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diff --git a/36388.txt b/36388.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9e2f42 --- /dev/null +++ b/36388.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5977 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Airship Andy, by Frank V. Webster + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Airship Andy + or The Luck of a Brave Boy + +Author: Frank V. Webster + +Release Date: June 12, 2011 [EBook #36388] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AIRSHIP ANDY *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Illustration: THE RACING STAR PASSED TWO OF THE CONTESTANTS (Page 172)] + + + + + Airship Andy + + Or + + The Luck of a Brave Boy + + BY + + Frank V. Webster + + AUTHOR OF "ONLY A FARM BOY," "BOB THE CASTAWAY," + "COMRADES OF THE SADDLE," "TOM THE TELEPHONE BOY," ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED + + NEW YORK + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + BOOKS FOR BOYS + + By FRANK V. WEBSTER + + 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. + + ONLY A FARM BOY + TOM, THE TELEPHONE BOY + THE BOY FROM THE RANCH + THE YOUNG TREASURE HUNTER + BOB, THE CASTAWAY + THE YOUNG FIREMEN OF LAKEVILLE + THE NEWSBOY PARTNERS + THE BOY PILOT OF THE LAKES + TWO BOY GOLD MINERS + JACK, THE RUNAWAY + COMRADES OF THE SADDLE + THE BOYS OF BELLWOOD SCHOOL + THE HIGH SCHOOL RIVALS + AIRSHIP ANDY + BOB CHESTER'S GRIT + BEN HARDY'S FLYING MACHINE + DICK, THE BANK BOY + DARRY, THE LIFE SAVER + + Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York + + Copyright, 1911, by + CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY + + AIRSHIP ANDY + Printed in U. S. A. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I The Young Chauffeur 1 + II Breaking Away 11 + III Runaway and Rover 21 + IV Down the River 30 + V Tramping It 38 + VI The Sky Rider 48 + VII John Parks, Airship King 55 + VIII The Aero Field 61 + IX The Airship Inventor 67 + X Learning To Fly 74 + XI Spying on the Enemy 82 + XII Traced Down 88 + XIII Jiu-jitsu 99 + XIV The Old Leather Pocketbook 108 + XV Behind the Bars 115 + XVI Bail Wanted 124 + XVII A True Friend 132 + XVIII Out on Bail 138 + XIX A Disappointment 145 + XX A New Captivity 153 + XXI A Friend in Need 161 + XXII "Go!" 169 + XXIII The Great Race 175 + XXIV A Hopeful Clew 183 + XXV Good-by to Airship Andy 195 + + + + +AIRSHIP ANDY + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE YOUNG CHAUFFEUR + + +"Hand over that money, Andy Nelson." + +"Not on this occasion." + +"It isn't yours." + +"Who said it was?" + +"It belongs to the business. If my father was here he'd make you give it +up mighty quick. I represent him during his absence, don't I? Come, no +fooling; I'll take charge of that cash." + +"You won't, Gus Talbot. The man that lost that money was my customer, +and it goes back to him and no one else." + +Gus Talbot was the son of the owner of Talbot's Automobile Garage, at +Princeville. He was a genuine chip off the old block, people said, +except that he loafed while his father really worked. In respect to +shrewd little business tricks, however, the son stood on a par with the +father. He had just demonstrated this to Andy Nelson, and was trying his +usual tactics of bluff and bluster. These did not work with Andy, +however, who was the soul of honor, and the insolent scion of the Talbot +family now faced his father's hired boy highly offended and decidedly +angry. + +Andy Nelson was a poor lad. He was worse off than that, in fact, for he +was homeless and friendless. He could not remember his parents. He had a +faint recollection of knocking about the country until he was ten years +of age with a man who called himself his half-brother. Then this same +relative placed him in a cheap boarding school where Andy had to work +for a part of his keep. About a year previous to the opening of our +story, Dexter Nelson appeared at the school and told Andy he would have +to shift entirely for himself. + +He found Andy a place with an old farmer on the outskirts of +Princeville. Andy was not cut out for hoeing and plowing. He was willing +and energetic, however, and the old farmer liked him immensely, for Andy +saved his oldest boy from drowning in the creek, and was kind and +lovable to the farmer's several little children. But one day the old man +told Andy plainly that he could not reconcile his conscience by spoiling +a bright future for him, and explained why. + +"If I was running a wagon-shop, lad," he said enthusiastically, "I'd +make you head foreman. Somehow, you've got machinery born in your blood, +I think. The way you've pottered over that old rack of mine, shows how +you like to dabble with tools. The way you fixed up that old +washing-machine for marm proves that you know your business. Tell you, +lad, it's a crying wrong to waste your time on the farm when you've got +that busy head of yours running over with cogs, and screws, and wheels +and such." + +All this had led to Andy looking around for other employment. The old +farmer was quite right--Andy's natural field was mechanics. He felt +pretty happy the day he was accepted as the hired boy in Seth Talbot's +garage. + +That position was not secured without a great deal of fuss and bother on +the part of Talbot, however. The latter was a hard task-master. He +looked his prospective apprentice over as he would a new tool he was +buying. He offered a mere beggarly pittance of wages, barely enough to +keep body and soul together, and "lodgings," as he called it, on a +broken-down cot in a dark, cramped lumber-room. Then he insisted on Andy +getting somebody to "guarantee" him. + +"I'll have no boy taking advantage of me," he declared; "learning the +secrets of the trade, and bouncing off and leaving me in the lurch +whenever it suits him. No sir-ree. If you come with me, it's a contract +for two years' service, or I don't want you. When I was a boy they +'prenticed a lad, and you knew where you could put your finger on him. +It ought to be the law now." + +Fortunately, Andy's half-brother happened to pass through the village +about that time. He "guaranteed" Andy in some manner satisfactory to the +garage proprietor, and Andy went to work at his new employment. + +Talbot had formerly been in the hardware business. He seemed to think +that this entitled him to know everything that appertained to iron and +steel. When roller skating became a fad, he had sold out his business, +built a big rink, and in a year was stranded high and dry. The bicycle +fever caught him next, but he went into it just as everybody else was +getting out of it. The result was another failure. + +Now he had been in the automobile business for about six months. He had +bought an old ramshackly paint-shop on the main street of the town, and +had fixed it up so that it was quite presentable as a garage. + +There were not many resident owners of automobiles in Princeville. Just +at its outskirts, however, along the shore of a pretty lake, were the +homes of some retired city folks. During the vacation months a good many +people having machines summered at the town. Some of them stored their +automobiles at the garage. Talbot claimed to do expert repairing, and as +a good road ran through Princeville he managed to do some business with +transient customers who came along. + +Before he had been in the garage twenty-four hours, Andy was amazed and +disgusted at the clumsy clap-trap repairing work that Talbot did. He +half-mended breaks and leaks that would not last till a car reached its +destination. He put in inferior parts, and on one occasion Andy saw his +employer substitute an old tire for one almost new. + +Andy tried to remedy all this. He was at home with tools, and inside of +a week he was thoroughly familiar with every part of an automobile. He +induced Talbot to send to the city for many important little adjuncts to +ready repairing, and his employer soon realized that he had a treasure +in his new assistant. + +He did not, however, manifest it by any exhibition of liberality. In +fact, as the days wore on Andy's tasks were piled up mountain high, and +Talbot became a merciless tyrant in his bearing. Once when Andy earned a +double fee by getting out of bed at midnight and hauling into town a car +stuck in a mud-hole, he promised Andy a raise in salary and a new suit +the next week. This promise, however, Talbot at once proceeded to +forget. + +It was Andy who was responsible for nearly doubling the income of his +hard task-master. He heard of a big second-hand tourist car in the city, +holding some thirty people, and told Talbot about it. The latter bought +it for a song, and every Saturday, and sometimes several days in the +week, the car earned big money taking visitors sight-seeing around the +lake or conveying villagers to the woods on picnic parties. + +Later Andy struck a great bargain in two old cars that were offered for +sale by a resident who was going to Europe. He influenced Talbot to +advertise these for rent by the day or hour, and the garage began to +thrive as a real money-making business. + +This especial morning Andy had arisen as usual at five o'clock. He +cooked his own meals on a little oil-stove in the lumber room behind the +garage, and after a cup of coffee and some broiled ham and bread and +butter, went to work cleaning up three machines that rented space. + +It was a few minutes before six o'clock, and just after the morning +train from the city had steamed into town and out of it again, when a +well-dressed man, carrying a light overcoat over one arm and a satchel, +rushed through the open door of the garage. + +"Hey!" he hailed. "They told me at the depot I could hire an automobile +here." + +"Yes, sir," replied Andy promptly. + +"I want to cut across the country and catch the Macon train on the +Central. There's just forty-five minutes to do it in." + +"I can do it in twenty," announced Andy with confidence. "Jump in, sir." + +In less than two minutes they were off, and the young chauffeur proved +his agility and handiness with the machine in so rapid and clever a way, +that his fare nodded and smiled his approval as they skimmed the smooth +country road on a test run. + +Andy made good his promise. It was barely half-past six when, with a +honk-honk! to warn a clumsy teamster ahead of him, he ran the machine +along the side of the depot platform at Macon. + +"How much?" inquired his passenger, leaping out and reaching into his +vest pocket. + +"Our regular rate is two dollars an hour," explained Andy. + +"There's five--never mind the change," interrupted the gentleman. "And +here's a trifle for yourself for being wide-awake while most people are +asleep." + +"Oh, thank you, sir!" exclaimed Andy, overjoyed, but the man disappeared +with a pleasant wave of his hand before the boy could protest against +such unusual generosity. + +Andy's eyes glowed with pleasure and his heart warmed up as he stowed +the handsome five-dollar tip into his little purse containing a few +silver pieces. He had never had so much money all his own at any time in +his life. Once a tourist in settling a day's jaunt with Talbot in Andy's +presence had added a two-dollar bill for his chauffeur, but this Talbot +had immediately shoved into his money drawer without even a later +reference to it. + +Andy got back to the garage before seven o'clock. He whistled cheerily +as he made a notation on the book of his fare and the collection, +unlocked the desk, put the five dollars in the tin cash box, and +relocked the desk. + +Then he busied himself cleaning up the machine that had just made such a +successful spin, for the roads were pretty dusty. As he pulled out the +carpet of the tonneau to shake, something fell to the floor. + +It was an old worn flat leather pocketbook. In a flash Andy guessed that +his recent passenger had accidentally dropped it in the car. + +He opened it in some excitement. It had a deep flap on one side. From +this protruded the edges of a dozen crisp new banknotes. Andy ran them +over quickly. + +"Two hundred dollars!" he exclaimed. + +"What's that?" spoke a sharp, greedy voice at his ear. + +It was Gus Talbot, his employer's son, who had just appeared on the +scene. It was pretty early for him, for Gus paraded as the cashier of +his father's business and stayed around the garage on an average of +about three hours a day. Most of his time was spent at a village +billiard room in the company of a bosom chum named Dale Billings. + +Andy was somewhat taken off his balance by the unexpected appearance of +his employer's son. It was really the shock of recognizing in the face +of the newcomer the manners and avarice that he shared with his father. +Almost instinctively Andy put the hand holding the pocketbook behind +him. Then he said simply: + +"I took a quick fare over to Macon to catch a train. He paid me five +dollars. It's in the cash drawer." + +"Oh, it is," drawled out Gus, "and what about all the money I just +caught you counting over?" + +"It's a pocketbook containing two hundred dollars," replied Andy +clearly, disdaining the slur and insult in the tones of his low-spirited +challenger. "It was dropped by the man I just took over in the machine. +I've got to return it to him some way. I might get to the station here +in time to notify him by telegraph before his train leaves Macon that +I've found the pocketbook." + +"Hold on," ordered Gus Talbot. "Hand over that money, Andy Nelson." + +And then followed the conversation that opens this chapter, and Andy had +barely announced that the pocketbook would go back to its owner and to +no one else, when Gus made a jump at him. + +"Give up that money, I say!" he yelled, and his big, eager fist clutched +the pocketbook. + + + + +CHAPTER II--BREAKING AWAY + + +"Let go of that pocketbook!" ordered Gus Talbot angrily. + +"When I do, tell me," retorted Andy. + +The young chauffeur knew that once the money got into the hands of the +Talbots, father or son, its return to its rightful owner would be +extremely dubious. He had proven himself a match for Gus in more than +one encounter in the past, and that was why Gus hated him. Andy reached +out one hand not at all gently. He gave his opponent a push under the +chin. + +Gus