CHAPTER IX
THE PILOT OF THE MERMAID
"So, it's Todd Pemberton, is it?" remarked Frank, "I think it'll pay usto slow down a little, and look into this white rag-waving business."
"Goodness gracious! you can't be thinking that Todd is in touch with thebank robbers, can you, Frank?" Andy exclaimed, astounded, apparently, atthe very thought of such a thing.
"Oh! I'm not up to that point of saying anything--yet. But all the sameit's what I call interesting, you know," the other replied; and fromthis Andy could easily guess that while Frank might have notions aboutthe matter, he did not care to commit himself so early in the game.
"Yes, that's so," Andy replied, still having his eyes glued to thebinoculars.
"What's doing now?" continued Frank.
"Nothing that I c'n see," replied the other.
"No more white handkerchiefs waving around the point, eh, Andy?"
"Not a blessed thing; and Todd's quit too. Guess they've come to somesort of an understanding. Wish I knew what seven, three, five meant;something pretty interesting, I'll be bound." Andy went on to mutter,half to himself.
"Well, we can only guess, and that's the extent of it," Frank wassaying, in a rather serious tone, as though he believed there might bemore in connection with the little affair than a mere exchange ofcivilities.
"How about Todd Pemberton, Frank?" asked the boy with the glasses.
"Well, you know him as well as I do, perhaps better," returned hiscousin.
"I mean, wasn't there once something against him? I know, Frank, that myguardian signed a paper about getting Todd his position with thesteamboat company this last spring; they always get him to signeverything going, he's so good-natured and what you call an Easy Mark."
"Yes, they came to my father too, and he put his name down, I remember.As near as I can say, it was a petition to ask the company to give Toddthe position of pilot; and stated the belief of all those who signedthat he would make good. He used to be a pilot on Lake Sunrise, andbefore that on one of the Great Lakes."
"But, Frank, why the petition, if he was able to fill the place you'dthink all he had to do was to make application, and then jump in?"
"Well, it seemed to be pretty generally known about Bloomsbury that Toddhad not always been as straight as he is today; and lots of peoplebelieved he would never hold his place a week; but he's had it allsummer now, and seems to be giving satisfaction, all right," Frank wenton to say.
"But there was a past, you mean; Todd had gone the pace, and used todrink and gamble, I suppose. Perhaps, now, he even used to herd with atough set. How about that, Frank?"
"It's so all right. Todd got down pretty low, and was even a hobo, Iheard, before he took a brace, and came back to Bloomsbury to make a manof himself again."
"Gee! I'm real sorry to hear that," Andy muttered.
"What? That he reformed?" demanded the cousin, in pretended surprise.
"Shucks! no; but about his having been a tramp; because, don't you see,Frank, it makes things look black for Todd. Remember, don't you, aboutwhat the Chief said when he spoke of the yeggs knowing so much aboutthings, that he thought they must have had inside information; and thatsomebody familiar with Bloomsbury ways helped them figure it all out.Looks bad for Todd, that's what, Frank."
To hear Andy talk you would think that the party in question must havebeen a personal friend, at least, when, in truth, he only knew ToddPemberton to speak to, as he did a thousand other people in and aroundthe home town.
"By that you mean you're afraid he's fallen in with some old companionsin crime and been tempted, or forced to join them in this raid on thebank?" was the way Frank put the matter direct.
"You've covered what I do believe, as sure as my name's Andy Bird."
"Well, let me say that I think the same way you do," Frank went on toremark.
"Good!" cried Andy, in a delighted tone. "Sometimes we agree, and againwe have different minds; but in this case it looks like we might be onthe same raft."
"Take another good squint at the point, Andy, and see if you can pick upthat man again, the fellow who was doing all that tall Wigwagging."
"I'm looking, Frank."
"What d'ye see there now?" the other continued.
"Nothing--that is, there are stones, and moss, and trees, and perhapsbirds flying around this way and that; but never the first sign of ahuman being can I discover anywhere, Frank."
"Still, we know there's one man there at least, perhaps a pair of themhiding somewhere around that desolate place. Why, Norton's Point is, Iguess, about the meanest and loneliest place of all the Disston Swamplumber company. Nobody hardly ever goes there except to shoot snipe andwoodcock in the fall, and yet we happen to know there's one personhiding out there, and that he knows Todd Pemberton, for they've beenexchanging signals through the wigwag code."
"Looks suspicious, Frank, don't you think?"
"Looks like it might pay to investigate a little closer, Andy."
They were by this time passing over the identical strip of country whereAndy had watched the signal waving. By looking almost directly down, hecould see between the tall trees as only an aviator ever has a chance ofdoing.
