Our Young Aeroplane Scouts in Russia; or, Lost on the Frozen Steppes

by Horace Porter

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  SEEING THE SULTAN.

  "If it should please the gentleman in the bushy trousers who served aschief of the reception committee to place some light repast before us,he would at this moment fill a long-felt want."

  Canby was not constructed to remain under a cloud for any lengthyperiod, and he proceeded with his inimitable drawl to divert the dismaltrain of thought.

  "Turn me loose in the corridor out there with the fellow whoappropriated my revolvers," growled the fighting Macauley, "and I willcredit it up to a change of luck."

  "Tut, tut, Danny, you must cease exercising your temper," chided Canby,with a grin; "always meet misfortune with a May morning face."

  "You go hang," replied "Daring Dan," who was compelled to smile in spiteof himself.

  "Your suggestion respectfully turned down," bantered Canby, "and thesame to the Turk, even if he should insist upon it."

  The Turkish officer who had brought the prisoners up from Marmora justthen made his appearance, accompanied by a couple of attendants, whoserved an excellent brand of coffee to the captives, along with platesof sweetmeats. When the two Britons finally located themselves behindhuge cigarettes, also presented by their captor, they were in a mood toseek information as to the near future.

  "We would be in great distress if the brave visitors should soondepart," was the roundabout answer to the question of Canby as to whathe and his companions might expect, and the evasive words were spokenwith oriental gravity.

  Macauley shrugged his shoulders. "Much good it does you to try and pumphim"--this an aside to his comrade.

  The Turk raised his eyes, but by no other sign showed interest in ordesire to know what the Briton had said to his mate.

  "May I have a word with the young gentlemen?"

  The Turk bowed to Billy and Henri, who had been singularly silent forthem, and still engaged with some of the confections that came with thecoffee.

  "Go ahead, your excellency," said the Bangor boy, returning thesalutation with a short nod.

  "I must request that you go with me for a brief hour or two."

  "But what about our friends here?" asked Henri.

  "I beg that they will excuse you for a little while."

  With this, the Turk stepped aside and motioned the boys to precede himthrough the doorway. Having no other choice, the lads marched out, withassurance to Macauley and Canby that they would return as soon aspermitted to do so.

  "Hope it is all for your good that you are going," wished Canby.

  "Same here," added "Daring Dan."

  A ride of twenty minutes in a closed carriage, and the boys stepped outin front of a large and lofty gate, the principal entrance to thegrounds of a palace, which, with its buildings, pavilions, gardens andgroves, occupied a large space.

  "Pinch me and see if I'm awake," urged Billy, under his breath, andHenri was equally stranded in his wonder.

  Their guide seemed to grow in serious mien, and his attitude was one ofnew importance. With bent head he led a long march through magnificenthalls, decorated more in European than oriental style, and finally asplendid stairway with crystal balustrade was ascended to the secondfloor of the palace, where the boys were ushered into a small, plainlyfurnished private parlor, in marked contrast to its surroundings.

  Seated on a divan, near a grate in which a cheerful fire was crackling,and with several uniformed officers standing near, was a keen-eyed man,wearing lightly a weight of years, and otherwise the conventional redcalpac or fez of Turkey, a low white collar, gray cravat, blue sergesuit and black shoes of comfortable cut, but no jewelry of any sort.

  The officer standing nearest the divan, evidently of high rank, turnedto look at the boys, who, just inside of the door and nervouslyfingering their caps, awaited some word that would set them straight.

  The mentioned official, who was doing the looking over, also acted asspokesman.

  "These are the flying boys?" was the question he put to the guide.

  The individual behind the lads nodded assent. He gently pushed hischarges closer to the questioner.

  "You are the youths who guide airships, I believe?"

  This interrogation straight at the boys.

  "That is our business," modestly advanced Billy.

  "You know also of their construction?"

  "Yes, sir," replied the Bangor boy, "we are factory trained."

  Then followed a series of questions relating to the heavier-than-airmachines, the rapid improvement thereof, the various types in use, theduration of flight, carrying capacity, and so forth.

  Warming to a subject so near to their hearts and so familiar by constantcontact and continuous practice, the boys alternated in detailing whatexperience had taught them about modern aeronautics. They forgot to feellike a cat in a strange garret, as at first entrance into the palace.They also forgot mention that they had, not so long since, flown overConstantinople in a Russian airship that left a stream of fire behindit.

  The man on the divan, the only one seated in the room, during thepractical exposition of the past, present and future of air mastery, hadlistened attentively for some twenty minutes or more, when he indicatedby a slight movement of the hand that the statements already made wouldsuffice.

  The boys backed out through the doorway, held to that movement by asignificant pressure on their elbows from behind.

  Once outside the palace, and putting two and two together, the youngaviators might have guessed that they had not been very far away fromthe first caliph of the Moslem world--the sultan himself.

  The boys expected that they would be taken back to where they had lefttheir companions in misfortune, but this was evidently not the plan oftheir guide and custodian. Instead, they proceeded straight to GoldenHorn Harbor, where they boarded the same steamer that had brought themup from Marmora.

  "Let's ask his nibs what's on the carpet now," suggested Billy, as theystood on the deck of the vessel then getting under way.

  "Might as well try to open a can of sardines with a wooden toothpick asto get anything out of that fellow. But there is no harm in makinganother attempt, just to while away the time."

  To the surprise of Henri, he missed his guess on the silent Turk thistime. The boys' reception at the palace had raised their standing. Theofficer told them that they were to repair the damaged aircraft as soonas it could be done, and then pilot both war-planes to the capital.Turkey needed all the aeroplanes it could get, and these had comecheaply.

  "Now let me tell you, Buddy," confided Henri, "we are not going tocontract to work around these diggings any longer than we can help; thejob doesn't appeal to me."

  "Right you are, pard," agreed Billy, "we've been pulled and hauledenough; I'd just like to volunteer to do something on my own account,for a change."

  After several days of scientific tinkering, Henri, ably assisted by hischum, succeeded in reducing the fracture at the propeller end of thecrippled war-plane, and the machine again worked like a watch.

  "What a rattling good chance to steal away in one of these machines ifwe could somehow get rid of the busy watchers ever at our elbows."

  "That's a great idea, Henri, but it would be catching a weasel asleep tododge that boss Turk who is charged with our keeping. If there has beena waking moment for a week that he hasn't had his face within arm'sreach of us, I don't recollect it. And, Buddy, it has just occurred tome that it wouldn't be a very joyful return, after all, pulling inwithout the men who rode behind us into this trap."

  "That's a thought that missed me," regretted Henri; "we'll just wait andput something across that will count us all in."