Talbot went flat to the floor of the garage with a howl. He had not, +however, let go his grip on the pocketbook. The result was that it had +torn squarely in two. Andy directed a speedy glance at the half in his +own hand. He was reassured, for he had retained the part holding the +banknotes. + +"You can keep what you have got," he advised Gus, with a little +triumphant laugh. "I'll put this where you won't get your paws on it." + +With the words Andy ran through the front open doorway of the garage and +down the street in the direction of the business section of the village. + +Primarily anxiety to bestow the money in a safe place impelled his +flight. Three other reasons, however, helped to influence him in leaving +the field ingloriously. + +In the first place, Gus Talbot was a wicked terror when he got mad. It +was nothing for him to pick up a hatchet, a wrench or an iron bar and +sail into an enemy when his cowardly fists failed him. Andy might have +remained to give the mean craven a further lesson, but chancing to +glance through a side window he saw the chosen crony of Gus approaching. +Dale Billings was the bully of the town. He had left Andy severely alone +after tackling him once. With Gus and Dale both against him, however, +Andy decided that there would be little show of retaining possession of +the money. + +The third reason was more potent and animating than any of the others. +Just crossing lots from his home and headed for the garage direct was +its proprietor. If Andy had had any confidence in the sense of justice +and rectitude of Talbot he would have stood his ground. He had none, and +therefore made a rash resolve. It was open defiance of his harsh +employer, and there would be a frightful row later on, but Andy's mind +was made up. He had reached the next corner and flashed around it and +out of sight before Gus Talbot had gained his feet. + +Fifteen minutes later Andy Nelson reappeared at the end of a secluded +street near the edge of the village. He was slightly breathless, and +looked excited, and glanced back of him keenly before he sat down on a +tree stump to rest and think. + +"I've done my duty," he murmured; "but it will make things so hot at the +garage I don't think I'll go back there." + +Andy indulged in a spell of deep reflection. For some time he had +realized that he was giving his best energies to a man who did not +appreciate them. His work had grown harder and harder. Whenever a +complaint came in about imperfect work, due to the sloppy methods of +Talbot, the garage owner made Andy shoulder all the blame. + +"He talks about a two-years' contract, and tries to scare me about what +the law will do to me if I leave him," soliloquized Andy. "Has he kept +his part of the bargain? Did he give me the increase in pay and the suit +of clothes he promised? No, he didn't. I've got something in me, but it +will kill it all out to stay in this place. I've got five dollars as a +nest-egg, and I'm going to start out on my own hook." + +Andy was fully determined on his course. Perhaps if the incident of the +morning had not come up, he might have delayed his decision. He knew +very well, however, that if he went back to the garage Talbot would +raise a big row, and he would also get hold of the two hundred dollars +if it were possible for him to do so. Some day Andy feared the Talbots +would play one too many of their uncertain tricks and involve him in an +imputation of dishonesty. + +"It's straight ahead, and never turn back," declared Andy decisively, +and started down the road. + +"Hold on there, young man!" challenged a voice that gave Andy a thrill. + +Running around the curve in the road Andy had just traversed, red-faced +and flustered, Seth Talbot came bearing down upon him. + +Andy might have halted, but the sight of Gus Talbot and Dale Billings +bringing up the rear armed with heavy sticks so entirely suggested an +onslaught of force that he changed his mind. He paid no attention +whatever to the furious shouts and direful threats of Talbot. + +Andy put ahead at renewed speed. At a second turn in the highway a man +was raking up hay, and he suspended his work and stared at the fugitive +and his pursuers, as Talbot roared out: + +"Stop him, Jones--he's a runaway and a thief!" + +Farmer Jones was not spry enough to shorten the circuit Andy made, but +he thrust out the rake to its full length. Andy's foot caught in its +tines, dragged, tripped, and the boy went flat to the ground. + +"I've got him!" hailed Jones, promptly pouncing down upon him. + +"Hold him!" panted Talbot, rushing to the spot, and his hard, knotty +fingers got an iron clutch on Andy's coat collar and jerked him to his +feet. + +"What's the trouble, neighbor?" projected the farmer curiously. + +"A thief isn't the matter!" shot out Andy hotly, recalling the words of +his employer. + +"You'll have to prove that," blustered Talbot. "If you're innocent, what +are you running for?" + +"I was running away from you," admitted Andy boldly, "because I want to +be honest and decent." + +"What's that?" roared the irate Talbot. "Do you hear him, Jones? He +admits he was going to break his contract with me. Well, the law will +look to that, you ungrateful young cub!" + +"Law! contract!" cried Andy scornfully, fully roused up and fearless +now. "Have you kept your contract with me? You don't want me, you want +that two hundred dollars----" + +"Shut up! Shut up!" yelled Talbot, and he muzzled Andy with one hand and +dragged him away from the spot. Farmer Jones grinned after them, and he +shrugged his shoulders grimly as he noticed Gus Talbot and Dale Billings +halted down the road, as if averse to coming any nearer. + +"'Pears to me you're having a good deal of trouble with your boys, +Talbot," chuckled Jones. "That son of yours got a few cracks from my +cane last evening when he was helping himself to some of my honey among +the hives." + +Once out of hearing of the farmer, Gus Talbot edged up to his father. + +"Has he got the money?" he inquired eagerly. "Make him tell, father, +search him." + +"I'll attend to all that," retorted the elder Talbot gruffly. "Here, you +two fall behind. There's no need of attracting attention with a regular +procession." + +Talbot did not relax his hold of the prisoner until they had reached the +garage. He roughly threw Andy into the lumber room. Then, panting and +irritated from his unusual exertions, he planted himself in the doorway. +Gus and Dale hovered about, anxious to learn the outcome of the row. + +"Now then, Andy Nelson," commenced the garage owner, "I've just a few +questions to ask you, and you'll answer them quick and right, or it will +be the worse for you." + +"It has certainly never been the best for me around here," declared Andy +bitterly, "but I'll tell the truth, as I always do." + +"Did you find a pocketbook with some money in it in one of my cars?" + +"I did," admitted Andy--"two hundred dollars. It belonged to my fare, who +lost it, and it's going back to him." + +"Hand it over." + +"I can't do that." + +"Why not?" demanded Talbot stormily. + +"Because I haven't got it." + +"Who has?" + +"Mr. Dawson, the banker. I took it to him when I left the garage." + +"Oh, you did?" muttered Seth Talbot, looking baffled and furious. + +"Yes, sir. I told him that it was lost money, explained the +circumstances, and that if a certain Mr. Robert Webb called or +telegraphed for it, to let him have it." + +"Is that the name of the man you took over to Macon?" + +"That is the name written in red ink on the flap of the pocketbook," and +Andy drew out the former receptacle of the banknotes. "'Robert Webb, +Springfield.' I shall write to him at Springfield and tell him where the +money is." + +Seth Talbot fairly glared at Andy. He got up and wriggled and hemmed and +hawed, and sat down again. + +"Young man," he observed in as steady tone of voice as he could command, +"you've shown a sight of presumption in taking it on yourself to lay out +my business system. Here you've gone and implied that I was not fit to +be trusted." + +Andy was silent. + +"I won't have it; no, I won't have it!" shouted the garage-keeper. "It's +an imputation on my honor! I'll give you just one chance to redeem +yourself. You go back to the bank and tell Mr. Dawson that we've got on +the direct track of the owner of the money, and bring it back here." + +"That would be a lie," said Andy. + +"Don't we know where he is?" + +"In a general way, but so does the bank. It would be a cheat, too, for I +don't believe you want to get the money back to its rightful owner any +more than you wanted to pay me the tip that passenger left here for me +last week." + +Andy had been too bold. Talbot rose up, towering with rage. He sprang +upon Andy, and threw him upon the cot, holding him there by sheer brute +strength. + +"Here, you Gus--Dale!" he shouted. "Off with his hat and shoes. And his +coat--no, let me look that over first. Aha!" + +Gus Talbot considered it high sport to assail a defenceless and +outnumbered adversary. He and Dale snatched off cap and shoes without +gentleness or ceremony. Talbot had got hold of Andy's little purse and +had brought to light the five dollars so carefully folded and stowed +away there. + +"Honest? Ha, ha! Decent? Ho, ho!" railed the old wretch. "Where did you +get this five dollars without stealing it?" + +"Bet he got ten dollars for the run to Macon and held back half of it," +chimed in Gus. + +"My fare gave it to me for making good time," explained Andy. "If you +don't believe it, write to him." + +"Yah!" jibed Talbot; "tell that to the marines!" + +He kicked Andy's shoes and cap under a bench in the outer room and threw +his coat up among a lot of old rubbish on a platform under the roof. + +"Get the strongest padlock and hasp in the place," he ordered his son, +"and secure that door. As to you, young man," he continued to Andy, +"I'll give you till night to make up your mind to get back that money." + +"I never will," declared Andy positively. + +"Boy," said Seth Talbot, fixing his eye on Andy in a way that made his +blood chill, "you'll do it, as I say, or I'll thrash you within an inch +of your life." + + + + +CHAPTER III--RUNAWAY AND ROVER + + +The door of the lumber room was slammed shut on Andy and strongly +locked, and the lad resigned himself to the situation. The Talbots, +father and son, aided by brutal Dale Billings, had handled him pretty +roughly, and he was content to lie on the cot and prepare for what was +coming next. + +"They've pretty nearly stripped me, and they've got all my money," +reflected Andy. "I wish now I had dropped a postal card to Mr. Robert +Webb at Springfield. I'll do it, though, the first thing, when I get out +of this fix." + +Andy was bound to get out of it in some way. It would be rashness +complete to try it right on the spur of the moment. However, he had till +night to think things over, and the youth felt pretty positive that long +before then he would hit upon some plan of escape. + +In a little while Andy got up and took stock of his surroundings. The +partition that shut in the lumber room was made of common boards. With a +good-sized sledge, Andy could batter it to pieces, but he had no tools, +and glancing through a crack he saw Talbot and his son in the little +front office ready to pounce on him at a minute's notice. + +There was a long narrow box lying up against the inside surface of the +partition boards. Andy had used this to hold his little kit of kitchen +utensils. He removed these now, and lifted the box on end under the only +outside aperture the lumber room presented. This was a little window, +way up near the ceiling. When Andy reached this small, square hole, cut +through a board, he discerned that he could never hope to creep through +it. + +Glancing down into the rear yard he made out Dale Billings, seated on a +saw-horse, aimlessly whittling at a stick, and he decided that the ally +of the Talbots was on guard there to watch out for any attempted escape +in that direction. + +However, when Andy had done a little more looking around in his +prison-room, he made quite an encouraging discovery. Where the box had +stood originally there was a broad, loose board. Dampness had weakened +one end, and a touch pulled it away from the nails that held it. With +one or two vigorous pulls, Andy saw he might rip the board out of place +its entire length. This, however, would make a great noise, would arouse +his captors, and he would have to run the gantlet the whole reach of the +garage space. + +"It's my only show, though," decided Andy, "and I'll keep it in mind for +later on." + +Towards noon Andy made a meal of some scraps of food he found in his +little larder. It was not a very satisfying meal, for his stock of +provisions had run low that morning and he had intended replenishing it +during the day. + +About two o'clock in the afternoon Andy fancied he saw his chance for +making a break for liberty. Talbot was in the office. There was only one +automobile in the garage. This was a car that the proprietor's son had +just backed in. Andy could figure it out that Gus had just returned from +a trip. He leaped out of the machine, simply throwing out the power +clutch, with the engine still in motion, as if intending to at once +start off again. + +Gus ran to the office, and through the crack in the partition Andy saw +him scan the open page of the daily order book. Our hero determined on a +bold move. He leaned down in the corner of the lumber room and seized +the end of the loose plank at the bottom of the partition with both +hands, and gave it a pull with all his strength. + +R--r--rip--bang! + +Andy went backwards with a slam. The board had broken off at the +nail-heads of the first rafter with a deafening crack. He dropped the +fragment and dove through the aperture disclosed to him. He could hear +startled conversation in the office, but it was no time to stop for +obstacles now. Andy came to his feet in the garage room, made a superb +spring, cleared the hood of the automobile, and, after a scramble, +landed in the driver's seat. + +With a swoop of his right hand, Andy grasped the lever, his left +clutching the wheel. The car shot for the door in a flash. Gus Talbot +had run out of