Roy Rockwood

“ Young Brackett was terribly frightened. In his fear and dismay he turned on the full power, but let the machine run a perfectly straight course. It was, however, on an angle of about fifty degrees.
“What’s he to do?” chattered Vernon, himself growing pale and nerveless.
“I can’t tell—I can only show him. If the course is not changed, the machine will hit the earth going forty miles an hour,” declared Dave.
“Show him, then! show him!” gasped Vernon.
He reached over with trembling hands and began to loosen the ropes with which he had bound the young aviator. ”

“ The speaker grinned in a cold-blooded way that made Hiram Dobbs shiver.
“Say, Mr. King,” he whispered hoarsely, “shoot them.”
“One gun against twenty wouldn’t count for much,” responded the airman, with a shake of his head.
“I will pay no ransom, I will give you not one cent of blackmail,” declared the doughty Frenchman, thoroughly indignant.
“All right, then we will ransack your old gas bag and take what we want,” boasted the outlaw.
“I warn you,” cried the professor. “The airship is one mass of devices you do not understand. You may find trouble.” ”

“ Now through a mist of grateful tears the young aviator thought tenderly of the right royal friends who had assisted in crossing the Atlantic in the giant airship and who had loyally helped him to become the honored guest of men famous the world over for science and intelligent adventure. ”

“ There’s only one clear idea I can cling to—to get out of the country, away—away——”
“Away from that villain, Vernon? Am I right?” spoke Dave, quickly.
“Yes, that’s it,” assented Brackett, in a lost tone of voice.
“I thought so. Now then, see here, you are among the best friends any fellow ever had. You have just been the best kind of a hero ever was. Forget everything else for the present. Make up your mind that whatever your troubles may be, there’s a combination aboard the Albatross strong enough to help you fight your way clear out of the last one of them, and—tell me all about it.” ”

“ Then the under floats tangled in the frame work, and Dave bore company with the others in a dive into a bed of geraniums.
The shock of even that soft landing place was sufficient to half stun our hero for the moment. In a dim blur of vision he seemed to see two figures limping away. He caught sight of the machine lying half-way through a frail trellis. Then he heard these startled words in an unfamiliar voice:
“Hello! I say, what’s this?”
Dave looked up to see a man in gardener’s garb staring in turn at himself, the Gossamer, and the havoc the machine had made. ”

“ The constable gave the apparatus another turn, and with a rattle and bang, like a salvo of musketry, the motor started.
Now there is considerable power to an airship’s propeller—there has to be to make the craft sail. As the blades whirled about they fairly blew the constable back out of the way. His helmet went sailing off, tossed by the terrific wind created and, only that he jumped aside in time he would have been hurt. The airship, too, would have moved off, only Dave had left the drag-brake on. This halted it long enough for the young aviator to leap out and shut off the switch. ”

“ The other was the boy who had shaken his fist at Dave when the Gossamer had started on the hasty trip to Easton.
At closer sight than before the young aviator instantly read his visitors as in a book. The elder of the twain was about twenty-five or thirty years of age, and all his elegant attire and rather handsome face did not disguise his resemblance to some shrewd sharper who made his way in the world by living on others. ”

“ King, may I speak to you for a moment,” said Dave, moving out of the cabin into a passageway. In some surprise the airman followed him there.
“What is it, Dashaway?” he asked.
“The stowaway. I know him, Mr. King,” declared Dave, hurriedly. “There is a certain mystery about him he dares not explain just now, and you are embarrassing him dreadfully. Don’t ask him any more questions. Tell him to come to my stateroom. Later, I will explain everything to you about him.”
“Well, well,” commented the airman; “you seem to have the faculty for preparing surprises for your friends, I must say. ”

“ This was nothing less than a scheme for crossing the Atlantic in a giant airship. It had been the pet idea of the skilled aviator for years—the hope and dream of every ambitious airman in the world.
Of all men in the field, Mr. King had the ability to direct such a project. Mr. Dale was not only willing but ready to supply the capital. As to Dave and Hiram, they talked constantly of the enterprise daytimes and dreamed of it nights. ”

“ Dave Dashaway only smiled.
“Come, what’s up with you young people?” challenged the good-natured Mr. King.
“Why,” spoke the young aviator, “when we go back home, and you have put that promised quietus on that rascal Vernon, we are going to Elmer’s father and have him build for us a magnificent aeroplane that will beat anything ever before constructed.”
“And the purpose?” inquired old Grimshaw, with a hopeful twinkle in his eye.
“Why,” replied Dave, “our idea is to get up a great international race around the globe.”
“That’s it,” jubilated the veteran airman. ”

“ Money and fame had come to them all. Dave Dashaway was the central figure with the public. Professor Leblance seemed to take most pride in the construction of the Albatross. Young, enterprising, popular, Dave, as the last man at the helm of the ill-fated Albatross, was the real hero of the event.
“Well, lads,” said the happy Professor Leblance across the table to Dave, Hiram and Elmer, “you have now reached so high a notch in aeronautic science that you can go no further.” ”

“ Practically only as a balloon could the Albatross now act, and only provided the strong wind maintained in precisely the direction it was now set.
“See, my friend,” spoke Leblance, eagerly, “we have no control whatever over the planes. The steering apparatus, too, is useless. The engine will barely take care of the propellers. If you know how to operate them, take my seat here. Keep the rudder locked firm. That is all we can do. For the rest—it is a risk, a perilous risk.”
“Anything to get there!” cried Dave; and then the professor left him alone. ”

