Battling the Clouds; or, For a Comrade's Honor

by Frank Cobb

  CHAPTER XI

  "No use talkin' Mr. Jardin," one of the men blurted out as Bill came up."There is some monkey work going on here. Somebody is foolin' with yourplane. We lock the hangar every night, and someone is always around allday, but allee samee, as the Chinee says, allee samee, _somebody_ getsthat machine all out of tune as soon as I get it right. And it's nofool, either. Whoever is tinkering with it understands that type offlyer down to the ground. He knows just what to discombobolate in orderto make us the most trouble."

  Ernest laid a hand on the man's shoulder.

  "The thing is, Tom, we will have to look for a motive. Now what earthlymotive can anyone have?"

  "Search me!" said Tom. "Whoever is doing it doesn't want to hurt Mr.Jardin here, because the damage is always to something that will keepthe plane from rising. For instance, yesterday the spark plugs had mudin 'em. Before that, the exhaust wouldn't work; one time the priming pinwas clean gone; once the dust cap was half off; then the drum control,warping the wings got on the blink. I tell you, it is enough to driveanybody crazy! Lately we have took to sleeping in the hangar, but thingshappen just the same."

  "I am afraid it is a case of poor construction," said Ernest. "There isno one who would pick on Jardin like that. Why don't they do somethingto _my_ plane? Jardin has no enemies. He has invited about every boy inthe whole school to ride with him."

  "Certainly I have!" said Jardin. "I guess I more than pay my way aroundthis place! I have stood treat oftener than any one in the whole school.It doesn't pay to be an enemy of mine."

  Ernest frowned. "It is not a case of treating," he said sternly. "It ismerely that no special fellow here owes you a grudge. So, as they haveno reason to owe me a grudge either, I don't see why I do not come infor some of the damage, or you, Tom. There are only three planes here.Why do they pick on Jardin? It beats me! There is something back of thisthat I do not understand."

  Bill, cautiously studying Frank, said to himself, "There will be troublewith the other planes to-morrow. The conversation has given Frank anidea."

  "Well," said Jardin mysteriously, "after today I don't care whathappens. Come along, Tom, and see if she is all to the bad today."

  Together they walked over to the hangar and wheeled Jardin's plane outinto the field. It could not be made to start. Tom gave a short, hardlaugh.

  "I am beaten!" he declared. "The screws are all loose on theinterrupter and it will take me all day to adjust the engine again."

  "Gee, that's a shame!" said Frank, shaking his head.

  Bill looked at him with amazement. After what he had seen in the hangar,the boy's sly cunning filled him with amazement. He had an overwhelmingdesire to confide in someone, and Ernest flashed into his mind.

  The sky was growing very dark, and a queer yellow light spread thenorthwest like a blanket.

  Tom turned the plane and headed it back toward the hangar. "No flyin'today," he said. "Look at that sky!"

  The boys helped him put the plane away, then they sauntered up to theschool. A flash of lightning split the sky.

  "Funny time of year for lightning," said Bill.

  "It is, at that!" answered Ernest. "But it looks to me as though we weregoing to have a real electrical storm. Let's get under cover."

  They raced up the hill and into the building just as the storm descendedin good earnest. As Bill hurried to his room to shut the window, the boyin the telephone booth called him.

  "Telegram for you," he said, shoving the message through the wicket.Bill signed the slip with a hand that shook a little. His mother! Shewas his first thought. But her name was at the foot of the message whichproved to be a night letter.

  "Lee will be taken to Leavenworth on Tuesday," it ran. "Circumstantialevidence too strong. He is in a dreadful state but promises me to takeit like a soldier. Wish that you were here, but am told the quarantineis absolutely strict. Will see you Thanksgiving if possible. Love.Mother."