the office. He saw the machine coming, and who manned it. +Andy noticed him poising for a spring, snatched up the dust robe in the +seat by his side, gave it a whirl, and forged ahead. + +The robe wound around the face and shoulders of Gus, sending him +staggering back, discomfited. Andy circled into the street away from +town, turned down the south turnpike, and breathed the air of freedom +with rapture. + +"All I want is a safe start. I can't afford to leave the record behind +me that I stole a machine," he reflected. "It's bad enough as it is now, +with all the lies Talbot will tell. She's gone stale!" + +The automobile wheezed down to an abrupt halt. It was just as it came to +a curve near the Jones farm, and almost at the identical spot where Andy +had been captured that morning. He cast a quick glance behind. No one +was as yet visible in pursuit, and there was no other machine in the +garage. One was handy not a square away from it, however. Andy had +noticed a physician's car there as he sped along. The Talbots would not +hesitate to impress it into service. At any rate, they would start some +pursuit at once. + +Andy guessed that some of Gus Talbot's careless tactics had put the +magneto or carburetor out of commission. It would take fully five +minutes to adjust things in running order. No one was in view ahead. +There were all kinds of opportunities to hide before an enemy came upon +the scene. + +Right at the side of the road was the hayfield of the Jones farm. Andy +leaped a ditch and started to get to the thin line of scrub oak beyond +which lay the creek. He passed three haystacks and they now pretty well +shut him out from the road. As he was passing the fourth one, he +stumbled, hopped about on one foot with a sharp cry of pain, and dropped +down in the stubble. + +Andy had tripped over a scythe blade which the stubble had hidden from +his view. His ankle had struck the back of the blade, then his foot had +turned and met the edge of the scythe. A long, jagged gash, which began +to bleed profusely, was the result. Andy struggled to his feet and +leaned up against the side of the haystack in some dismay. He measured +the distance to the brush with his eye. + +"I've got to make it if I want to be safe," the boy decided, wincing +with the pain of his injured foot, but resolute to grin and bear it till +he had the leisure to attend to it. + +A shout halted Andy. It came from the direction of the barn, and he +fancied it was Farmer Jones giving orders to some of his men. Half +decided to make a run of it anyway, he made a sudden plunge into the +haystack and nestled there. + +A clatter had come from the direction of the roadway he had just left. +Glancing in that direction, through a break in the trees, Andy had +caught a flashing view of Gus Talbot, bareheaded and excited, in a light +wagon, and lashing the horse attached to it furiously. + +Andy drew farther back in among the hay, nesting himself out a +comfortable burrow. He ventured to part the hay as he heard a great +commotion in the direction of the road. He could trace the arrival of +Gus, his discovery of the stalled automobile, and the flocking of Farmer +Jones and his men to the spot. + +Then in a little while the garage-keeper and Dale Billings arrived in +another machine. Some arrangement was made to take the various vehicles +back to the village. Then Seth Talbot, his son, and two of the farm +hands scattered over the field, making for the brush. They went in every +direction. A vigorous hunt was on, and Andy realized that it would be +wise for him to keep close to his present cover for some time to come. + +His foot was bleeding badly, and he paid what attention to it he could. +He removed his stockings, bound up the wound with a handkerchief, and +drew both stockings over the injured member. + +It was pretty irksome passing the time in his enforced prison, and +finally Andy went to sleep. It was late dusk when he woke up. He parted +the hay, and took as good a look around as he could. No one was in +sight, apparently, but he had no idea of venturing forth for some hours +to come. + +"I'm going to leave Princeville," he ruminated, "but I can't go around +the world hatless, coatless and barefooted. I don't dare venture back to +the garage for any of my belongings. That place will probably be watched +all the time for my return. Talbot, too, has probably telephoned his +'stop thief' description of me everywhere. It's the river route or +nothing, if I expect to get safely away from this district. Before I go, +though, I'm going to see Mr. Dawson." + +This was the gentleman to whom Andy had entrusted the two hundred +dollars. Andy had a very favorable opinion of him. The village banker +was a great friend of the boys of the town. He had started them in a +club, had donated a library, and Andy had attended two of his +moving-picture lectures. After the last one, Mr. Dawson had taken +occasion to pass a pleasant word with Andy, commending his attention to +the lecture. When Andy had taken the two hundred dollars to him that +morning, the banker had placed his hand on his shoulder, with the +remark: "You are a good, honest boy, Nelson, and I want to see you +later." + +"I'll wait until about nine o'clock," planned Andy, "when most of the +town is asleep, and go to Mr. Dawson's house. There's a lecture at the +club to-night, I know, and he won't get home till after ten. I'll hide +in the garden and catch him before he goes into the house. I'll tell him +my story, and ask him to lend me enough to get some shoes and the other +things I need. I know he'll do it, for he's an honest, good-hearted +man." + +This prospect made Andy light of heart as time wore on. It must have +been fully half-past eight when he began to stir about, preparatory to +leaving his hiding-place. He moved his injured foot carefully. It was +quite sore and stiff, but he planned how he would line the timber +townwards and stop at a spring and bathe and dress it again. He mapped +out a long and obscure circuit of the village to reach the home of the +banker unobserved. + +Andy was just about to emerge from the haystack when the disjointed +murmur of conversation was borne to his ears. He drew back, but peered +through the hay as best he could. It was bright moonlight. Just dodging +from one haystack to another at a little distance, Andy made out Gus +Talbot and Dale Billings. + +"Come on," he heard the latter say--"now's our chance." + +"They must be still looking for me," he told himself. + +There was no further view nor indication of the proximity of the twain +during the next hour, but caution caused Andy to defer his intended +visit to the banker. + +"The coast seems all clear now," he told himself at last, and Andy crept +out of the haystack, but promptly crept back again. + +Of a sudden a great echoing shout disturbed the silence of the night. +Some one in the vicinity of the farmhouse yelled out wildly: + +"Fire!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV--DOWN THE RIVER + + +"Fire--fire!" + +The cry that had rung out so startlingly was repeated many times. Andy +could trace a growing commotion. His burrow in the haystack faced away +from the buildings of the Jones farm, but in a minute or two a great +glare was visible even through his hay shield. + +Andy did not dare to venture out from his hiding-place. From increasing +shouts and an uproar, he could understand that the Jones household, and +then the families of neighbors were thronging to the fire. Some of these +latter, making a short cut from the road, passed directly by the +haystack in which he was hiding. + +"It's the barn," spoke a voice. + +"That's what it is, and blazing for good," was responded excitedly, and +the breathless runners hurried on. + +Andy made up his mind that he would have to stay where he was for some +time to come, if he expected to avoid capture. Very soon people from the +village came trooping to the scene. He could trace the shouts of the +bucket brigade. He heard one or two automobiles come down the road. The +glare grew brighter and the crowd bigger. Soon, however, the +stubble-field began to get shadowed again, he noticed. + +It must have taken the barn an hour to burn up. People began to repass +the haystacks on their return trips. Andy caught many fragments of +conversation. He heard a man remark: + +"They managed to save the livestock." + +"Yes," was responded; "but Jones says a couple of thousand dollars won't +cover his loss." + +"What caused it, anyhow?" + +"It was a mystery to Jones, he says, until Talbot came along. They +seemed to fix up a theory betwixt them." + +"What was that?" + +"Why, Jones was sort of hot and bitter about some boys who have bothered +him a lot of late. He walloped one or two of them. Young Gus Talbot was +among them. Jones was hinting around about the fire being set for +revenge, when Talbot spoke up and reminded him that he had headed off +that runaway apprentice of Talbot's this morning." + +"Oh, the boy they're looking for--Andy?" + +"Yes, Andy Nelson. He's the one that set the fire, Talbot declares, and +Jones believes it, and they're going to start a big hunt for him. Talbot +says he's beat him out of some money, and Jones says he's just hung +around before leaving for good to get even with him for stopping him +from getting away from Talbot." And, so speaking, the men passed on. + +"Well, this is a pretty kettle of fish!" ruminated Andy. "What next, I +wonder?" + +The refugee felt pretty serious as he realized the awkward and even +perilous situation he was in. As he recalled the fact that Gus and Dale +Billings had crossed over the field an hour before the fire broke out, +he was pretty clear in his own mind as to the identity of the firebugs. + +"It's no use of thinking about seeing Mr. Dawson now," decided Andy. +"It's too late in the evening, and too many people will be looking for +me. There's so much piling up against me, that maybe Mr. Dawson wouldn't +believe a word I say. No, it's a plain case. They haven't any use for me +in Princeville, and the sooner I get out of the town and stay out of it, +the better for me." + +Andy's foot was in no condition for a long tramp. He realized this as he +stretched it out and tested his weight upon it. He was not seriously +crippled, but he was in no shape to run a race or kick a football. + +"It's going to be no easy trick getting safely away from Princeville and +out of the district," the boy told himself. "I'll wait until about +midnight, then I'll make for the river. There's boats going and coming +as far as the lake, and I may get a lift as far as the city. I can lose +myself there, or branch out for new territory." + +Everything was still, and not a sign of life visible anywhere on the +landscape, when Andy at length ventured to leave his hiding-place. There +was a smell of burned wood in the air, and some smoke showed at the spot +where the barn had stood, but the town and the farmer's household seemed +to have gone to bed. + +No one appeared to see or follow him while crossing the stubble field, +but Andy felt a good deal easier in mind as he gained the cover of the +brush. + +The boy was entirely at home here--along the river as well. He had found +little time for recreation while working for Talbot, but whenever a +spare hour had come along he had made for the woods and the creek as a +natural playground. Now he went from thicket to thicket with a sense of +freedom. He knew a score of good hiding-places, if he should be suddenly +surprised. + +Andy looked up and down the creek when he reached it. He hoped to locate +some barge ready to go down the river with some piles of tan bark, or a +freight boat returning from the summer camps along the lake. Nothing was +moving on the stream, however, and no water craft in view. + +"I'll get below the bridge. Then I'll be safe to wait until daylight. +Something is bound to come along by that time," he reflected. + +Andy reached and passed the bridge about a mile below Princeville. There +was no other bridge for ten miles, and if he had to foot it on his +journey to the city, he would be out of the way of traversed roads. He +walked on for about half a mile and was selecting a sheltered spot to +rest in, directly on the stream, when, a few yards distant, he noticed a +light scow near shore. + +Andy proceeded towards this. It resembled many craft of its class used +by farmers to carry grain and livestock to market. Andy noticed that it +was unloaded and poles stowed amidships. He stepped aboard. No one was +in charge of it. + +"I might find some of the abandoned old skiffs or rafts the boys play +with, if I search pretty hard," soliloquized Andy, stepping ashore +again. + +"Hey!" + +Andy was startled. Tracing the source of the short, quick hail, he +discovered a man seated on a boulder near a big hazel bush. Andy was +startled a little, and slowly approached his challenger. + +The man who had spoken to him sat like a statue. He was a pale-faced +individual, with very large bright eyes, and his face was covered with a +heavy black beard. A cape that almost covered him hung from his +shoulders, completely hiding his hands. He looked Andy over keenly. + +"Did you call me, mister?" inquired Andy. + +"Yes, I did," responded the man. "I was wondering what you were doing, +lurking around here at this unearthly hour of the night." + +Andy mentally decided that it was quite as much a puzzle to him what the +stranger was doing, sitting muffled up at two o'clock in the morning in +this lonely place. + +"I was looking for a boat to take me down stream," explained Andy. + +"Are you willing to work for a lift?" inquired the man. + +"I should say so," replied Andy emphatically. + +"Do you know how to manage a craft like this one here?" + +"Oh, that's no trick at all," said Andy. "The river is clear, and +there's nothing to run into, and all you have to do is to pole along in +midstream." + +"Where do you want to get to?" + +"The city." + +"I'm not going that far. I'll tell you what I'll do, though," said the +stranger--"you pole me down to Swan Cove----" + +"That's about fifteen miles." + +"Yes. You take me that far, and I'll make it worth your while." + +"It's a bargain, and I'm delighted!" exclaimed Andy with