“ The woman drew back with a shriek of alarm.
“Don’t be frightened,” said Dave.
“You do not belong to the raiders?” the woman faltered, all in a tremble.
“What raiders?” asked Hiram.
“The MacGuffins—the terrible MacGuffins!” almost wailed the woman.
“Who are they?”
“Don’t you know?” asked the woman, incredulously.
“We are strangers here, madam,” explained the young airman. “What is the fire and what is the trouble?”
“All our men are away—hiding from the officers down at Brambly Fork,” said the woman. “The MacGuffins have made a raid and are burning us all out! They may kill us if they catch us. ”

“ Dave gradually worked the head of the machine due southwest once more. The former head wind was regained, and sunny progress offered beyond.
“A close shave,” said Dave, to himself, and turned to see how his passenger had taken it.
“I suppose that scared you somewhat, Miss Winston?” he remarked.
Amy’s face was pale, and she showed the strain of her startling experience, but she replied:
“I could not be frightened with you. Anybody as kind and thoughtful as you are to a poor girl in distress like myself, could not be anything but brave.” ”

“ In the next place I want to get back in time to start a daylight hunt after those MacGuffins.”
“I feel sure we can find our way to the Albatross now,” said the young aviator.
“Say, that was a queer adventure, wasn’t it now?” spoke Hiram, as their recent guide waved his hand in a friendly way and disappeared like a flash back the route they had come.
“These rough fellows are true blue when you touch the right spot,” declared the airman. “We seem to be on higher level ground than before. Let us get along as fast as we can, so we can send the horses back.” ”

“ Three rifles were aimed at Dave as he fearlessly ran up to the group. One of the party, evidently the leader, stared at our hero as he came to a halt, with a suspicious and threatening scowl.
“Hello,” he challenged, “another one? Why, strangers are getting thick as bees in swarming time.”
“It’s another detective,” growled a man by his side.
Dave faced the fierce-visaged, reckless-mannered mob, all alive with anxiety and excitement. ”

“ The great fingers of radiance went groping all about the craft. No one seemed aboard. No one seemed struggling in the waves about the ship.
Fast to its stern, however, by a long cable and thus held in position, was a rude raft. The searchlight showed a man standing upon this and viewing the blazing ship. At his feet, covered over with a tarpaulin, there seemed to be another human form.
“We cannot leave those people to their fate,” said the Professor. “Mr. King, we will drop the floats and stop, while you and the boys take the emergency yawl and go after whoever may be aboard of that raft.” ”

“ Perhaps it’s foolish to use our greatest speed on a new motor before it’s been warmed up and run longer than this has, but we might as well know first as last just what the Albatross will do. Now for the test!”
He pressed a button that communicated with the motor room, and there came such a vibration to the craft that one and all, who were not aware of the reserve power, looked at one another in some alarm.
“How about it, Dave?” inquired Mr. King. “Are we holding our own?”
“Yes! Yes!” eagerly answered the young aviator. “The gull is straining every wing feather, but he’s falling back. ”

“ Young Brackett was all right at the wheel. His brief biplane experience counted for enough to enable him to make a very pretty swoop aloft. He was so delighted at this that he chuckled:
“Say, I guess I’ll take a job at running the governor’s machine myself. Hey, what?”
“Good for you—doing finely,” commended Vernon. “Get over the lake, Brackett. If you can manage to sail the machine we’ll take the girls for a ride.”
Dave held his breath. Brackett had split half a circle abruptly, and the Gossamer got ready for a dive. By some accident the frightened pilot banked just in time to save a spill. ”

“ The past two weeks had been the busiest and most engrossing in all the career of the young airman. Dave’s report on the Davidson balloon and the drawing of it he had showed to Leblance had convinced the expert that the Dictator could not make even a start in the race across the Atlantic.
Dave had told him the gas bag of the Dictator was conspicuously made of tri-colored fabric. Its promoter, Davidson, had made a great claim. The propelling power of the Dictator, he declared, would be built on the monoplane principle. ”

“ Dale, “if it only serves to produce the most perfect airship ever built.”
“Why, if they put all the things in the Albatross they count on,” said Dave, “it will be like a trip on a high-class ocean steamship!”
“Wait till she’s done, my friend,” observed Leblance. “We shall see—and we shall cross the Atlantic; oh, never fear.”
Grimshaw and Hiram put in an appearance by noon. The latter went wild over the Albatross. He believed implicitly in Dave, and the young aviator believed in the giant airship under construction. ”

“ GOAL! “It’s too bad,” said Hiram, and the young aviator’s assistant was very nearly at the point of tears.
“We can only make the best of it,” returned Dave, trying to be philosophical. “At any rate, we made a grand run.”
“Yes, it’s something to beat the world’s record, even half the way,” agreed Hiram. “But think of it—only for that awful break of Davidson we’d have won the day!”
The two young airmen sat outside of a wretched little hotel, a part of a remote fishing town on the island that had been “the forlorn hope” of the Albatross. The giant airship had succeeded in reaching it. ”

“ King arose and hurried over to where Professor Leblance stood, and Dave and Hiram followed him.
“Professor!” cried the airman. “Here are some strange happenings. Who is that person—not one of the crew?”
“I never saw him before,” replied the dazed Frenchman. “He has saved us.”
“And the Albatross. We have the quicksilver. This is a dangerous ruffian-infested district. Let us leave as soon as possible.”
“Yes, yes,” said the Frenchman, in a hurried tone. “After what has happened we cannot be too quickly nor fast on our way.” ”

“ He’s always getting me into trouble.”
“What do you run with him for, then?” questioned Dave, gently. “See here,” he added, placing his hand in a friendly way on the boy’s shoulder; “you may be headstrong and foolish at times, but that man doesn’t belong in your class.”
“You’re just right,” began Brackett, in a spirited way, and then, as if he feared to go farther into the subject, he added in a moody, dissatisfied tone: “Never mind about that. I’ve come to pay you back the twenty dollars you gave to the man down at the greenhouses. ”