CHAPTER V.
TWO RASCALS GET A SHOCK.
The boy was startled but his presence of mind did not desert him.Lathrop, although, as has been said, a hectoring, dictatorial sort ofyouth possessed plenty of courage of a certain kind, and was no coward.He therefore exclaimed angrily:
"Take your hand off me. What do you want?"
At the same moment he gave an adroit twist, an old football trick, andin a shake had freed himself from the other's detaining hand.
"You needn't crow quite so loudly, my young rooster," exclaimed the manin the tramp's dress, "I merely wanted to ask you a few questions."
"Well," demanded the boy.
"What were you doing up there in the woods while we were talking?"
Lathrop didn't know whether or not the men were armed, so that hedecided that it would be folly to tell them the facts; he therefore tookrefuge in strategy.
"What do you mean?" he asked with an expression of blank amazement.
"Oh, come," said the other, but there was a note of indecision in histones, that showed that he was not as sure of his ground as he had been,"you don't mean to say that you weren't lying hidden while we weretalking up yonder and heard every word?"
"As I told you," replied Lathrop, "I don't know what you are talkingabout. I am on my way home through these woods and you have stopped mein this unceremonious fashion. If there was a constable within call Iwould have you arrested."
"Oh, come on, Bill," struck in the nattily dressed one of the pair, whohad hitherto remained silent, "the kid doesn't know anything--that'sevident, and we are wasting time here."
"I'm not sure of that," retorted the tramp-like man, still unconvinced,"if I thought," he added with a vicious leer, "that he overheard us,I----"
The sentence was not completed for the reason that at the moment a lustyvoice was heard coming up the path from the aerodrome singing at thepitch of its lungs:
"Three times round went the gallant ship; Three times round spun she, Three times round spun the gallant ship Then down to the bottom of the sea,--the sea,--the sea. Then down to the bottom of the sea."
As the singer came upon the scene in front of him he broke off abruptlyand the two men who had intercepted Lathrop took to their heels.
"Hullo, there, my hearty," cried Ben Stubbs, for he was the vocalist, ashis eyes took in the situation, "what's all this?"
His voice held a sharp note of interrogation, for he had immediatelyrecognized one of the two men who had made off as the fellow who hadsneaked up the by-street in White Plains the day before.
"Who are you?" demanded the boy suspiciously, not certain whether in thenewcomer he had a friend or a fresh source of danger.
"Me? oh, I'm Ben Stubbs, formerly skipper of the tug Mary and Ann, butnow one of the crew of the _Golden Eagle II_, sky clipper. And you, myyoung middy, I recognize as the chap who was down at the aerodrome ashort while ago, and got all het up because Frank Chester wouldn't letyou see the air-ship--now the question is what were you doing with thosetwo fellows, who are as bad a looking pair of cruisers as I ever laideyes on?"
Lathrop saw at once that unless he told the truth he would be a fairobject of suspicion, and at any rate he had made up his mind to warn theboys of the danger that threatened. He therefore in a straight-forwardway told of the afternoon's happenings.
"You come along with me," exclaimed Ben, as the boy finished hisnarrative, "we've got no time to lose."
They hurried down the path to the aerodrome and Lathrop repeated hisstory to the boys.
"Well, forewarned is forearmed," remarked Frank, "and thank you,Lathrop, for doing the square thing."
"Oh, that's all right, Frank," Lathrop replied awkwardly, recollectinghis fiery threats of a short time before. To tell the truth, Lathrop wasthoroughly ashamed of himself, and declining the boys' hearty invitationto supper, hurried home to the house on the hill.
He had learned a lesson he never forgot.
"Now," said Frank, as soon as he had gone, "we'll give these fellows asurprise if they come around here to-night that will stick in theirminds for a good many years."
Under his directions everyone got busy for the rest of the afternoondriving wooden posts at six foot intervals all round the aerodrome. Whenthe posts were all in position a copper wire of medium thickness wasstrung from one post top to another and the ends connected with thedynamo ultimately destined to supply the _Golden Eagle II's_ searchlightand wireless equipment. By the time Ben Stubbs, who had quite ousted LeBlanc as cook, announced by a clarion summons, beaten on a tin wash-pan,with a big ladle, that a supper, consisting of his famous baked beans,chops, spinach and coffee was ready--not to forget Ben's masterpiece, ahuge strawberry pie,--Frank pronounced his preparations also complete.
After supper everybody sat around the stove in the portable house, forthe nights were still chilly, till about ten o'clock. They had all madeas much noise as possible early in the evening with the ultimate motiveof accentuating the quietness later on.
Frank and Harry stood at the door of the portable house as Schultz andLe Blanc started for the aerodrome and shouted out "good-night" till theechoes rang back from the hills. Then one by one the lights in the twohouses went out and all was quiet. That is, all seemed so to twowatchers concealed in a thick mass of brush up on the hill, but inreality no sooner had the houses been plunged in darkness than the boysand Ben Stubbs had crept quietly into the aerodrome and sat down to waitfor the crisis they felt sure was coming.