spirit. + +"All right," said the man; "get to work." + +He never got up from his seat while Andy cast free the shore hawser. +When everything was ready he stepped aboard rather clumsily. Andy +thought it very strange that the man never offered to help him the least +bit. His passenger seated himself in the stern of the barge, the cloak +still closely enveloping his form, his hands never coming into sight. + +It was welcome work for Andy, propelling the boat. It took his mind off +his troubles, and every push of the pole and the current took him away +from the people who had injured his good reputation and were bent on +robbing him of his liberty. + +The grim, silent man at the stern of the craft was a puzzle to Andy. He +never spoke nor stirred. Our hero wondered why he kept so closely +covered up and in what line of transportation he used the barge. + +They had proceeded about two miles with smooth sailing when there was a +sudden bump. The boat had struck a snag. + +"Gracious!" ejaculated Andy, sent sprawling flat on the deck. + +The contact had lifted the stranger from his seat. He was knocked to one +side. Andy, scrambling to his feet, was tremendously startled as his +glance swept his passenger. + +The man struggled to his feet with clumsiness. He was hasty, almost +suspicious in his movements. The cloak had flown wide open, and now he +was swaying his arms around in a strange way, trying to cover them up. + +"Why!" said the youth to himself, with a sharp gasp, "the man is +handcuffed!" + + + + +CHAPTER V--TRAMPING IT + + +"Gracious!" said Andy, and made a jump clear into the water. + +The pole had swung out of his hands when the barge struck the snag. He +got wet through recovering it, but that did not matter much, for he had +little clothing on. + +By the time he had got back on deck his mysterious passenger had resumed +his old position. The cloak again completely enveloped the upper portion +of his body and his hands were out of sight. Andy acted as though his +momentary glance had not taken in the sight of the handcuffs. + +"Sorry, mister, we struck that snag, but the moon's going down and a fog +coming up, and I couldn't help it." + +"Don't mind that," was all that the man at the stern vouchsafed in +reply. + +The moon had gone down as Andy had said, but enough of its radiance had +fallen on the squirming figure of the stranger a few minutes previous to +show the cold, bright glint of the pair of manacles. Andy was sure that +the man's wrists were tightly handcuffed. A sort of a chill shudder ran +over him as he thought of it. + +"An escaped convict?" Andy asked himself. "Maybe. That's bad. I don't +want to be caught in such company, the fix I'm in." + +The thought made the passenger suddenly repellant to Andy. He had an +idea of running close to the shore and making off. + +"No, I won't do it," he decided, after a moment's reflection, "I'm only +guessing about all this. He's not got a bad face. It's rather a wild and +worried one. I'm a runaway myself, and I've got a good reason for being +so. Maybe this man has, too." + +Andy applied himself to his work with renewed vigor. It must have been +about five o'clock in the morning when the stranger directed him to +navigate up a feeder to the stream, which, a few rods beyond, ran into a +swamp pond, which Andy knew to be Swan Cove. + +A few pushes of the pole drove the craft up on a muddy slant. It was +getting light in the east now. Andy came up to the man with the +question: + +"Is this where you land, mister?" + +"Yes," nodded his passenger. "Come here." + +Andy drew closer to the speaker. + +"I told you I'd make it worth your while to pole me down the river," he +said. + +"Oh, that's all right." + +"I haven't got any money, but I want to pay you as I promised you. Take +that." + +"What, mister?" and then Andy learned what the man meant. The latter +hunched one shoulder towards the timber on which he sat, and there lay a +small open-faced silver watch. + +Andy wondered how he had managed to get it out of his pocket, but he +had, and there it lay. + +"It's worth about eight dollars," explained the man. "You can probably +get four for it. Anyhow, you can trade it off for some shoes and +clothes, which you seem to need pretty badly." + +"Yes, I do, for a fact," admitted Andy, with a slight laugh. "But see +here, mister, I don't want your watch. I couldn't ask any pay, for I +wanted to come down the creek myself, and I was just waiting to find the +chance to work my way when you came along." + +"You'll take the watch," insisted the stranger in a decided tone, "so +say no more about it, and put it in your pocket. There's only one thing, +youngster--I want to ask a favor of you." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Forget you ever saw me." + +"That will be hard to do, but I will try." + +"What's your name?" + +"Andy Nelson." + +"I'll remember that," said the man, repeating it over twice to himself. +"You'll see me again some time, Andy Nelson, even if I have to hunt you +up. You've done me a big favor. You said you were headed for the city?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, if you'll follow back to the river, and cut south a mile, you'll +come to a road running in that direction." + +"Aren't you going to use the barge any farther, mister?" inquired Andy. + +"No, and perhaps you had better not, either," answered the man, with a +short nervous laugh. + +"Well, this is a queer go!" ruminated Andy, as the man started inland +and was soon lost to view. "I wonder who he is? Probably on his way to +some friends where he can get rid of those handcuffs. Now, what for +myself?" + +Andy thought things out in a rational way, and was soon started on the +tramp. His prospective destination was the city. It was a large place, +with many opportunities for work, he concluded. He would be lost from +his pursuers in a big city like that, he theorized. + +Andy soon located the road his late passenger had indicated. He looked +at the watch a good many times. It was a plain but substantial +timepiece. It was the first watch Andy had ever owned, and he took great +pleasure in its possession. + +"I don't think I'll part with it," he said, as he tramped along. "I feel +certain I can pick up enough odd jobs on my way to the city to earn what +clothing I need and enough to eat." + +It was about seven o'clock when Andy, after a steep hill climb, neared a +fence and lay down to rest in the shade and shelter of a big straw +stack. He was asleep before he knew it. + +"What in the world is that!" he shouted, springing up, wide awake, as a +hissing, flapping, cackling hubbub filled the air, mingled with shouts +of impatience, excitement and despair. + +"Head 'em off--drive 'em in! Shoo--shoo!" bellowed out somebody in the +direction of the road. + +"Geese!" ejaculated Andy--"geese, till you can't rest or count them! +Where did they ever come from? Hi, get away!" + +As Andy stepped out of range of the straw stack, he faced a remarkable +situation. The field he was in covered about two acres. It was enclosed +with a woven-wire fence, and had a gate. Through this, from the road, a +perspiring man was driving geese, aided by a boy armed with a long +switch. + +Andy had never seen such a flock of geese before. He estimated them by +the hundreds. Nor had he ever viewed such a battered up, dust-covered, +crippled flock. Many, after getting beyond the gate, squatted down as if +exhausted. Others fell over on their sides, as if they were dying. Many +of them had torn and bleeding feet, and limped and hobbled in evident +distress. + +The man and the boy had to head off stupid and wayward groups of the +fowls to get them within the enclosure. Then when they had closed the +gate, they went back down the road. Andy gazed wonderingly after them. +For half a mile down the hill there were specks of fluttering and +lifeless white. He made them out to be fowls fallen by the wayside. + +The man and boy began to collect these, two at a time, bringing them to +the enclosure, and dropping them over the fence. It was a tiresome, and +seemed an endless task. Andy climbed the fence and joined them. + +"Hello!" hailed the man, looking a little flustered; "do you belong +around here?" + +"No; I don't," replied Andy. + +"I don't suppose any one will object to my penning in those fowls until +I find some way of getting them in trim to go on." + +"They can't do much harm," suggested Andy. "I say, I'll help you gather +up the stray ones." + +"I wish you would," responded the man, with a sound half-way between a +sigh and a groan. "I am nigh distracted with the antics of those fowls. +We had eight hundred and fifty when we started. We've lost nigh on to a +hundred in two days." + +"What's the trouble? Do they stray off?" inquired Andy, getting quite +interested. + +"No; not many of them. The trouble is traveling. I was foolish to ever +dream I could drive up to nearly one thousand geese across country sixty +miles. The worst thing has been where we have hit the hill roads and the +highways they're ballasting with crushed stone. The geese get their feet +so cut they can't walk. If we try the side of the roads, then we run +into ditches, or the fowls get under farm fences, and then it's trouble +and a chase. I say, lad," continued the man, with a glance at Andy's +bandaged foot, "you don't look any too able to get about yourself." + +"Oh, that isn't worth thinking of," declared Andy. "I'll be glad to +help." + +He quite cheered up the owner of the geese by his willingness and +activity. In half an hour's time they had all the disabled stray fowls +in the enclosure. Some dead ones were left where they had fallen by the +wayside. + +"I reckon the old nag is rested enough to climb up the rest of the hill +now," spoke the man to his companion, who was his son. "Fetch Dobbin +along, Silas, and we'll feed the fowls and get a snack ourselves." + +Andy curiously regarded the poor crowbait of a horse soon driven into +view attached to a ramshackly wagon. The horse was put to the grass near +the enclosure, and two bags of grain unearthed from a box under the seat +of the wagon and fed to the penned-in geese. + +Next Silas produced a small oil-stove, a coffee-pot and some packages, +and, seated on the grass, Andy partook of a coarse but substantial +breakfast with his new friends. + +"There's a town a little ahead, I understand," spoke the man. + +"Yes," nodded Andy; "Afton." + +"Then we've got twenty miles to go yet," sighed the man. "I don't know +how we'll ever make it." + +Andy gathered from what the man said that he and his family had gone +into the speculation of raising geese that season. The nearest railroad +to his farm was twenty miles distant. His market was Wade, sixty miles +away. He had decided to drive the geese to destination. Two-thirds of +the journey accomplished, a long list of disasters spread out behind, +and a dubious prospect ahead. + +"It would cost me fifty dollars to wagon what's left to the nearest +railroad station, and as much more for freight," said the man gloomily. + +Andy looked speculative. In his mechanical work his inventive turn of +mind always caused him to put on his thinking-cap when he faced an +obstacle. + +"I've got an idea," declared Andy brightly. "Say, mister, suppose I +figure out a way to get your geese the rest of the way to market quite +safely and comfortably, and help drive them the balance of the distance, +what will you do for me?" + +"Eh?" ejaculated the man eagerly. "Why, I'd--I'd do almost anything you +ask, youngster." + +"Is it worth a pair of shoes, and a new cap and coat?" asked Andy. + +"Yes; a whole suit," said the man emphatically, "and two good dollars a +day on top of it." + +"It's a bargain!" declared Andy spiritedly. "I think I have guessed a +way to get you out of your difficulties." + +"How?" + +"I'll show you when you are ready to start." + +Andy set to work with vigor. He went to the back of the wagon and fitted +two boards into a kind of a runway. Then he poured corn into the trough, +and hitched up the old horse. + +"Now, drive the horse, and I'll attend to the corn," he said. "I won't +give them as much as you think," he added, fearing the farmer would +object to the use of so much of his feed. + +It was not long before they were on the way. As the corn dropped along +the road, the geese ran to pick the kernels up. Andy scattered some by +hand. Soon he had the whole line of geese following the wagon. + +"Now drive in the best spots," he said. + +"I'll take to the fields," answered Mr. Pierce. + +He was as good as his word, and traveling became easy for the geese, so +that they made rapid progress. They kept on until nightfall, passing +through Afton, where Andy bought a postal card and mailed it to Mr. +Webb, stating his money had been left with Mr. Dawson. By eight o'clock +the next morning they reached Wade, and there, at a place called the +Collins' farm, Andy was paid off and given the clothing and shoes +promised. He changed his suit in a shed on the farm, and then the youth +bid his new friends good-by and went on his way. