CHAPTER XI.
Teddy felt the fallen man's breast, but he was not breathing. In anyevent there was nothing that could have been done for him. An arteryhad been cut by a splinter of the one-pounder shell that had smashedthe roof, and he had bled quietly to death, only trying desperately toland and get assistance before he died. The sight of Teddy and Davissprinting toward him with drawn pistols had been too much for hishatred, however, and he had fired his automatic at them even as he wasdying. Teddy found Davis lying on the ground with a bullet in his hip.
"I'm all right, Gerrod," said Davis cheerfully when Teddy went to him."Just see if there are any more chaps in these houses before you botherwith me."
Teddy explored the place thoroughly. There were many signs of humanoccupancy, but no one save Varrhus himself had been there when theylanded. He returned to Davis to find him weakly trying to improvisea pad to stop the bleeding. Teddy lifted him and carried him to thehouse that seemed to be most used. In a little while Davis was quitecomfortable and contented. He lit a cigarette and calmly began to readone of the newspapers that littered the place, while Teddy continuedhis explorations.
The landing field was a small one, no more than a hundred and fiftyyards long by seventy-five wide. At one end was an unpretentious butcomfortable dwelling, in one of whose rooms Davis was at that momentresting. At the other end a shed evidently formed the hangar for theblack flyer. Along the sides of the inclosure were long sheds, some ofthem empty, some containing supplies of various sorts. Half a dozencold bombs, complete except for the mysterious treatment of theirsurface that gave them their strange property, lay on the floor of oneof the sheds along the sides. Another shed, long disused, had providedquarters for workmen. Teddy found the single exit that led from theinclosure. It opened on the wide hillside and afforded a view of mileswithout a sign of human habitation. The remnant of a wheel track thathad obviously not been traveled for months led away from the door.Along that primitive road the materials for building the inclosure andthe black flyer had evidently been brought. Teddy went back to Davis.
"Gerrod," said Davis amiably, "I'm a fake. I'd lost quite some blood,you know, and I was pretty weak, but while you were gone I saw a smallblack bottle on a shelf over there, and I managed to crawl over to it.Wherever we are, prohibition hasn't struck in, and I took just enoughto feel all right again. I believe I can drive back. It wasn't morethan a two-hour drive anyway, was it?'
"Between two and three," said Teddy, smiling. "We were making terrificspeed, though. We're probably in Newfoundland somewhere."
"Or Iceland. To tell the truth, I'm quite indifferent. Suppose you helpme out to the machine again."
"I want to see what I can find in the laboratory first," said Teddy.
The laboratory was of the smallest. Whatever experiments had beennecessary to perfect the cold bombs and the black flyer had been madeelsewhere. Teddy found a number of notebooks, which he took. He foundmany chemicals, some in considerable quantities, in receptacles aboutthe laboratory, but no clew to the mysterious process that had enabledVarrhus to threaten the world's security. He left Varrhus where helay. Both he and Davis confidently expected to return and investigatethoroughly both the cold bombs and the black flyer. Davis, especially,was anxious to examine that strange machine in detail, but his woundwas painful and he wished to have it properly dressed. Besides this,the whole world was waiting anxiously to learn its fate, whetherVarrhus' ambitious plans were to be frustrated or whether it would haveto put its neck beneath the heel of the mad dictator.
Teddy lifted Davis in the machine, and after some difficulty theystarted off. Davis circled above the small clearing until it was tinybeneath them.
"Course is southwest," he remarked to Teddy. "We'll notice where weland and then a northeast course will bring us back here again ornearly."
"Right," said Teddy abstractedly. His mind leaped ahead to the momentwhen he would see Evelyn again. He had seen her just before startingfor Noman's Reef and she had seemed pale and anxious. He was not sure,but he hoped he was right in believing that she was more anxious thanshe would have been had she looked on him merely as a friend or comrade.
The biplane sped over the sea across which it had flown in suchdesperate haste that morning. Davis was weak, but for straightawayflying modern machines need but little attention. The new inherentlystable a?roplanes are so safe that an amateur could pilot one inmidflight. And Davis had taken a small quantity of stimulant tosupplement his strength. At that, however, his endurance was severelytaxed before he flattened out and taxied across the landing field onStaten Island. Mechanics rushed out to greet him and help him from themachine.
"Varrhus is dead and the black flyer is smashed," said Davischeerfully, and incontinently fainted.
Teddy made a hasty report to the commandant of the forts and rushedto New York. The second cold bomb had exploded that morning and thecity was panic-stricken, but as his taxicab sped uptown the extrasbegan to appear announcing the removal of the menace to the world. Thefrightened crowds changed to happy, cheering ones. If Teddy's identityhad been suspected as he passed swiftly through the streets, he wouldnever have gotten through. He would have been dragged from the motorcar to be cheered and recheered. As it was, he made his way quickly toEvelyn's home.
He sprang up the steps and burst open the door, not waiting for theservant to open it. As he rushed into the hall, Evelyn came into itthrough an open door. She saw him, and her face was suffused with joy.
"You're safe!" she cried joyfully, and burst into happy tears.
Teddy took her quite naturally into his arms and held her there amoment. She sobbed quietly on his shoulder for a second, clingingto him, then pushed him away and stared at him while a hot flushoverspread her face.
"Oh!" she exclaimed in a rush of shame. "I--I----" She turned and ranaway. Teddy caught her.
"What's the matter?" he demanded. Her cheeks were still crimson.
"I--I kissed you," she said desperately, "and you--you hadn't said----"
Teddy laughed happily. "I hadn't said I loved you? Well, if that's allthat's bothering you, just listen." And Teddy said it several times.
Davis was up and about in less than a week. His wound had been oflittle importance, and with a crutch which he took pride in using withdexterity he was able to move around almost as well as ever. He cameover to tea with Evelyn one afternoon. Teddy was there, too, of course.Davis was boyishly showing off how well he could move about Teddywatched him critically.
"That's all right, Davis," he said in a paternal tone, "but you want toget rid of that instrument as soon as you can."
"What for?" demanded Davis, deftly swinging himself into a chair.
"We're waiting for you to get well," explained Teddy, with a smile atEvelyn. "It isn't considered good form to have a groomsman who's acripple."
"Groomsman? Who? What? You two?" Davis stared from one to the other.
Teddy nodded, and Evelyn turned slightly pink. Davis turned to Teddy.
"They tell me you and I are to be impressively decorated for smashingVarrhus," he complained, "and there'll be moving pictures taken of itand shown everywhere. I want to be a touching picture, all wounded up,you know, when that happens. A girl threw me over about six months agoand she likes the movies. When she sees me beautifully mangled andbeing kissed by bearded people who pin medals on me she'll be sorry.Mayn't I wear a crutch until then?"
Teddy laughed, and Evelyn smiled affectionately at Davis.
"If it's like that, of course," said Evelyn, "we'll wait. But Teddy'sin an awful hurry."
"I would be, too, in his place," said Davis promptly. He assumed anexpression of extreme reluctance. "Well, I suppose I'll have to getwell."
Teddy shamelessly squeezed Evelyn's hand, and she as shamelesslysqueezed back.
"There are compensations for having to wait," said Teddy generously,"provided, of course, it isn't too long."
Davis looked at them and his eyes twinkled.
"Well, then, in that c
ase----" He started for the rear of the house.
"Where are you going?"
Davis looked over his shoulder with a grin.
"You people compensate each other for waiting," he said amiably. "_I'm_going to go out in the laboratory and kiss the galvanometer."
A Thousand Degrees Below Zero Page 11
