyon for a moment, caught sight of the crag under the flashlight, and passed its sharp edge with only a foot to spare. In a moment more, directed by the light in Ben’s hand, he drove the Louise along the hard floor until she stood at rest by the side of the Bertha.
Jimmie and Carl hastened to make themselves acquainted with the situation in the canyon by means of their electric searchlights. They ran here and there glancing up at the almost vertical walls to the north and south and throwing long fingers of light into the depressions in the crag. ”

“ Kit, very much ashamed of himself, crawled under the shelter-tent where the boys had been sleeping and refused to be comforted.
“It’s just this way, boys,” Ben said as they stood looking into each other’s faces, questioningly. “It looks like we’ll have to get out of this cosy little valley right away.”
[147] “Phillips doesn’t know what we’re here for yet, because he was inquiring for the third flying machine,” Jimmie replied. “If he wants to come to the camp to-night, let him trot right along. If he isn’t warned in time we may be able to tie him up like a pig for market.” ”

“ Ben agreed, “it does seem that the first thing the crooks would do would be to prevent our departure for the Pacific Coast. A group of flying machine boys certainly represents a new element in secret service work! We must watch our machines after this!”
“If the fresh aviator really belongs to the crowd of crooks connected with the murderers,” Carl broke in, “we’ll hear from him again. He’ll follow us to the coast! He wouldn’t cease his efforts after chasing the Louise up New York bay.” ”

“ The captured man is undoubtedly a fellow not to be trusted, so the chief incendiary shot him in order to close his lips.”
“It strikes me,” Mr. Havens said, with a laugh, “that you ought to make a pretty good detective. In my opinion, you have grasped the situation exactly.”
“Oh, Ben is the only original Sherlock Holmes,” laughed Jimmie. “Give him a piece of rock and a blade of grass and he’ll tell you how the world was made! He’s got the deduction stunt down to cases!”
“You bet he has!” laughed Carl. “Don’t you remember how he figured out the Devil’s Pool down in Mexico?” ”

“ Well he knew the law of club and fang which governed the underworld on the East Side. He knew that death follows betrayal as surely as night follows day. He understood that the old woman was taking long chances in even considering his release.
“It ain’t enough!” the hag declared in a moment, her vicious eyes showing both greed and terror. “It ain’t enough for a poor old woman like me. I’d have to leave New York forever!”
[97] “I don’t doubt it!” Havens replied. “Still,” he went on, “judging from appearances, your life here hasn’t been one to be much mourned. ”

“ The young millionaire had made a very swift flight across the continent. It will be remembered that he had left New York city something like twenty-four hours after the departure of the boys. The Bertha and the Louise had spent fully twenty-four hours at St. Louis waiting for some news of the Ann. On the morning when Havens alighted a short distance from Monterey, the Flying Machine Boys had been on the coast something like twelve hours. It will be understood, therefore, that the Ann had followed not far behind the Louise and Bertha. ”

“ You’ll be a corpse. For my part, I have no inclinations toward New York and the electric chair.”
“It may not be necessary for us to injure the boy,” Phillips suggested.
“May not be necessary?” repeated Mendoza. “If we go away and leave the kid here, he’ll chase over the hills until he finds some one to tell what we’ve done and which way we’ve gone. If we leave this boy, Jimmie, flying about in his machine, he’ll never rest until he tells the officers where he left us, and all about us. In order to protect ourselves, we’ve got to keep them quiet. Are you going to weaken now?” ”