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE SKY RIDER + + +"Hold on, there!" + +"Don't stop me--out of the way!" + +"Why, whatever is the matter with you?" + +"The comet has fallen----" + +"What?" + +"On our barn." + +"See here----" + +"Run for your life. Let me go, let me go, let me--go!" + +The speaker, giving the astonished Andy Nelson a shove, had darted past +him down the hill with a wild shriek, eyes bulging and hair flying in +the breeze. + +It was the afternoon of the day Andy had said good-by to Mr. Pierce and +his friends. He was making across country on foot to strike a little +railroad town, having now money enough to afford a ride to Springfield. + +Ascending a hilly rise, topped with a great grove of nut trees, Andy got +a glimpse of a farmhouse. He was anticipating a fine cool draught of +well water, when a terrific din sounded out beyond the grove. There were +the violent snortings of cattle, the sound of smashing boards, a mixed +cackle of all kinds of fowls, and thrilling human yells. + +Suddenly rounding the road there dashed straight into Andy's arms a +terror-faced, tow-headed youth, the one who had now put down the hill as +if horned demons were after him. + +Andy divined that the center of commotion and its cause must focus at +the farmhouse. He ran ahead to come in view of the structure. + +"I declare!" gasped Andy. + +Wherever there was a cow, a horse, or a chicken, the creature was in +action. They seemed putting for shelter in a mad flight. Rushing along +the path leading to the farmhouse, a gaunt, rawboned farmer was +sprinting as for a prize. He cast fearsome glances over his shoulder, +and bawled out something to his wife, standing spellbound in the open +doorway, bounded past her, sweeping her off her feet, and slammed the +door shut with a yell. + +And then Andy's wondering eyes became fixed on an object that quite awed +and startled him for the moment. Resting over the roof of the great barn +at the rear of the house was a fantastic creation of sea-gull aspect, +flapping great wings of snowy whiteness. Spick and span, with graceful +outlines, it suggested some great mechanical bird. + +"Why," breathed Andy, lost in wondering yet enchanting amazement, "it's +an airship!" + +Andy had never seen a perfect aeroplane before. Small models had been +exhibited at the county fair near Princeville, however, and he had +studied all kinds of pictures of these remarkable sky-riders. The one on +the barn fascinated him. It balanced and fluttered--a dainty creation--so +frail and delicately adjusted that his mechanical admiration was aroused +to a degree that was almost thrilling. + +Blind to jeopardy, it seemed, a man was seated about the middle of the +tilting air craft. The barn roof was about twenty-five feet high, but +Andy could plainly make out the venturesome pilot, and his mechanical +eye ran over the strange machine with interest and delight. + +A hand lever seemed to propel the flyer, and this the man aloft grasped +while his eyes roved over the scene below. + +How the airship had got on the roof of the barn, Andy could only +surmise. Either it had made a whimsical dive, or the motive power had +failed. The trouble now was, Andy plainly saw, that one set of wings had +caught across a tin ornament at the front gable of the barn. This +represented a rooster, and had been bent in two by the tugging airship. + +"Hey, you!" sang out the man in charge of the airship. "Can you get up +here any way?" + +"There's a cleat ladder at the side." + +"All right, come up and bring a rope with you." + +Andy was only too glad to be of service in a new field that fascinated +him. The doors of the barn were open. He ran in and looked about busily. +At last he discovered a long rope hanging over a harness hook. He took +possession of it, hurried again to the outside, and nimbly ascended the +cleats. + +"Look sharp, now, and follow closely," spoke the aeronaut. "Creep along +the edge, there, and loop the rope under the end of those side wings." + +"I can do that," declared Andy. He saw what the man wanted, and it was +not much of a task to balance on the spout running along the edge of the +shingles and then climb to the ridge-pole. Andy looped the end of the +rope over an extending bar running out from the remote end of the last +paddle. + +"Now, then," called out the aeronaut in a highly-satisfied tone, "if you +can get to the seat just behind me, fetching the rope with you, we'll +soon be out of this tangle." + +"All right," said Andy. + +"And I'll give you the ride of your life." + +"Will you, mister?" cried Andy, with bated breath and sparkling eyes. + +The boy began creeping along the slant of the barn roof. It was slow +progress, for he saw that he must keep the rope from getting tangled. +Another hindrance to rapid progress was the fact that he had to be +careful not to graze or disturb the delicate wings of the machine. + +About half the directed progress covered, Andy paused and looked down. +The door of the farmhouse was in his range of vision, and the farmer had +just opened it cautiously. + +He stuck out his head, and bobbed it in again. The next minute he +ventured out a little farther. Now he came out on the stoop of the +house. + +"Hey, you!" he yelled, waving his hands up at the aeronaut. + +"Well, neighbor?" interrogated the latter. + +"What kind of a new-fangled thing is that you've stuck on my barn?" + +"It's an airship." + +"Like we read about in the papers?" + +"Yes." + +"Sho! and I thought----Who's afraid?" and he darted back again into the +house. Immediately he reappeared. He carried an old-fashioned +fowling-piece, and he ran out directly in front of the barn. + +[Illustration: "IT'S AN AIRSHIP!"] + +Andy read his purpose. He readily guessed that the farmer was one of +those miserly individuals who make the most out of a mishap--the kind who +think it smart to put a dead calf in the road and make an automobilist +think he had killed it. At all events, the farmer looked bold enough +now, as he posed in the middle of the road, with the ominous +announcement: + +"I've got a word for you up there." + +"What is it?" inquired the aeronaut. + +"Who's going to settle for this damage?" + +"What damage?" + +"What damage!" howled the farmer, feigning great rage and indignation; +"hosses jumped the fence and smashed down the gate; chickens so scared +they won't lay for a month; wife in a spasm, and that there ornament up +there--why, I brought that clear from the city." + +"All right, neighbor; what's your bill?" + +"Two hundred dollars." + +The aeronaut laughed. + +"You're not modest or anything!" he observed. "See here; I'll toss you a +five-dollar bill, and that covers ten times the entire trouble I've made +you." + +The farmer lifted his gun. He squinted across the long, awkward barrel, +and he pointed it straight up at the sky-rider and his craft. + +"Mister," he said fiercely, "my bill is two hundred dollars, just as I +said. You pay it, right here, right now, or I'll blow that giddy-fangled +contraption of yours into a thousand pieces!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII--JOHN PARKS, AIRSHIP KING + + +"Keep right on," ordered the aeronaut to Andy in a low tone. + +Andy squeezed under a bulge of muslin and wood and reached what looked +like a low, flat-topped stool. + +"Do you hear me?" yelled the farmer, brandishing his weapon and trying +to look very fierce and dangerous. + +The aeronaut, Andy noticed, was reaching in his pocket. He drew out two +small bills and some silver. He made a wad of this. Poising it, he gave +it a fling. + +"There's five dollars," he spoke to the farmer. + +The wad hit the farmer on the shoulder, opened, and the silver scattered +at his feet. He hopped aside. + +"I won't take it; I'll have my price, or I'll have the law on you, and +I'll take the law in my own hands!" he shouted. + +Snap!--the fowling-piece made a sound, and quick-witted Andy noticed that +it was not a click. + +"See here," he whispered quickly to the aeronaut; "that man just snapped +the trigger to scare us, and I don't believe the old blunderbuss is +loaded." + +"All ready," spoke the aeronaut to Andy, as the latter reached the seat. + +"Yes, sir," reported Andy. + +"When I back, give the rope a pull and hold taut till we clear the +barn." + +"I'll do it," said Andy. + +"Go!" + +There was a whir, a delicious tremulous lifting movement that now made +Andy thrill all over, and the biplane backed as the aeronaut pulled a +lever. + +Andy gave the rope a pull and lifted the entangled wing entirely clear +of the weather-vane. + +"Now, hold tight and enjoy yourself," spoke the aeronaut, reversing the +machine. + +"Oh, my!" breathed Andy rapturously the next moment, and he forgot all +about the farmer and nearly everything else mundane in the delight and +novelty of a brand-new experience. + +Andy had once shot the chutes, and had dreamed about it for a month +afterwards. He recalled his first spin in an automobile with a thrill +even now. That was nothing to the present sensation. He could not +analyze it. He simply sat spellbound. One moment his breath seemed taken +away; the next he seemed drawing in an atmosphere that set his nerves +tingling and seemed to intoxicate mind and body. + +The aeronaut sat grim and watchful in the pilot seat of the glider, +never speaking a word. He had skimmed the landscape for quite a reach. +Then, where the ground began to slant, he said quickly: + +"Notice my left foot?" + +"I do," said Andy. + +"Put yours on the stabilizing shaft when I take mine off." + +"Stabilizing shaft," repeated Andy, memorizing, "and the name of the +airship painted on that big paddle is the _Eagle_. Oh, hurrah for the +_Eagle_!" + +"When I whistle once, press down with your foot. Twice, you take your +foot off. When I whistle twice, pull over the handle right at your side +on the center-drop." + +"'Center-drop'?" said Andy. "I'm getting it fast." + +Z--zip! Andy fancied that something was wrong, for the machine contorted +like a horse raising on his rear feet. Toot! Andy did not lose his +nerve. Toot--toot! he grasped the handle at his side and pulled it back. + +"Good for you!" commended the aeronaut heartily. "Now, then, for a +spin." + +Andy simply looked and felt for the next ten minutes. The pretty, dainty +machine made him think of a skylark, an arrow, a rocket. He had a +bouyant sensation like a person taking laughing gas. + +The lifting planes moved readily under the manipulation of an expert +hand. There was one level flight where the airship exceeded any railroad +speed Andy had ever noted. Farms, villages, streams, hills, faded behind +them in an endless panorama. + +Toot!--Andy followed instructions. They slowed up over a town that seemed +to be some railroad center. Beyond it the machine skimmed a broad +prairie and then gracefully settled down in the center of a fenced-in +space. + +Its wheels struck the ground. They rolled along for about fifty yards, +and halted by the side of a big tent with an open flap at one side. + +"This is the stable," said the aeronaut, showing Andy how to get from +his seat on the delicate and complicated apparatus of the flyer. +"Dizzy-headed?" + +"Why, no," replied Andy. + +"Wasn't frightened a bit?" + +"Not with you at the helm," declared Andy. "Mister, if I could do that, +I'd live up in the air all the time." + +"You only think so," said the aeronaut, the smile of experience upon his +practical but good-humored face. "When you've been at it as long as I +have, you'll feel different. What's your name?" + +"Andy Nelson." + +"Out of a job?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The aeronaut looked Andy over critically, + +"That little frame building at the end of the tent is where we keep +house," he explained. "The big rambling barracks, once a coal-shed, is +my shop. I'm John Parks. Ever hear of me?" + +"No, sir," said Andy. + +"I'm known all over the country as the Airship King." + +"I can believe that," said Andy, "but, you see, I have never traveled +far." + +"I've made it a business giving exhibitions at fairs and aero meets with +this glider and with a dirigible balloon. Just now I'm drilling for a +prize race--five thousand dollars." + +"That's some money," observed Andy, "and I guess you'll win it." + +"I see you like me, and I like you," said John Parks. "Suppose you help +me win that prize? I need good loyal help around me, and the way you +obey orders pleases me. I'll make you an offer--your keep and ten +dollars." + +"And I'll be near the airship?" asked Andy eagerly. "And learn to run +it?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, my!" cried the boy, almost lifted off his feet. "Mr. Parks, I can't +realize such good luck." + +"It's yours for the choosing," said the aeronaut. + +"Ten dollars a month and my board for helping run an airship!" said Andy +breathlessly. "Oh, of course I'll take it--gladly." + +"No," corrected John Parks, "ten dollars a week." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE AERO FIELD + + +"That's settled," said the Airship King. "Come, Andy, and I'll introduce +you to our living quarters." + +Andy felt as if he was treading on air. He was too overcome to speak +intelligently. Clear of the spiteful Talbot brood, the proud possessor +of a new suit, a watch, five dollars, and the prospect of a princely +salary, he felt that life had indeed begun all over for him in golden +numbers. He caught at the sleeve of his generous employer. + +"Mr. Parks," he said with emotion, "it's like a dream." + +"That's all right, Andy," laughed the aeronaut. "I'm pretty liberal, +they say--that is, when I've got the money. I've seen my hard times, +though. All I ask is to have a man stick to me through thick and thin +and I'll bring him out all right." + +"I'll stick to you as long as you'll let me," declared Andy. + +"Yes, you're true blue, Andy, I honestly believe. I've staked a good +deal on the aero meet next month. I've just got to get that +five-thousand-dollar prize to make good, for I've invested a good deal +here." + +"I hope I can help you do it," said Andy fervently. + +"The _Eagle_ is only a trial craft. Over in the workshop yonder, I've +got a genius of a fellow, named Morse, working for me, who is turning +out the latest thing in airships. Here's our living quarters." + +Mr. Parks led Andy into the shed-like structure that formed the back of +the tent which sheltered the aeroplane and also a dirigible balloon. +They passed through several partitioned-off spaces holding cots. Then +there was a comfortable sitting room. Next to it was a kitchen. + +This room was sizzling hot, for it held a big cooking-range, before +which an aproned cook stood with an immense basting spoon in his hand. +He was the blackest, fattest cook Andy had ever seen. His eyes were big +with jolly fun, and his teeth gleamed white and full as he grinned and +nodded. + +"I've brought you a new boarder, Scipio," said Mr. Parks. "His name is +Andy Nelson. You'll have to set another place." + +Then he stepped through a doorway outside, and Scipio took a critical +look at Andy. + +"'Nother plate, eh?" he chuckled. "Dat's motion easy, but what about de +contents of dat plate? Fohteen biscuit do de roun's now. Yo' look like a +likely healthy boy. I reckon I have to double up on de rations." + +It was a royally good meal that was spread out on the table in the +sitting room about four o'clock in the