  Bill turned abruptly and went after Ernest. No one had seen him.Presently he gave up the search and went to his room where he foundeverything in the greatest disorder and a gale sweeping clothing, papersand bedding from their places. He closed the window and straightened upthe place, moving the two army lockers to a new and better position andrearranging his desk. He was too worried and restless to work, so hewent to the window, and leaning against the sash, watched a spectacularstorm sweep across the valley. In the distance he could see the trolleycars struggling against the blast, but presently they were seen no more.Great branches broke from the trees and whirled through the air. Thesteel flag-pole before the main building bent perilously and, as Billwatched, a row of telephone poles went toppling over. Blacker andblacker grew the air, and at last with a crash the rain fell. Bill drewa chair and moodily stared out into the whirling wet landscape.

  All day the storm raged and Bill, worried and irresolute, sought Ernest.It was not until supper time that he found him.

  He had shut himself in the clubroom over the grill and had been boningfor an examination. Mess over, they wandered out on the terrace. Thestorm was over, completely and wholly. The air was clear, the skycloudless. A gentle breeze fanned them. Trolley wires, telephone polesand trees lay in every direction, with here and there a rolled-up tinroof. It had been bad enough while it lasted.

  "Come over here by the tennis court," suggested Bill. "I want to talk toyou. A lot of things have happened in the last few weeks, and I don'tknow what to make of them."

  "Fire ahead if I can help," said Ernest.

  Bill commenced his story with the influence Jardin seemed to have overFrank and concluded with what he had seen in the hangar.

  "What's the game?" he demanded at last.

  "I can't guess unless he wants Jardin to get so disgusted that he willgive him the plane. Has Frank any money?" asked Ernest.

  "He had a present from a friend of ours when we came," said Bill, "butmost of that has been frittered away. Besides that, he hasn't a centalthough he goes strutting around as though he had a little private wadto draw on. But I know he hasn't any. Where would _he_ get money? Hisfolks have only their army pay."

  "It surely is funny about that plane," said Ernest. "I never saw a chapso crazy about flying, but he can't expect to get a plane like that fornothing, and yet what you saw looks suspiciously as though he was up tosome scheme. What sort of a chap was he at home?"

  "Not bad," replied Bill generously. "There was a lot of things I didn'tlike about him, but I never suspected he would do anything underhanded.Why, he might kill Jardin, monkeying that way with the plane!"

  "He is determined not to harm him," said Ernest. "Everything that hashappened to the plane has been of a nature that has made it impossibleto get it off the ground. So Jardin is safe for the present at least. Ithink I will manage to secrete myself in that hangar to-morrow morning.I don't believe we had better tell anyone about this, Bill; it wouldstir up such a fuss. The plane is in perfect order now. I saw Tom alittle while ago and he has it tuned up to perfection. In the meantime Ithink I will seek our friend Jardin and sound him a little. Later I willdrop in." He strolled off in the direction of the billiard room whereJardin was usually to be found, and Bill went to his own room and triedto read. The thought that in a short time Lee, good, honest, loyal Lee,would be on his way to prison, a convicted thief, was more than he couldbear. The print danced before his eyes. He heaved a sigh of relief whena tap on the door was followed by the entrance of Ernest.

  "The plot thickens," he said, closing the door carefully and glancingabout to assure himself they were alone. "I have had a long talk withyoung Jardin and it was very mystifying. You are mistaken about Frank, Ithink. He must have a bank account or something of the sort, because hehas actually offered to buy that plane. I suspect he has offered verylittle for it, because Jardin would not tell me the price. But the dealis good as closed. Jardin is going to get a new machine, and Frank is topay him for this one to-morrow."

  Bill was silent for a long time. "I don't know what it all means
," hesaid finally. "Something queer has happened to me that worries me. Iwonder--do you think--no, it couldn't be."

  "Probably it couldn't," agreed Ernest, "but I can't think before youexplain what to think about."

  "It was a letter from my dad," explained Bill, and went on to tell himabout the watch that was in the pawnshop in his name. And then, becausehe had a good start, he told Ernest about Lee.

  "That pawnshop affair may have something to do with Frank," said Ernest,"but you can't connect him with that robbery. That is too big and tooserious. Six hundred dollars, you say?"

  "I think that was what they told me," said Bill. "No, of course Frankhas nothing to do with that, and I know Lee is perfectly innocent of ittoo. I just about go crazy when I think about it."

