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Dave Dashaway Around the World

<h2 id='chapXV' class='c009'>CHAPTER XV</h2> <div class='nf-center-c0'> <div class='nf-center c002'> <div>STRICTLY BUSINESS</div> </div></div> Our hero had accomplished his mission. He had learned all that he had come to Lookout Hill to find out. The two men and their mysterious machine had been located. Their connection as accomplices of Dave’s enemies was positive. “Here is something to think over before we make a definite move,” reflected the young aviator. “These fellows will, of course, hear about us if they go back to the town, which they probably will do. Then it will be a new, closer chase.” The professional curiosity of the pilot of the Comet held him to the spot momentarily. He made a detour of the campfire. His object was to inspect the monoplane. A score of ideas crowded Dave’s thoughts. He might tell his story to an officer of the town, possibly have the tramp airship and its crew arrested, or at least detained. Again, he might quietly start up the Comet, strike a new route, and count on outdistancing all pursuers. Dave glided along in the shelter of the underbrush until he came up directly to the monoplane. A near glance told him that it was a superb machine. Whoever the airmen hired by the wily Vernon were, they thoroughly understood their business, that seemed sure. 108The young aviator was so engrossed in his inspection of the machine, thinking so fast as to what was best to do, that he was taken all unawares as some one nearly ran upon him. It was the man he had just seen at the campfire. “Hello, who are you?” shot out the man, and he paused not five feet from the young airman and looked him over from head to foot. “I heard of your machine and came to take a look at it,” replied Dave, on his guard and watching his challenger closely, for he had a bad face. “Oh, you did?” said the fellow, moving a step nearer. “That’s a strange jacket you wear. Why, you’re an airman yourself and—you’re Dashaway!” The man was too quick for Dave. As he spoke he made a deft spring. It showed that he was a natural acrobat. His grip on Dave’s arm was like iron. “Let me go. Suppose I am?” demanded our hero, struggling. “Well, then I have a little business with you,” coolly answered his captor. “Oh, you’re Dashaway. I saw you twice in Winnipeg. Come on. Tom! Tom!” he called out loudly, to his 109companion, as he found himself unable to budge his prisoner, although he weighed nearly double what Dave did. The man near the campfire neither responded nor stirred. He was past helping his comrade. There was a reason why the young airman was able to make so sturdy a resistance. His free hand clutched a sapling right at hand. His foot he had twisted in among the network of strong roots. The combatants stood directly at the edge of one of the pits that honeycombed the plateau. Its edge crumbled as the man gave Dave a jerk. “Look out!” cried our hero, “if you don’t want both of us to get a tumble.” “You come on,” ordered his captor, savagely. “I’ll stand no fooling. Come—on!” He gave Dave a terrific jerk. It was so forceful that our hero’s grasp of the tree tore loose, and he toppled over. In doing so his assailant lost his balance. He stumbled over Dave’s entangled foot. In some astonishment the young aviator found the fellow had completely disappeared as he got to his feet. “He’s done for himself, sure enough,” said Dave, and he peered down into the pit. It was about twenty feet deep. He heard a groan. Then he traced a rustling about. His eyes becoming accustomed to the darkness, Dave was finally enabled to make out his enemy trying to climb up the steep sides of the pit. 110The roots he clutched at gave way in his grasp and a shower of dirt and gravel drove him back. The young aviator discerned that the man was not seriously hurt. He realized also that sooner or later his enemy would manage to get out of the pit. If not at once, at least when his now helpless comrade came to himself, the man would be rescued. “He is just where I want him,” thought the young aviator. “It won’t do to leave him the machine.” Dave walked up again to the flying machine. He soon estimated its condition and capacity. He found it to be a capable piece of mechanism. “Hi, stop—Oh, thunder!” This was shouted out after the runaway as the machine lifted into the air, Dave at the helm. Its rightful pilot spoke, but, his call barely completed as he grasped at the edge of the pit, down he slid again to its bottom. Fifteen minutes later the machine dropped to earth in the field behind the inn at Doubleday, not a hundred feet from the Comet. Hiram came running towards it. “You, Dave?” he called out cautiously. “With company,” answered Dave promptly. 111“Gracious! It’s the pirate tramp, isn’t it?” cried the astonished Hiram. “Why, what does it mean? How did you manage it?” “Don’t ask any questions just now,” responded the young airman. “Wake up Elmer.” “We’re going to get out of here?” “Quick as we can. There’s a reason.” Hiram bolted for the haymow. Elmer very shortly came up to the spot where Dave stood. “For mercy’s sake, two of them!” he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes and staring in surprise at the captured airship. “Yes, this is the pirate,” explained the young pilot. “The fellows who ran it tried to follow us from Winnipeg. Turn about is fair play, fellows. Some of the same gang stole our machine near Washington for a bad purpose. We will retaliate by borrowing theirs now for a good purpose.” “Yes,” put in Hiram, with animation, “get them and the machine safely out of harm’s way.” “I intend to,” said Dave. “You’ll have to fly the craft, Hiram.” “I reckon I can do it,” asserted Hiram promptly. “What’s your idea, Dave?” “A two hours’ flight, due west. Then we will hold a new council of war. We had best not delay. I don’t know how soon the fellow who runs that craft may be on our trail.” 