afternoon. + +"Where's Mr. Morse, Scipio?" inquired Mr. Parks, as the cook brought in +a smoking roast. + +"Mistah Morse have to be excused dis reflection, sah, I believe," +responded Scipio. "I ask him 'bout noon what he like foh dinnah. He dat + sorbed in his work he muttah something bout fractions, quations and +dirigible expulsions; I hab none ob dose to cook. Jus' now I go to call +him to dinnah, an' I find him deeper than ever poring over dose wheels +an' jimdracks ob machinery, and when I say de meal was ready, he observe +dat de quintessimal prefix ob de cylinder was X. O. plus de jibboom ob +de hobolinks. It sounded like dat, anyhow. Berry profound man, dat, sah. +I take him in his meal later, specially, sah." + +From this and other references to the man in the shop, Andy decided that +Mr. Morse must be quite a proficient mechanician. He longed to get a +peep into his workshop. After dinner, however, Mr. Parks said: + +"Would you like to stroll over to the big aero practice field, Andy?" + +"I should, indeed," responded Andy. + +He found the aviation field to be a more or less shrouded locality. It +was reached only by crossing myriad railroad tracks, dodging oft-shunted +freight-cars, scaling embankments and crossing ditches. The field was +dotted with shelter tents for the various air machines, trial chutes and +perfecting shops. + +There were any number of monoplanes, biplanes and dirigible balloons. On +the different tents was painted the name of the machine housed therein. +There was the _Montgo_, _Glider_, the _Flying Dutchman_, the _Lady +Killer_, and numerous other novelties with fanciful names. + +"Every professional seems to be getting up the oddest freak he can think +of," explained Parks. "Do you see that new-fangled affair with the round +discs? That is called the helicopotol. That two-winged, +one-hundred-bladed freak just beyond is the gyropter. Watch that fellow +just going up with the tandem rig. That's a new thing, too. It's of the +collapsible type, made for quick transportation, but not worth a cent as +a racer." + +Andy was in a realm of rare delight. He passed the happiest and most +interesting hour of his life looking over and studying all these +wonderful aerial marvels about him. + +When they got back to camp, the aeronaut showed Andy where he would +sleep, and told him something about the routine. + +"I am making test runs with the _Eagle_," he explained, "and will want +you to sail with me for a day or two. Then you may try a grasshopper run +or two yourself." + +"I shall like it immensely," declared Andy with enthusiasm. + +When Mr. Parks had left him, Andy wandered outside. The sound of a +twanging banjo led him to the front of the kitchen quarters. + +Seated on a box, his eyes closed, his face wearing an expression of +supreme felicity, was Scipio. Strains of "My Old Kentucky Home" floated +on the air. The musician, opening his eyes, happened to spy Andy. + +"Tell you, chile," declared the portly old cook, with a rare sigh of +longing, "des yar Scip could play dat tune all night long." + +"Keep right at it, Scipio," smiled Andy. "You go on enjoying your music, +while I do up any little chores you have to attend to." + +"If it wouldn't be a deposition on yo'," remarked Scipio thoughtfully, +"dar's de suppah dishes I'd like brung back from Mistah Morse's +quarters." + +"Can I find them?" inquired Andy. + +"Yo' jess follow yo' nose down through the big shed," directed Scipio. +"Mistah Morse nevah notice yo'. He's dat substracted he work all night." + +Andy proceeded on his mission. Passing through one shed, he saw a light +at the end of one adjoining. In the second shed he came to a halt with +sparkling eyes and bated breath. + +Across a light platform lay the skeleton of an airship. Its airy +elegance and fine mechanism appealed to Andy intensely. He went clear +around it, wishing he had the inventive faculty to construct some like +masterpiece in its line. + +Just beyond the machine was a small apartment where a light was burning. +Near its doorway was a table upon which Andy observed a tray of dishes +and the remnants of a meal. + +He moved forward carefully to remove them, for seated at a work-bench +and deeply engrossed in some work at a small lathe, was a man wearing +great goggles on his eyes. + +"It must be Mr. Morse, the airship inventor," thought Andy. + +Just then the inventor removed his goggles, rubbed his eyes and turned +his face towards Andy. + +With a crash the boy dropped a plate, and with a profound start he drew +back, staring blankly at the man at the bench. + +"Oh, my!" said Andy breathlessly. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE AIRSHIP INVENTOR + + +Morse, the inventor, made a grab for his eye-goggles. He had become a +shade paler. He did not take up the goggles, however. Instead, he turned +his back on Andy. + +Our hero had a right to be startled. He stood staring and spellbound, +for he had recognized the inventor in an instant. He was the handcuffed +man he had poled down the river from Princeville the night of the flight +from the Talbots, and who had given him the very watch he now carried in +his pocket with such pride and satisfaction. + +The man had shaved off his full beard since Andy had first met him. This +made him look different. It was the large, restless eyes, however, that +had betrayed his identity. Andy would know them anywhere. He at once +realized that the inventor had sought to disguise himself. Probably, +Andy reasoned, he had caught him off his guard with the goggles off his +eyes. + +"What did you say 'oh, my!' for?" suddenly demanded the inventor. + +"I--I thought I recognized you--I thought I knew you," said Andy. + +"Do you think so now?" inquired the inventor, turning sharply face +about. + +"I certainly thought I knew you." + +"And suppose you was right?" + +"If you were really the person I supposed," replied Andy, "I would have +done just exactly what I promised to do when I last saw that person." + +"And what was that?" + +"To forget it." + +"You'd keep your word, eh?" + +"I generally try to." + +The man's eyes seemed riveted on Andy in a peculiar way that made the +boy squirm. There was something uncanny about it all. Andy experienced a +decidedly disagreeable creeping sensation. The inventor was silent for a +moment or two. Then he asked: + +"Who sent you here?" + +"I wasn't sent by any one. I just came." + +"How?" + +"With Mr. Parks--in his airship." + +"Are you going to stay here?" + +"He has hired me at ten dollars a week and board," proudly announced +Andy. + +"He's a good man," said Morse. "I don't think he'd pick you out if you +were a bad boy. What time is it?" + +This question was so significant that it flustered Andy. He drew out his +watch in a blundering sort of a way, fancying that he detected the faint +shadow of a smile on the face of his interlocutor. + +"It's half-past seven," he reported. + +"Watch keep good time?" + +"Yes, sir. The man who gave it to me was the man whom I took you for." + +"Good timepiece." + +"Splendid." + +"U-m. What's your name?" + +"Andy Nelson." + +"I'm going to trust you, Andy Nelson; I don't think I will have any +reason to regret it." + +"I will try to deserve your confidence, Mr. Morse." + +"Oh, you know my name?" + +"Yes, sir. I heard Mr. Parks speak of you." + +"I see--of course. I must be cautious after this, though. I had an idea +that shaving off my beard would change my appearance, but as you +recognized me, I must not be seen by outsiders without my goggles. Andy, +I do not wish Mr. Parks to know anything about that handcuff affair of +mine." + +"All right, sir." + +"I suppose it struck you suspiciously." + +"It did at first," confessed Andy. "When I came to think it over, +though, I remembered that I was in trouble and acting suspiciously +myself. I knew that I was right in my motives, and I hoped you were." + +"I'll tell you something, Andy," said the inventor. "It won't be much +for the present, but later I may tell you a good deal more. A bad crowd +have a hold on me, a certain power that has enabled them to scare me and +rob me at times. I am an inventor. They knew that I was getting up a new +airship. They captured me and locked me up. They demanded a price for my +liberty--that I would disclose my plan to them. I consented. They even +forced me to make a working model. The night before the day I intended +to complete it I made my escape, but handcuffed. You came along and +helped me on the way to freedom. After I left the barge on the creek I +got to the home of a friend, disguised myself, and came here and hired +out with Mr. Parks." + +"But your invention the rascals got away from you?" + +"Let them keep it," responded the inventor, "so long as they do not +trouble me again. There was a defect in the model they stole from me. +Unless they are smart enough to remedy it, they may find out they +haven't made so big a haul as they anticipate. Look here, Andy." + +Mr. Morse beckoned our hero over to the work-bench and showed him a +drawing. + +"The work you see in the big room," he said, "is the skeleton of this +machine. I am basing great hopes on it. I want to make a record in +aviation, for I believe it will be the most promising field for +inventors for many years to come. If you are going to work with us, you +should know what is going on. This is my new model." + +As Mr. Morse spoke, he became intent and eloquent. He lost himself in +his enthusiasm as an inventor. Andy was a ready listener, and it was +delightful to him to explore this marvel of machines. + +"What I hope to accomplish," explained Mr. Morse, "is to construct a +combined steerer and balancer on one lever. I aim to make this lever not +only tilt the flyer to which it is attached on a transverse axis, but +also on a longitudinal axis. It is called a double-action horizontal +rudder, and if I succeed will give instantaneous control of a +flying-machine under all conditions, be it a high wind or the failing of +motive power. I combine with it a self-righting automatic balance. It is +a brand-new idea. I thought those villains I have told you about had +stolen my greatest idea, but this beats it two to one." + +"Will they try to use the invention they stole from you?" inquired Andy. + +"Of course they will--to their cost--if they are too rash," declared the +inventor seriously. "That was a rudder idea, too." + +"Tell me about it, Mr. Morse," pleaded Andy; "I am greatly interested in +it all." + +"I am going to tell you, Andy," responded the inventor, "because I +believe the men who imprisoned me will try to enter the prize contest, +and I want to keep track of them. I don't dare venture among them +myself, but I may ask you to seek them out and bring me some news." + +"Yes, sir," said Andy. + +"The head man of the crowd is an old circus man named Duske. It is a +good name for him, for he is dark in looks and deed. The idea they have +stolen from me is this: In place of the conventional airship rudder, I +planned to equip the aeroplane with movable rear sections of pipe, the +main sections of this pipe to extend the full length of the craft. +Suction wheels at each end of the main tube force the air backwards +through the tube, the force of this air explosion driving the nose of +the craft into the air when the movable section of the tube is raised, +lowering it when it is pointed downwards, and providing for its lateral +progress on the same principle. Do you follow me?" + +"I can almost see the machine right before my eyes, the way you tell +about it!" said Andy, with breathless enthusiasm. + + + + +CHAPTER X--LEARNING TO FLY + + +That was the first of many pleasant and interesting visits that Andy had +with Mr. Morse, the inventor. By the end of the week the automobile boy +had become an airship enthusiast. Andy was charmed. When he was not +pottering about the _Eagle_ or sailing the air with John Parks, he was +with Mr. Morse in a congenial atmosphere of mechanics. + +Although John Parks was now engrossed in using his glider, he had not +given up using his dirigible balloon, and he also gave Andy some lessons +in running this. + +The dirigible was shaped like a fat cigar, and had under it a frame-work +carrying a thirty horse-power motor and two six-foot suction wheels. +When there was no wind, the dirigible could sail quite well, but in a +breeze it was hard to make much progress, and to use it in a high wind +was entirely out of the question. + +[Illustration: HE GAVE ANDY SOME LESSONS IN RUNNING THIS] + +"The monoplanes and biplanes make the old-style balloons and the +dirigibles take a back seat," said the Airship King. "But, just the +same, if your motor gives out, a dirigible is a nice thing to float down +in." + +"I like the dirigible," answered Andy. "But for speed, give me the new +kind of flying machines." + +Andy was in his element among the lathes, vises, saws, and general tools +of the workshop. Once or twice he made practical suggestions that +pleased Morse greatly. The inventor rarely left the camp, and when he +did it was generally after dark. There was material and aeroplane parts +to purchase. These commissions were entrusted to Andy, and he showed +intelligence in his selections. Once he had to go fifty miles on the +railroad to a factory to have some special devices made. He used such +dispatch, and was so successful in getting just what was wanted by +staying with the order till it was filled, that Mr. Morse warmly +commended him to Parks. + +Andy had drifted completely away from the old life. He was fast +forgetting all about the Talbots and his former troubles at Princeville. +One day, in a burst of satisfaction over a trial flight Andy made alone +in a monoplane, John Parks declared that he would not rest until he had +made Andy the junior air king of America. Then Andy felt that he had +found his mission in life, and pursued his new avocation with more +fervor than ever. + +About all Parks thought or talked of was the coming aero meet. Andy +learned that he was investing over two thousand dollars in maintaining +the camp and in building the machine with which he was to compete for +the prize. His success would mean something more than the winning of the +five thousand dollars. It would add to the laurels already