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Airplane Boys among the Clouds

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<h2 id="id00572" style="margin-top: 4em">CHAPTER XI</h2> <h5 id="id00573">A NEW ALARM</h5> The next two minutes seemed an eternity to Frank, spinning rapidly along on his trusty wheel as he was. He wanted to know the worst, and yet dreaded to pass beyond the trees where the field would be in full sight; because it would be distressing if he discovered the shop and hangars blazing, and everything gone. Still, Frank was not the one to shirk bad tidings. And consequently he increased his speed all that was possible. "Bully!" Such was the exclamation that involuntarily burst from his dry lips when, having burst from behind the barrier, he had a clear view of the field. For the shed was there as intact as ever, and also the two hangars sheltering the aeroplanes. Some distance back, far enough removed to avoid any danger to the gasoline in the storage houses, Andy was tending a bonfire; while the other boys seemed to be carrying shavings and trash thither in bags and baskets. Old Colonel Josiah Whympers was bobbing and bustling around on his crutch, and seemingly bossing the "whole shooting-match," as Frank laughingly said to himself. Of course he saw now what Andy had been doing. For some time the other had threatened to clear the shop of all the accumulated rubbish of the winter; and the notion must have seized him just after Frank left for town. "Hello! back again, are you, Frank?" laughed his cousin, as the rider dropped off his wheel close to the bonfire. "Cleaning house, you see. Threatened to do this a long time back; and as we have to sleep in the shop now, thought I might as well get at it. But what's that you've brought along, Frank? My goodness, your gun! Now, what sort of game do you expect to get with that thing?" "Don't know," returned Frank, grimly. "Might be Jules Garrone for all I can say!" At that Andy dropped the long stick with which he had been pushing the trash into the heart of the blaze, and stared at the other as though stunned. "Didn't I know you had something on your mind though?" he muttered. "See here, Frank, ain't I in on this thing too? What d'ye know about Jules Garrone? Ain't he fixed tight in the stone jug? I'm not from Missouri, but all the same I want to know!" "So say we all of us," remarked Larry, who had come up while they were indulging in these few remarks, and was able to give a good guess as to the nature of what had been said. "Please confide in us, Frank; we'll keep mum, sure we will!" pleaded Elephant. Stuttering Nat only wagged his head, and moved his jaws; but this pantomime stood for volumes with those who knew his infirmity. "It turns out that our old friend Jules gave them leg bail a week ago, along with a couple of other convicts. But though they recaptured the two fellows, crafty Jules is still at large!" Frank said, quietly. At that Andy came near having a fit. "My goodness gracious! hear that, would you, fellows?" he exclaimed. "Now we know who fired that nasty shot at us this morning. And he meant to hit us, too. Oh! the coward, to stand down there, and just let us have it, when we couldn't give him back as good as he sent! Frank, is that going to end our flying?" Andy looked pained at the very idea, and Frank could hardly keep from laughing at the miserable face his chum exhibited. "Oh! I don't know," he replied. "There's no reason it should, that I can see. We can avoid that section, or else keep high up when passing, so he never would have the least chance at hitting us, going a mile a minute. Besides, perhaps he'll find himself in hot water presently, when Chief Waller gets a line on him." "Does the Chief know he's loose?" asked Larry. "He does now, but he never suspected it until I dropped in on him," replied the other, calmly. "But see here, how did you know?" demanded Elephant. "The Chief told me," laughed Frank. "Oh! say, is this fair, Frank?" complained Andy. "You're just getting the whole lot of us balled up. You told the Chief; and the Chief told you! Please lift the curtain, won't you, and let us see the game." So Frank, taking pity on them, condescended to explain. Colonel Josiah had also joined the group, and was an eager listener to the recital. The old traveler had himself been through a vast number of adventures in his time, for he had delighted in exploring odd corners of the world seldom heard of by ordinary people. Hence, he delighted in listening to "his boys" when they were narrating some stirring event that had come to their experience. All sorts of exclamations arose when they heard what the warden of the State penitentiary had to say about Jules. Andy even looked about him suspiciously, as if he might entertain a feeling approaching timidity, lest the desperate escaped convict suddenly appear, and threaten them in some way. "Now I know why you went after your gun, Frank!" he remarked. "Not that I blame you a particle, remember. Don't I remember the dark face of that Jules, and how he stared at me, and