112No one appeared to observe or hinder the airship boys as they made their preparations to resume their journey. The pilot of the Comet gave his trusty assistant explicit orders as to what was required of him. The biplane started first from the ground. In the clear moonlight its course was not difficult to follow. Soon the leader and its consort were started on a steady course, due west. Hiram was in gay humor. Dave had explained the details of his encounter with the enemy, and the new pilot of the pirate airship chuckled as he drove it forward. The incident had fully awakened Elmer, and Dave found him good lively company. There was a rare spice of adventure in the incident of the night. “You handled things just grand,” voted Dave’s enthusiastic admirer. “I wonder how those fellows are feeling just about this time?” It was after midnight when the young aviator directed his companion to take the distance record. “Ninety-seven miles,” reported Elmer. “I guess that will do,” said our hero. “We are going to land.” A pleasant stretch of forest glade looked inviting. The Comet came to anchor. In about ten minutes the other machine made an easy descent almost at the side of the Comet. 113“Well done, Hiram,” commended his friend, warmly. “Your lessons under old John Grimshaw are bringing famous results.” “Glad you think so,” answered Hiram, with affected indifference, but he looked both pleased and proud. “It’s about midnight,” said Dave. “We will turn in soon as we can, fellows. I will take the first watch.” “Going to stay here until daylight?” inquired Hiram. “Yes, and for a good breakfast,” replied the young airman. “We need the rest, and there is little likelihood of our enemies catching up with us now.” “I should say not,” echoed Hiram with a chuckle. “No, you have spiked their guns for keeps, Dave,” added Elmer. It was a little later than sunrise when Hiram, on the last watch, woke up his comrades. He had a fire of twigs going. “Coffee on the boil, fellows,” he announced cheerily; “ham done to a turn, and the bread being a little dry I thought we would have some buttered toast.” “Hurrah!” shouted the hungry and jubilant Elmer. “I feel as if I could eat a horse.” 114“Yes, this brisk Canadian air certainly gives a fellow a great appetite,” declared Dave. “Next town we stop at,” spoke Hiram, “I want to get some pancake flour. I’ve been just hankering for some old fashioned flapjacks. I’ve got a griddle among the traps, and I know I can turn out some elegant pancakes.” “This is good enough for anybody,” insisted Elmer, his teeth deep in a piece of luscious ham cooked to a turn. “Say,” spoke Hiram a few minutes later, “I strolled around the end of that grove of trees yonder before I woke you up. There’s a road just beyond them, and there’s a town not half a mile away.” “Is that so?” questioned the young aviator. “That suits my plans precisely.” “How is that?” asked Elmer. “I will show you after breakfast,” replied Dave. He got a pad of writing paper from the supply aboard the biplane. Dave was busy writing for some time. Then he got the repair outfit of the Comet. “Come on, you can help me,” he said to Hiram and Elmer. The young airman partially upset the captured airship. His comrades very soon understood what this manœuvre meant. Dave removed a 115dozen or more screws and bolts. Then he unhinged alternate struts and set to work on the engine. The parts removed were stored aboard of the Comet. “I guess that will cripple the craft enough to serve our purpose,” said Dave. “I don’t want to be a vandal and wholly destroy as pretty a machine as this is.” “Can’t afford to take any risks with the bad crowd trying to break us up though,” reminded Hiram. “I don’t intend to,” answered Dave. “It will take a long trip clear back to Winnipeg to replace those parts. If those fellows we left back at Doubleday come on after the machine, it will be fully a week before they can think of taking up the chase again.” “By that time we will have reached Alaska; won’t we, Dave?” queried Elmer. “And far beyond, if we fill the schedule blocked out,” replied the young pilot of the Comet. “I’ll be back soon, fellows.” Dave lined the grove of trees and was soon lost beyond it to the present sight of his friends. In about half an hour he reappeared, walking briskly. “It’s all right,” he reported. “Get the Comet in trim.” “Going to start up, eh?” remarked Elmer. 116“We had better, I think, to avoid complications,” said Dave. “The town beyond here has a telephone service probably, running to Doubleday. The note I wrote told of the dismantled machine here. It also explained enough to warrant a ’phone call, explaining about it, sent to Doubleday. Those Winnipeg fellows can get their machine by coming for it.” “You mean what is left of it,” corrected Hiram. “I hired a boy I met to take my note to the postmaster of the town near here,” explained the young aviator. “I think I have been as fair all around as we can afford to be under the circumstances.” “That’s right,” assented Hiram, with vigor, and Elmer echoed the sentiment. “The coast is clear—as far as Sitka, anyhow,” proceeded the young airman. “And now, fellows,” he added briskly—“business, strictly business.” 117 <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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