gained as the +Air King in his former balloon experience, and would make him a +prominent figure in the aviation field. + +"Come on, Andy," he said to his young assistant one afternoon. "We'll +stroll over to the main grounds and see what new wrinkle these ambitious +fellows are getting up." + +They spent an interesting hour over in the main enclosure where +prospective exhibitors were located. There was quite a crowd of +visitors. Some of the aviators were explaining the make-up of their +machines, and others were making try-out flights. Parks and Andy were +passing to the outfield where the test ascensions were in progress, when +the former suddenly left the side of his companion. + +Andy was surprised to see him hasten up behind a sinister-looking man, +who was apparently explaining to an old farmer about the machines. Parks +seized the man rudely by the arm and faced him around squarely. The +latter scowled, and then a strange, wilted expression came into his dark +face. + +"Excuse this gentleman, if you will," said Parks to the farmer. + +"Why, suttinly," bobbed the ruralite. "Much obleeged to him for being so +perlite in showing me 'round." + +Parks drew the shrinking man he had halted to the side of a tent. + +"Now, then, Gib Duske," he said sternly, "what were you up to with that +greenhorn?" + +"He told you, didn't he?" growled the other; "showing him the sights." + +"You're given to doing such things for nothing!" rejoined Parks +sarcastically. "I recall some of your exploits in that line in the rural +districts when you were with the circus." + +"See here," broke out the other angrily, "what is it your business?" + +"Just this," retorted Parks steadily; "we're trying to run a decent +enterprise here, and such persons as you have got to give an account of +themselves or vacate. What's your game, anyhow?" + +"I'm up to no game that I know of," sullenly muttered the man called Gib +Duske. "If you must know, I've entered my airship for the race." + +"You!" exclaimed Parks; "'Your airship!' Where did you get an airship?" + +"I suppose I have friends to back me like anybody else when they see a +show for their money. I'm an old balloonist. A syndicate, knowing my +professional skill, has put up the capital to give me a try." + +"Oh, they have?" observed Parks incredulously. "I'd like to see your +syndicate." + +"And I've got my machine," declared Duske excitedly, "I'd have you know. +I've heard you're entered. Fair play, then, and I'm going to beat the +field." + +Parks eyed his companion in speculative silence for a minute or two. +Then he said: + +"You talk about fair play. Good! You'll get it here, if you're square. +If you're not, you had best take my warning right now, and cut out for +good. There will be no balloon slitting like there was at a certain race +you were in two years ago out West. The first freak or false play you +make to queer an honest go, I'll expose you to the field." + +"I've got no such intentions," mumbled Duske, with a malicious glance at +his challenger. + +"See you don't, that's all," retorted Parks, and walked off. "You +noticed that man?" he added, as he rejoined Andy, who had listened with +interest to the conversation. + +"Yes, particularly," answered Andy, really able to tell his employer +more than he dared. + +"Whenever you run across him," went on the Air King, "keep your eyes +wide open. I'd like to know just how much truth there is in his talk +about entering for the race." + +"Is he a bad man, Mr. Parks?" inquired Andy. + +"He was once a confidence man," explained the aeronaut. "When I knew him +he was giving balloon ascensions at a circus. He had a hired crowd +picking pockets while people were staring up into the air watching his +trapeze acts. Once at a race he slyly slit the balloon of an antagonist, +who was nearly killed by the fall." + +"I'll find out just what he is doing," exclaimed Andy. + +"You can manage, for he knows me," observed Parks. + +Andy said no more. He was pretty sure from the name and description that +the fellow whom his employer had just called down was the enemy that Mr. +Morse had told him about. He wished he could tell Mr. Parks all that he +knew and surmised, but he could not break his promise to the inventor. + +"Hello, there, Ridley!" hailed Parks, as they came to where a lithe, +undersized man was volubly boasting to an open-mouthed crowd about the +superior merits of his machine. "Bragging again?" + +"Go on, John Parks," called the little man good-naturedly. "I'm not in +your class, so what are you jumping on me for?" + +"Oh, just to stir you up and keep you encouraged. I hear you've got a +machine that will land just as steadily and balance on top of a +telegraph-pole as on a prairie." + +"That's pretty near the truth, John Parks," declared Ridley. "I can't +make a mile in thirty seconds, but I can get to the ground on a straight +dive ahead of your clumsy old _Eagle_, or any other racer on the field." + +"Why, Ridley," retorted Parks, in a vaunting way, "I've got a boy here +who can give you a handicap and double discount you." + +"Is that him?" inquired Ridley, with a stare at Andy. + +"That's him out of harness," laughed Parks. "Like to see him do +something?" + +"Just to show you're all bluster, I would," answered Ridley. + +"Machine in order?" + +"True as a trivet." + +"Andy, give them a sample of a real bird diving, will you?" + +"All right," said Andy. + +He had not been tutored by his skillful employer vainly. Andy was in +excellent practice. He got into the clear, started up the Ridley +machine, and took a shoot on a straight slant up into the air about one +hundred and fifty feet. + +A cry of surprise went up from the watching group as Andy suddenly let +the biplane slide on a sharp angle towards the ground, shutting off the +power at the same time. + +Again reaching a fair height, he tipped the biplane on an angle of five +degrees and came down so fast that the spectators thought something was +wrong. When the machine was within a yard of the ground, Andy brought it +to the horizontal with ease and made a pretty landing. + +"Well, Ridley," rallied John Parks, as the stupefied owner of the +machine stared in open-mouthed wonder, "what do you say to that?" + +"What do I say," repeated Ridley. "I say, look out for your laurels, +John Parks. That boy is a wonder!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI--SPYING ON THE ENEMY + + +"There is that man again, Mr. Parks." + +"Duske? Yes." + +"Shall I follow him?" + +"I'd like to know just what he is about." + +"I would like to try and find out," declared Andy, with more eagerness +than his employer suspected. + +"All right, Andy; look him up a bit. Watch out for trouble, though, for +he is a dangerous man." + +It was late in the afternoon of the day succeeding Andy's sensational +performance, and Parks and his young assistant were again on the +aviation field. + +Andy had made out the man whom Parks had called Duske carrying two cans +of gasoline past a tent. He did not seem to have observed Parks, and +Andy did not believe that he knew him. Andy left the side of his +employer, and, circulating around kept Duske in sight from a distance. + +The boy had not said anything to Mr. Morse about Duske. He felt certain +that Duske was one of the enemies the inventor had described. Just at +present, however, Andy considered it would be unwise to disturb Morse. +The latter had almost completed the new airship. His mind was absorbed +in his task, and he was working day and night. + +Duske passed the last tent on the field, and then struck off beyond some +old railroad sheds to the side of an abandoned switchyard. Scattered +here and there over this space were several tents. They were occupied by +aero contestants who had not been able to get a favorable location on +the big field, or by those who had sought this seclusion because they +wished to be isolated with some fancied new invention, the details of +which they did not wish their contestants to learn. + +Finally Duske seemed to arrive at his destination. It was where stout +canvas had been stretched about fifty feet out from the blank side of an +old frame shed. These strips of canvas and the shed cut out completely a +view of what was beyond. The front of this enclosure was guarded by a +roof set up on posts, this leading into the entrance tent of the main +enclosure. + +A man about as sinister looking as Duske himself was cooking something +on a stove, and two others were lounging on a bench near by. Duske +carried the gasoline cans out of sight. Andy got around to the side of +the enclosure, way back near its shed end. + +It was getting well on toward nightfall, and he felt that he was secure +in making some bold, prompt investigations. There was no doubt that the +large tent enclosed the airship which Duske and his crowd intended to +enter for the race. Andy attempted to lift the canvas at one or two +points, but found it securely pegged to the ground. + +"Humph!" he soliloquized, "everything nailed down tight. Must make their +trial flights at midnight. They must think they have got a treasure in +there. I've got to see it." + +Finally Andy came to a laced section of the canvas, which he was able to +press apart a foot or more by tight tugging. He squeezed through, and +stood inside the enclosure. + +There was light enough to show outlines, and with a good deal of +curiosity Andy walked around and inspected an aeroplane propped up on a +platform in the center of the enclosure. He came to a halt at one end of +the machine. Two long hollow tubes extended beyond the folding planes. + +"Why," breathed Andy, "it's the idea they stole from Mr. Morse. Here's +the suction apparatus, and all!" + +"Hi, there! who are you?" + +The challenge came so sharp and sudden that Andy was taken completely +off his guard. Two men had come from the front tent, their footsteps +being noiseless on the soft earth floor. One of them was the man Duske. + +"Just looking around," replied Andy, edging away and pulling his cap +down over his eyes. + +"How did you get in here?" + +"Slit in the canvas." + +"Don't let him go--grab him," ordered Duske's companion quickly, and Andy +began to back towards the canvas. + +Duske reached out and made a grab at Andy. The latter dodged, but +Duske's hand landed on his cap. His glance falling to the inside peak, +he could not help reading there the words: "_Eagle_--Andy Nelson." + +Nearly everything worn by Parks and Andy, as all the parts of the +_Eagle_, were marked, so that in case of an accident identification +would be easy. + +"_'Eagle'!_" cried Duske, bristling up. "Do you belong to the _Eagle_ +crowd?" + +"He's a spy--head him off!" shouted the other man. + +"_'Eagle'_--'Andy Nelson'," continued Duske. "That's your name, is it? +Now then, what are you snooping around here for?" + +"What's that, what's that?" challenged the other man quickly. "'Andy +Nelson?' Say, Duske, that sounds familiar. I just read that name +somewhere--I have it--in a newspaper----" + +"Thunder! he's slipped us," exclaimed Duske. + +Both men had started for Andy. The latter let them come on, ducked down, +dove straight between them, ran to the slitted canvas, squeezed through, +and sprinted away from the spot on feet of fleetness. + +"I don't know how much I have mixed up affairs," he reflected, as he +made for the home camp. "Those fellows know my name and that I am with +Mr. Parks. What bothers me most, is what the man said about seeing my +name in a newspaper. Some one here--in an automobile." + +As Andy reached home he observed an automobile in front of the living +quarters. A man came out as Andy stood wondering who the visitor could +be. Andy noticed that he carried a small black case. + +"A doctor," he decided hastily. "Can any one be sick? What has +happened?" he asked, as Scipio came out. + +"Hahd luck, chile, hahd luck!" replied the cook very seriously. "Yo +bettah see Mistah Parks right away." + +Andy hurried to the sitting room. Lying covered up on a couch, his right +arm in splints, and looking pale and distressed, was the aeronaut. + +"Oh, Mr. Parks! what is the matter?" asked Andy in alarm. + +"Everything off, lad," replied his employer, with a wince and a groan. +"I've had a bad fall, arm broken in two places, and we can't make the +airship race." + + + + +CHAPTER XII--TRACED DOWN + + +"Be careful, Mr. Parks!" + +"Foh goodness sake, sah! Yo want to break dat arm ober again?" + +Mr. Morse, the inventor, and Scipio, the cook, made a frantic rush for +the aeronaut. They were grouped together in the center of the space +occupied by their camp. The eyes of each had been fixed on an object +floating about in the air over-head. All had been pleased and excited, +but particularly Parks. Now as the object aloft made a skim that seemed +to beat a mile a minute dash, John Parks lost all control of himself. + +He forgot the fractured arm he had carried in a sling for three days, +and actually tried to wave it, as he burst forth: + +"Morse, you're a genius, and that boy, Andy Nelson, is the birdman of +the century!" + +Andy deserved the praise fully that was being bestowed upon him. That +morning Mr. Morse had completed the _Racing Star_, his new airship. At +the present moment it was making its initial flight. + +The relieved, contented face of Morse showed his satisfaction over the +fact that his work was done and done well. Scipio stared goggle-eyed. As +to John Parks, expert sky sailor that he was, his practiced eye in one +moment had discerned the fact that the _Racing Star_ was the latest and +best thing out in aviation, and he went fairly wild over the masterly +way in which Andy handled the machine. + +Andy aloft, had eye, nerve and breath strained to test the splendid +device to its complete capacity. He was himself amazed at the beauty the +utility of the dainty creation just turned out from the workshop. What +the Airship King had taught him Andy had not forgotten. After five +minutes spent in exploiting every angle of skill he possessed, Andy +brought the superb aeroplane down to the ground, graceful as a swan. +John Parks ran up to him, chuckling with delight. + +"You wonder! you daisy!" he roared, shaking Andy's hand with his well +arm. + +Andy was flushed with triumph