by Roy Rockwood
CHAPTER VII
THE HIDDEN HAND
“Hurray!” cheered Hiram Dobbs enthusiastically—“we’re off! Oh, Dave,this is life!”
“We are going to make this a record attempt, Hiram,” the young aviatoradvised his excited assistant. “Got the sealed barographs in place? Allright. If we should really do something quite stunning, at the end ofthe flight we’ll submit results to the contesting committee of thegoverning organization at New York City.”
“A cross country flight as the crow flies!” cried Hiram. “It must beover three hundred and fifty miles. Dave, what do you expect?”
“If this cross wind doesn’t interfere, I calculate about three hoursand thirty minutes.”
“Why, that would beat the Western record,” suggested Hiram, wonderingly.
“That’s what I am setting out to do,” answered the young airmanquietly. “We are tanked up forty-six gallons, and enough oil to last usfor a five hour run.”
The _Ariel_ made three trips around the Midlothian grounds, and thenstruck her going level. The main plates of the machine were so arrangedabove the fuselage or framework, that pilot and observer had an almostunlimited range of vision. Dave experienced a sense of relief atleaving a spot where trouble seemed to menace them. Hiram comfortablybelted in, had eyes open for everything. This was his second trip inthe _Ariel_, and the novelty of the machine had not yet worn off forhim.
There was a minor trial course outside the Midlothian grounds, givenover to amateurs and non-eligibles. There both Dave and his chumnoticed a good many ambitious airmen trying out their machines. Severalof them set the _Ariel_ a pace, but all but two of them soon fellbehind. One of these, a full type Curtiss, held a fair follow-up at adistance.
“Looks as if it was headed for Chicago, too; that particular machine,”observed Hiram. “Do we follow the railroad, Dave?”
“It’s the clearest and best course, I think,” responded the pilot ofthe _Ariel_. “Did you leave word for our tramp friend, Borden?”
“Yes, with that accommodating fellow at the next hangar to ours. I lefta little note telling him to wire us if he made any importantdiscoveries. Say, Dave, do you suppose that fraud lieutenant will showup again?”
“I think we must be careful all along the line,” was the reply,delivered gravely. “That telegram showed that our old-time enemy,Vernon, is after us. The lieutenant, and undoubtedly the man whosepicture Borden drew, are certainly working in the interest of Vernon.”
“But what can he be after?” persisted Hiram, in a nettled way becausehe could not probe the mystery.
“That will develop later,” answered the young air pilot. “To my way ofthinking, and also that of Mr. Brackett, our enemy has offered hisservices to some contestant we do not yet know. Now we’ve picked up therailway. That will be our guide to our terminus.”
The biplane had been given a careful investigation and adjustment. Davehad driven onward and upward until they had attained an altitude offive hundred feet. Hiram had been watching a receding speck, theCurtiss machine, that seemed bent on their own course, when, turning,he touched Dave sharply on the shoulder, and called loudly above thethrob of the motor:
“There’s a heavy cloud-bank ahead.”
“I see that,” spoke the pilot of the _Ariel_.
“It ends in a mean fog, earthward.”
“Yes, I notice that, too. I tell you, Hiram, we are safer up here,under the circumstances, than trying to get down. We’ll nose up to astill higher altitude and get above the clouds.”
“We’re nearly touching the seven thousand mark,” reported Hiram, a fewminutes later. “It’s clear sailing ahead, though.”
Because of the maneuver just attempted, the two young airmen becamemixed as to their course. For some time neither saw the earth again.Dave tried to allow for the same drift as before, but could only hopethat he was steering in the right direction.
“There’s a change in the atmospheric conditions,” announced Dave’sassistant, after a while.
“Yes,” responded Dave, “there’s a storm raging below.”
“And ahead, too,” added Hiram.
“We’ve got to get above those newly formed clouds,” declared Dave, andhe shot the machine still higher up.
“Dave!” cried his companion, “I never saw anything so beautiful! Isn’tthis grand!”