  "It is terrible," said Ernest, deeply troubled.

  For a long while they sat talking things over, but were finallyinterrupted by the entrance of Frank, who came bursting noisily into theroom, throwing his cap across the bed and tearing off his coat.

  "Taps going to sound!" he said.

  "I don't have to go to bed until I want to," said Ernest. "Will itdisturb you boys if I stay awhile?"

  "Don't mind me!" said Frank. He took off his stock, and sat down on hisbed with his back to them.

  "I never did show you the pictures of my folks, did I?" asked Bill ofErnest. He went over to the lockers.

  "Darn these lockers," he laughed. "They are exactly alike. I never knowwhich is mine."

  "Yours is next the window," said Frank, "and mine is always locked."

  "They are both locked now, as it happens," said Bill. He went over tothe dresser and picked up a key. "That doesn't look like mine," he said,squinting at it.

  "Mine is in my pocket," said Frank.

  Bill took the key and opened the locker. He tipped up a corner of thetray and felt under it, drawing out a square photograph case.

  "Our folks fitted us out just alike as to kit bags and toilet sets andphotograph cases," said Bill, coming over toward the light with thecase. It slipped out of his hand as he spoke and he made a grab for it,catching it by one corner. A photograph and a long envelope fluttered tothe floor.

  "This isn't--" said Bill, then stopped and glanced at Frank who waslying on his back on the bed with both legs in the air, unfastening hisputtees. With trembling fingers Bill seized the paper and scanned it. Hetook one look at its contents and for a moment stood as though turned tostone.

  He passed a shaking hand across his forehead, then in a terrible voicehe cried:

  "Anderson, you--you--you thief, I've got you! Oh, you dog, I've gotyou!"

  He choked and took a step toward Frank who had bounded to his feet.

  "Stop!" cried Ernest. "Stop, Bill! What does this mean?"

  "The envelope!" cried Bill, violently striking the paper in his hand."The envelope! And the money! The money Lee is going to prison for!"

  "No such thing!" cried Frank, finding his tongue. "That money is mine!"

  "Here is the paymaster's endorsement on the envelope," cried Billfuriously. "You stole it--stole it and somehow put the blame on Lee. Andthen you took his present!"

  He struck away Ernest's restraining hand.

  "Give me that money!" cried Frank. "I found that envelope; that's allthere is to that! The money is _mine_. Give it to me!"

  "Yours?" said Bill. "Well, you won't get it!" and he thrust the longenvelope full of bills into Ernest's grasp.

  With a muttered word, Frank made a leap for it and Bill met him halfway. Bill parried the blow that Frank launched as he realized that themoney was out of his grasp, and in another instant they were fightingsilently and desperately. Both were furiously angry, but Frank wasdesperate. Ruin stared him in the face. He was too stunned to realizethat the game was up, his hand played out, and he fought with aprimitive impulse to down the person who had trapped him.

  That Bill had changed the trunks around when the storm was raging andthat the keys were identically alike never occurred to either of them.Bill's mind was a blank save for the one overwhelming thought that hehad found the envelope that would free Lee.

  Frank's mind was chaos. A wild and whirling fury at Bill, at himself forcarelessly keeping the money in the envelope although its hiding placeback of the photograph seemed absolutely safe, at fate for playing himsuch a trick, the thought of exposure--everything was mixed into apoisonous potion which filled his brain and of which his soul drank. Heleaped upon Bill and tried to throttle him. He fought with the strengthof ten. Somehow both boys seemed to feel the need for silence. Exceptfor the quick intake of their labored breathing, there was no sound savethe scuffle of Bill's shoes and the impact of their blows.

  When Frank clinched and tried to gouge, Bill in self-defence dropped hissparring and resorted to the Indian tricks taught him by Lee. He tookjoy in the thought that the person who had taught him such clever modesof self-defence was now to be benefitted by them.

  Frank went down like a rock, and Bill, still holding him helpless, saidpanting, "Will you give up?"