"You know what I'm hoping to discover, Frank?" he remarked as hecontinued to scan every part that was at all exposed by openings amongthe trees.
"Percy's lost biplane, I take it," came the prompt reply.
"Yes, because they couldn't very well have landed without a certainamount of open space. We know how hard it is to drop into a hole, andworse still to climb up out of one. Didn't we have the toughest of timesdown there in that South American forest finding open spots where wecould land with some chance of ever getting out again, without cuttingtrees down that were as big around as a young house?"
"But I don't hear you shouting out that you've made any sort ofdiscovery, up to now, Andy?"
"Well, no, for a fact I haven't. But Frank, I wish you could take theglass and let me hold the wheel for a minute."
"You can tell me just as well, I think," replied the other.
"It's about the sandy beach in front of the point," remarked Andy.
"What ails it then?" Frank inquired, seeing his cousin hesitate.
"Why," Andy went on to say, "you know how powerful this glass is, andhow it shows up the smallest of things when the sun is just right? It'sdoing that now. I can look down on the sand spit at the point; and for alonely spot where hardly a man ever comes from November to June, itlooks pretty well trampled up to me."
"Trampled by men or animals?" the pilot inquired.
"I think by two-legged animals," answered the one who held the powerfullenses to his young eyes. "And it struck me that perhaps the biplanecame down right there early this morning. It was headed this way when Isaw it, and not so very high up; though that flock of crazy crowsknocked me out of watching it for some times."
"Do you mean it fell there; that they had an accident of some kind,Andy?"
"Might be that; and then, again, perhaps they dropped down on purpose;p'raps they mean to have another warm session around Bloomsbury beforeskipping out of this section for good. With the aeroplane to make aquick get-away, they might think of some rich haul they want to gatherin. Am I away off in my guess, Frank, or do you kind of lean the sameway?"
"I think you are getting pretty close to the truth, Andy, and that's afact," replied the other. "But it would clinch it if you could onlyglimpse the biplane hidden away somewhere down there under the brush orthe trees."
"That's what I've been hoping for," returned Andy, a little fretfully,"but so far without meeting any success that you could notice. But whatought we to do about it, Frank?"
"Go on, and take a wide sweep around," came the steady reply. "Perhapswe might run across another leading clue, and then this one would lookfoolish. We'd be sorry then, that we thought so bad of Todd. Perhaps,after all, he was only making signals to one of the men connected withthe logging camp, up on the Point for something or other."
He allowed the motor to work at the reduced speed that it had beencarrying on ever since quitting the home field, where the workshop andthe hangar stood. Andy still continued to use the glasses, as though hehad not quite given up all hope of making some sort of discovery.
Once, however, they had left the northern end of the lovely lake behindthem for good, and only the forest lay below, Frank quickened matterssomewhat. Truth to tell, he hardly knew what to think, and whether whatthey had witnessed could really have any bearing on the solution of thepuzzle or not.
Certainly if the hunt was only kept up in automobiles, that requiredfairly decent roads to allow of their getting along, there was not muchchance of the authorities ever discovering the concealed hobo thieves;for they could not get within a mile of the shore up there at Norton'sPoint by such methods. The only way it could be reached was by boat; orpossibly through the means of an aeroplane, such as the Bird boys werenow using. Few places but could be spied upon, when one had the meansfor passing over the most inaccessible thickets and rocky hills.
After a time they had gone many miles. Occasionally a small hamlet wasseen below; and then would come once more the woods that extended oversuch a large space of territory in this part of the country. This wasgenerally because of the swampy nature of the ground, which preventedfarming operations being carried on, while the difficulty of getting thelogs out of the bogs had deterred lumbering thus far.
Andy had done his part of the work faithfully. He had scoured theterritory over which they passed, and never did a break occur, howeversmall, but he clapped his eyes upon it, and examined the open spacethoroughly.
"There's Rockford ahead, and we've passed over the whole stretch ofswamp and forest. Suppose, now, we dropped down on the commons, and getBloomsbury on the long distance phone; perhaps they might have some newsthey could give us," and as Andy at once agreed to the proposal, for hewas thirsty anyhow, and wanted a drink of soda water the worst kind,Frank began to descend gracefully.
They had about half the population of the place gaping at them as theyfinally landed on the big green. Frank asked his cousin to stay by themachine while he sought police headquarters, and asked to get in touchwith the home town.
He had no sooner made the connection, and heard some one answer himafter he told who he was, when there was sent along the wire someinformation that rather gave Frank a shock, because of its nature, andthe fact that it seemed to fully dispose of the theory he and his cousinhad already formed.
Aeroplane Boys Flight Page 9