Harry and Billy each carried a long thin package that might havecontained anything from dynamite to a pistol. Ben Stubbs, with a grimexpression on his rugged face, grasped a stout club he had cut thatafternoon. It was pitchy dark in the aerodrome and as they waited, inthe absolute silence Frank had enjoined, the watchers could hear oneanother breathing. Upstairs only the rhythmic snores of Schultz and LeBlanc, who were not in the secret, disturbed the silence.
Frank sat with his hand on the switch that would shoot a current of 500volts through the copper wires surrounding the aerodrome when heconnected it. A hole, bored earlier in the afternoon in the wooden wallof the aerodrome gave the boy a command of the view outside in thedirection of the woods. So dark was it, however, that even his keen eyescould detect little in the black murk. He saw they would have to judgeof their enemies' whereabouts solely by sound.
They must have sat there in the darkness for an hour or more, with nosound being borne to their ears but the unmelodious snoring of the twomechanics in the loft when, suddenly, and without any further warningthere came a sharp "crack" from up on the hillside as a branch snappedunder a heavy foot.
"Here they come," whispered Frank to the boys, whom he knew were there;but couldn't see any more than if they were in the antipodes.
"Get outside now, you fellows, and when I give the word, let go!"
Silently as cats Billy Barnes, Harry and Ben Stubbs slipped off theirshoes and tiptoed out through the door of the aerodrome, which had beenleft open to allow for the noiseless exit. Frank was left alone in thebarn-like aerodrome save for the two sleepers upstairs. The tension inthe silence grew painful. When would the persons who had crackled thebroken branch on the hillside recover their courage enough to make afurther advance?
All at once, close at hand, Frank heard a loud whisper of:
"Well, they are all asleep, evidently."
"Yes," replied another hoarse whisper, "that kid you suspected evidentlydidn't hear anything."
"Confound it, it's dark as a pit," came from the first speaker.
"It might be lighter," replied the other, "but the blacker it is thebetter for us."
"Hark at those fellows snoring," was the next thing Frank heard. Theremark was accompanied by a smothered laugh.
"Yes, they are sound asleep as run-down tops," was the reply.
Frank inwardly blessed the stalwart lungs of Schultz and Le Blanc. Allunconsciously the sleepers
were helping on their plans.
"Do you think that's the boys snoring?" asked one of the two men whowere cautiously creeping nearer to the aerodrome.
"I hope so," was the response, "I'd like to see them go skywards withtheir infernal air-ship."
"Scudder will have reason to thank us for a good night's work," was thenext remark of the prowlers.
There was silence for a few seconds and then a jangling sound. One ofthe men who had the destruction of the _Golden Eagle II_ at heart hadcollided with Frank's wire fence.
"Confound it, what's that?" angrily hissed his companion.
"A wire fence," replied the other.
"Well, it will take more than that to stop us," was the angry answer,"come on, grab the top wire and over we go."
"Now!" shouted Frank, as he threw in the switch and 500 volts coursedthrough the copper wire both men were grasping.
At the same instant Billy and Harry outside pressed the electric buttonsthat ignited the Coston navy signal lights they both carried and thewhole scene was illuminated in a white glare as light as noonday. Andwhat a scene it was!
On the ground by the fence sprawled the marauders yelling till the airrang with their cries of mingled pain and amazement at the surprise ofthe powerful shock that had knocked them off their feet.
Above them stood the stout figure of Ben Stubbs belaboring themimpartially with the heavy club he had cut for that special purpose.
"Take that, you lubbers, you longshore loafers!" he shouted as his blowsfell with the rapidity of a drumstick on the two prostrate carcasses.
The two men, however, had laid their plans better than the boys knew.They were prepared for a surprise, but not one of the kind they had runinto.
Without a second's warning there was a sudden flash from the hill behindthem, followed by a sharp report. Ben Stubbs threw up his hands androlled over with a yell more of surprise than of anything else.
"Put out those lights!" shouted Frank, realizing that in the white glarethe group outside presented fine targets for the hidden marksman on thehill, whoever he might be.
The boys instantly shoved their glaring torch tips into the ground. Evenas they did so they could hear rapidly retreating footsteps.
"Don't let them get away," shouted Harry wildly.
Frank, who by this time had switched off the current, and was outside,seized him with a detaining grasp.
"No good, Harry," he exclaimed. "It would be taking needless chances.Now, let's look to Ben."
"Only a hen-peck," hailed that redoubtable ex-mariner, coming up, "justnicked my starboard ear, but I thought for a minute they had done me."
"That was no fault of theirs," answered Billy, "they----"
He was interrupted by a series of guttural shouts and piercing shrieks.
"Ach Himmel--donnerblitzen vass iss----!"
"Sacre nom de nom! Qu'est-ce que cela! To the aid. MonsieurChest-e-erre!"
The cries came from the aerodrome and were uttered by the awakenedSchultz and Le Blanc, the latter of whom was almost in hysterics. Franklaughingly quieted them and explained what had happened.
"Ve vos only eggcited on your aggount," remarked Schultz bravely when helearned that all danger was over.
"Comment, vee fight lek ze tiger-r-r n' c'est pas?" demanded Le Blanc,flourishing a pillow fiercely. "A pitee I deed not see zee ras-cals."
The Boy Aviators on Secret Service; Or, Working with Wireless Page 5