It was, indeed, an unusual sight. Dazzling white clouds paved a seeminghighway beneath them in every direction. Overhead the sun was shiningbrilliantly. The light reflected upon the cloud-mass was so intensethat it affected the eyes as snow blindness would.
“It’s getting terribly cold!” Hiram remarked, shivering.
“Yes,” answered Dave, with a glance at the thermometer, “two degreesabove freezing point,” and even through his leather suit he could feelthe sharp and piercing cold. The wind above the clouds came straightfrom the north. Below it was blowing from the northwest. It was awonderful sight about then, and it reminded the young aviator stronglyof past experiences in the polar regions, while on his famous triparound the world. He did his best to keep a due east course, but had nolandmarks to steer by, and he decided they must have drifted far to thesouth.
At last there were rifts in the clouds, which began breaking up, givinga sight of the ground.
“We’ve been up here nearly three hours,” announced Hiram, “and thegasoline is giving out.”
A slow glide brought them directly over a large farm. They made outgreat stacks of hay, and the _Ariel_ settled down like a tired-out birdin the center of these fields.
“There’s a man—with a gun!” Hiram sharply exclaimed.
Dave, alighting, saw a farmer, of middle age. He, indeed, had a gun—buthe set this, and a game bag, alongside a haystack, and advanced towardsthem with no indication of antagonism.
“That was a pretty slick landing,” he said. “No fire about yourmachine, is there?”
“None at all,” answered Dave. “I have shut off everything.”
“I was thinking of the haystacks,” explained the farmer. “You’ve got afine machine there. I’ve seen some, they’re getting so common theyoften come out this way.”
“We have run out of gasoline,” said Dave. “Do you happen to have asupply?”
“I don’t, for a fact,” was the reply, “but I happen to know my nearestneighbor has. If you want to come up to the house, and wait a bit, I’llsend one of my men after it.”
“We need quite a quantity,” said Dave, “and will be glad to pay a goodprice.”
“A bite of something to eat wouldn’t come in amiss, either,” suggestedHiram.
“I reckon we can accommodate you in that particular,” said the farmer.“Make things snug, lads, and come up to the house.”
He led the way, chatting busily. Dave soon discovered that he wasup-to-date, readily pleased with novelty, very inquisitive andhospitable in the extreme. He learned of the extent of the needs of hisguests, and forthwith sent a hired man with a wagon over to theneighbor’s for gasoline. Then, as his visitors were comfortably seatedon a screened porch, with chairs and a table on it, he left them forthe kitchen of the house.
“The girl will fetch some victuals in a few minutes,” he advised theboys upon his return. “Sort of enjoyable, eating here in the air. Bigmeet out in Chicago, I understand?”
“Yes, we are going there,” said Dave, and from then on he was kept busyanswering the questions “fired” at him rapidly by their curious host.
“I declare! that’s an interesting trade of yours,” he said. “But here’sthe victuals. Sort of out of reg’lar meal-time order, but you’ll findit all right, I hope.”
Hiram was very hungry, and ate the cold roast beef, biscuits and friedpotatoes served in plentitude, with the keen appetite of a hungry boy.Dave, too, enjoyed the palatable lunch.
“I suppose it’s a great bracer to get away up in the air,” observed thefarmer. “Through, youngsters?”
“No. I say!—Why, where is that?” suddenly ejaculated Hiram.
He had leaped up unceremoniously from the table, and advanced to theend of the porch.
“Hear that chugging, Dave?” he inquired, peering up into the sky.“There’s a machine somewhere aloft. Oh, here’s the screen door! I wantto look. There she is!” he shouted, once out in the yard, and staringupwards. “Dave, it’s the Curtiss we thought was taking up our course!”
“Then they’ve made as good time as we have,” called back Dave. “Whatnow?” for Hiram had uttered a new cry of excitement.
“Why, I say!” he shouted. “That’s strange! It’s suddenly vanished!”
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