ground his white teeth, when they took him away. All this time I've allowed myself to sleep sweetly, under the belief that, since he was bound to stay behind stone walls at least eight years, I needn't be afraid. But sometimes even walls can be scaled. Is it loaded, Frank—your gun, I mean?" To oblige him Frank laughingly opened the breech, and inserted a couple of shells. "Shucks! only Number Tens?" ejaculated Andy. "If it had been me now, I'd have brought a handful of buckshot ones. Much good these would do now if Jules was running away, and had covered a hundred yards." "Then I'd be willing to let him run," said Frank. "What I want them for most of all is to meet Jules, if he persists in advancing too close." They were still discussing the matter an hour later; or at least some of them kept it up, while Larry started the fire inside the shop, and began the necessary operation looking to a dinner to which the old Colonel had been invited on condition that he relate a few more of his strange experiences in China, Thibet and Northern India. "Look who's coming!" called out Elephant and of course this made them all turn their heads; even Larry running to the door, gun in hand, as though he had heard the remark, and thought it might refer to the dreaded Jules himself. A car was coming from the direction of the town, and in a cloud of dust. Naturally the first thought that came to Frank was that it might be Mr. Marsh and his companion, Longley. But as the breeze lifted the curtain of dust, he immediately discovered that this was not so. Half a dozen men were crowded in the car and one of these half arose in passing, to wave a hand vigorously toward the group of boys in the field. "That's Chief Waller!" remarked Andy, with more or less eagerness in his voice. "And those others are some of his men," Frank went on. "They don't mean to lose any time about looking Jules up, do they?" "Hey! are you sure about that?" asked Elephant; "because none of 'em had a uniform on; and what good are the police in plain clothes?" "Oh! there are times when they can do more without their uniforms than in them," Frank remarked. "And this ought to be one of them. Suppose now that keen-eyed Jules happened to be on the lookout, and saw a car loaded down with bluecoats come along, wouldn't he hide, all right? Well, that goes without saying, fellows. As it is he might never suspect a thing. I've often seen as many fellows jammed in a car, and so have every one of you." "One good thing is, Waller ought to know that section pretty well," remarked the old traveler. "He's been brought up here, and scoured the country as if he had a fine tooth comb, many a time. He will know how to close in on Jules, if the fellow is hiding there, which I doubt." "Why do you say that, sir?" asked Frank, who had a genuine respect for the opinions of the veteran, based as they were on long experience and observation in all parts of the world. "It is only a surmise on my part, Frank," replied the Colonel. "We all admit that Jules is a very clever and long-headed rascal. Very well. Don't you suppose that he may regret having given way to sudden temptation, and fired at you boys this morning? He will, on reflection, fear that you may guess who did it; for of course Jules does not know that his escape has been kept a secret all this week, in the hope that he might be recaptured, and nothing need be told. Follow me, boys?" "Oh! yes, sir," Frank declared. "And in that case the Chief will have all his trouble for his pains, since Jules will have made tracks long before this. He may be out of the county by night." "That is true; providing that he does not allow a fierce desire for revenge to stay his feet," replied the old man, soberly. Usually the veteran was not the one to imagine trouble where there was none in sight; and knowing this Frank looked at him somewhat uneasily. But before anything more could be said they were surprised to see Stammering Nat coming toward them on a run, for he had been watching the last of the bonfire to make sure it did no harm; and of course, as he was brimful of excitement, he had lost all power of control over his voice. He tried the best he knew how, to regain the mastery of his vocal chords; even resorting to an old expedient of whistling, that perhaps had served him on some previous occasion. Finding everything of no avail, he clutched Andy by the sleeve, and started dragging him around the corner of the shed. "Hey! what ails you, Nat?" shrilled the struggling Andy, wondering whether the other could have lost his mind because of his great affliction. Another moment and the rest heard Andy give tongue in a way that announced his complete surrender to the same mysterious source of excitement that had mastered Nat. Of course this needed an explanation; and accordingly Frank and Elephant dashed off, with Colonel Josiah stumping along close behind; and even Larry, leaving his cooking dinner, to come after them, still clinging to Frank's gun. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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