and excitement. + +"If there's any wonder to talk about," he said, "it's that glorious +piece of work, the _Racing Star_, and the splendid man who made it." + +Morse smiled, a rare thing for him. Then he said modestly: + +"It will do the work, handled as you manage it, Andy." + +"I feel like a caged lion, or an eagle with its wings clipped!" stormed +Parks, with a glance at his bandaged arm. "Why did I go trying to show a +bungling amateur how to run an old wreck of a monoplane, and get my arm +broken for my pains, and lose that five-thousand-dollar prize!" + +"There is time to enter a substitute, Mr. Parks," suggested the +inventor. + +"Who?" demanded the aeronaut scornfully. "Some amateur who will sell me +out or bungle the race, and maybe smash up my last thousand dollars?" + +"Mr. Parks," said Andy, in a quick breath, and colored up and paused +suddenly. "I'd be glad to try it. Say the word, and I'll train day and +night for the race." + +"Andy, win it, and half of that five thousand dollars is yours." + +From excitement and incoherency, the little group got down to a serious +discussion of the situation during the next half hour. + +"It's just one week from the race," said Andy. "What can't I do in +learning to run the _Racing Star_ in that time?" + +"Andy, you must make it," declared Parks energetically. "It just seems +as if my heart would break if we lost this record." + +Mr. Morse got out a chart he had drawn of the run to be made on the +twenty-first of the month. + +"The course is very nearly a straight one," explained Parks; "from the +grounds here to Springfield, where the State fair is going on. Pace will +be set by a Central Northern train, carrying assistants and repairs. The +fleet will be directed by a large American flag floating from the rear +of the train. It's almost a beeline, Andy, and the _Racing Star_ is +built for speed." + +They made another ascent the next morning. Air and breeze conditions +were most favorable for the try-out. Seated amidships, wearing a leather +jacket, cap and gloves, Andy had the motor keyed up to its highest +speed. The quick sequence of its exhaust swelled like a rapid-fire gun. + +The machine rolled forward, the propellers beat the air, and the _Racing +Star_ rose on a smooth parabola. Andy attempted some volplane skits that +were fairly hair-raising. He raced with real birds. He practiced with +the wind checks. For half an hour he kept up a series of practice stunts +of the most difficult character. + +"Oh, but you're a crack scholar, Andy Nelson," declared the delighted +Parks, as the _Racing Star_ came to moorings again, light as a feather. + +"I think myself I am getting on to most of the curves," said Andy. "The +only question is can I keep it up on a long stretch?" + +"Practice makes perfect, you know," suggested Mr. Morse. + +Andy felt that he had about reached the acme of his mechanical ambition. +When he went to bed that night the thought of the coming race kept him +awake till midnight. When he finally went to sleep, it was to dream of +aerial flights that resolved themselves into a series of the most +exciting nightmares. + +No developments came from Andy's experience with the Duske crowd. Once +in a while he worried some over the reference of Duske's companions to +seeing his name in the newspapers. + +"Either it was about my trouble at Princeville, or some of these +reporters writing up the race got my name incidentally," decided Andy. + +"Anyhow, I can't afford to trouble about it." + +Andy rarely ventured away from the camp after dark. In fact, ever since +entering the employment of Mr. Parks he had not mixed much with +outsiders. He had his Princeville friends and the Duske crowd constantly +in mind. But one hot evening he went forth for some ice cream for the +crowd. + +The distance to a town restaurant was not great. Andy hurried across the +freight tracks. Just as he passed a switchman's shanty, he fancied he +heard some one utter a slight cry of surprise. Two persons dodged back +out of the light of a switch lantern. Andy, however, paid little +attention to the episode. He reached the restaurant, got the ice cream +in a pasteboard box, and started back for the camp without any mishap or +adventure. + +Just as Andy crossed a patch of ground covered with high rank weeds, he +became aware that somebody was following him. A swift backward glance +revealed two slouching figures. They pressed forward as Andy momentarily +halted. + +"Now then!" spoke one of them suddenly. + +Andy dodged as something was thrown towards him, but not in time to +avoid a looped rope. It was handled deftly, for before he knew it his +hands were bound tightly to his side. + +One of the twain ran at him and tripped him up. The other twined the +loose line about Andy's ankles. + +"Got him!" sounded a triumphant voice. + +"Good business," chirped his companion, and then Andy thrilled in some +dismay, as he recognized his captors as Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. + +"Hello, Andy Nelson," said Gus Talbot. + +Gus's voice was sneering and offensive as he hailed the captive. His +companion looked satisfied and triumphant as he stood over Andy, as if +he expected their victim to applaud him for doing something particularly +smart. + +"See here, Gus," observed Dale, "I'd better get, hey?" + +"Right off, too," responded Gus. "If there's the ready cash in it, all +right. If there isn't we'll get him on the way to Princeville ourselves +some way." + +"Can you manage him alone?" + +"I'll try to," observed Gus vauntingly, "I'll just have a pleasant +little chat with him for the sake of old times, while I sample this ice +cream of his--um-um--it ought to be prime." + +Dale sped away on some mysterious errand. Gus picked up the box of ice +cream that Andy had dropped and opened it. He tore off one of its +pasteboard flaps, fashioned it into an impromptu spoon, and proceeded to +fill his mouth with the cream. + +"Don't you get up," he warned Andy. "If you do, I'll knock you down +again." + +"Big Injun, aren't you!" flared out Andy, provoked and +indignant--"especially where you've got a fellow whipsawed?" + +"Betcher life," sneered Gus maliciously. "Things worked to a charm. Got +a hint from some airship fellows that you was somewhere around these +diggings. Watched out for you and caught you just right, hey?" + +The speaker sat down among the weeds in front of Andy. The latter +noticed that his face was grimed and his hands stained with dirt. His +clothes were wrinkled and disordered as if he had been sleeping in them. +From what he observed, Andy decided that the son of the Princeville +garage owner and his companion were on a tramp. They looked like +runaways, and did not appear to be at all prosperous. + +"Say," blurted out Gus, digging down into the ice cream, as if he was +hungry, "you might better have turned up that two hundred dollars for +dad." + +"Why had I?" demanded Andy. + +"It would have saved you a good deal of trouble. It's a stroke of luck, +running across you just as we'd spent our last dime. How will you like +to go back to Princeville and face the music?" + +"What music?" + +"Oh, yes, you don't know! Haven't read the papers, I suppose? Didn't +know you was wanted?" + +"Who wants me?" + +"Nor that a reward was out for you?" + +"Why?" + +"Say, are you so innocent as all that, or just plain slick?" drawled +Gus, with a crafty grin. + +"I don't know what you are talking about." + +"Farmer Jones' barn." + +"Oh----" Andy gave a start. He began to understand now. "What about Farmer +Jones' barn?" + +"You know, I guess. It was set on fire and burned down. They have been +looking everywhere for the firebug, and offer a fifty-dollar reward." + +"Is that the reason why you and Dale have left Princeville?" demanded +Andy coolly. + +"Eh, well, I guess not," cried Gus. "Huh! Everybody knows how you did it +out of spite against Jones because he hindered you running away from +dad. Why, they found your cap right near the barn ruins." + +"Is that so?" said Andy quietly. "How did it get there?" + +"How did it get there? You dropped it there, of course." + +"Purposely to get blamed for it, I suppose?" commented Andy. "That's +pretty thin, Gus Talbot, seeing that you know and your father knows that +my cap was taken away from me when he locked me up at the garage, and I +had no chance to get it later. You left the cap near the burned barn, +Gus Talbot, and you know it." + +"Me? Rot!" ejaculated Gus, but he stopped eating the ice cream and acted +restless. + +"In fact," continued Andy definitely, "I can prove that both you and +Dale were sneaking about the Jones' place a short time before the fire +broke out." + +"Bosh!" mumbled Gus. + +"Further than that, I can tell you word for word what passed between you +two. Listen." + +Andy remembered clearly every incident of his flight from the haystack +in Farmer Jones' field. He recited graphically the appearance of Gus and +Dale, and the remark he had overheard. Gus sat staring at him in an +uneasy way. He acted bored, and seemed at a loss to answer. + +It was more than half an hour before Dale returned. He acted glum and +mad. + +"Is it all right?" inquired Gus eagerly. + +"Right nothing!" + +"Get the money?" + +"No." + +"What's the trouble?" + +"I saw a constable and told him I could give him a chance to make a +fifty-dollar reward, us to get ten. He heard me through and said it +wouldn't do." + +"Why wouldn't it?" demanded Gus. + +"Because this is in another county, and he'd have to get the warrant. +Said it was too much trouble to bother with it." + +"Humph! what will we do now?" muttered Gus in a disgusted way. + +"That's easy. Get Andy over the county line, and find someone else to +take the job off our hands," replied Dale Billings. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII--JIU-JITSU + + +"Come on," ordered Gus to Andy, unfastening the end of the rope and +giving it a jerk. + +"Hey, not that way," dissented Dale. + +"Why not?" + +"Think you can parade him through the town without attracting attention? +We've got to be careful to cut out from here without a soul seeing us +till we strike a country road. You march," commanded Gus anew to his +captive, heading in another direction. "And you just so much as peep if +we meet anybody, and you get a whack of this big stick." + +Andy submitted to circumstances. He figured out that it would be some +time before his captors could perfect their arrangements for interesting +some officer of the law in their scheme. He readily guessed that for +some reason or other they did not wish or dare to return personally to +Princeville. Andy calculated that it was nearly ten miles to the county +line. He believed he would have half a dozen chances to break away from +his captors before they reached it. + +"Huh, what you going to do now?" inquired Gus in a grumbling tone, as +they came directly up against a high board fence. + +"You wait here a minute," directed Dale. + +The speaker ran down the fence in one direction to face at its end a +busy field occupied by aviation tents. He tried the opposite direction +to find matters still worse, for there the fence ended against a lighted +street of the town. + +"What's beyond the fence?" inquired Gus. + +"Not much of anything--a sort of a prairie," reported Dale, peering +through a crack in the fence. + +"We can't scale it." + +"Not with Andy in tow. Here we are, though." + +Dale had discovered a loose board. He began tugging at its lower end, +and succeeded in pulling it far enough out to admit of their crowding +through the opening. He went first, grabbing and holding Andy till Gus +made the passage. + +"Keep away from those lights over yonder," ordered Dale, indicating a +point on the broad expanse where some aeroplane tents showed. "This way, +I tell you," he added in a hoarse, hurried whisper. "There's a man." + +Andy pushed forward, came to a dead halt, bracing himself as his captors +tried to pull him out of range of a man seated on a hummock, apparently +watching some night manoeuvres of airships over where the lights showed. + +"Mister, oh, mister!" shouted Andy. + +He received a blow on the mouth from the fist of Gus, but that did not +prevent him from renewing the outcry. The man sprang quickly to his feet +and came towards them. + +He was small, thin, dark-faced, and so undersized and effeminate-looking +that Andy at once decided that he would not count for much in a tussle +with two stout, active boys. Dale thought so, too, evidently, for he +squared up in front of Andy, trying to hide him from the view of the +stranger, while Gus attempted to pull his captive back towards the +fence. Andy, however, gave a jerk that drew Gus almost off his feet, and +a bunt to Dale that sent him forcibly to one side. + +"What is this?" spoke the stranger in a soft, mellow, almost womanly +tone of voice. "Did some one then call?" + +"It was I," proclaimed Andy. "These fellows have tied me up and are +trying to kidnap me." + +"It is wrong, I will so investigate," said the little man, coming +straight up to the group and scanning each keenly in turn. + +"See here," spoke Dale, springing in front of the man, "this is none of +your business." + +"Oh, yes, it is," returned the stranger in the same gentle, purring way. +"I am interested. Speak on, young man." + +"Get him away!" directed Dale in a sharp whisper to Gus. + +Then, quick as lightning, he made a pass at the stranger. He was double +the weight of the latter and half a head taller. Andy expected to see +his champion flatten out like the weakling he looked. + +"Ah," said the latter, "it is so you answer questions. My way, then." + +What he did he did so quickly that Andy could not follow all of his +movements. The hands of the little man moved about like those of an +expert weaver at the loom. The result was a marvel. In some way he +caught Dale around the neck. The next moment he swung him from the +ground past his shoulder and his adversary landed with a thump. + +Gus dropped the rope and ran at the stranger, club uplifted. Again the +wiry strength of the little man was exerted. He seemed to stoop, and his +arms enclosed Gus about the hips. There was a tug and tussle. Gus was +wrenched from his footing, and went skidding to the ground, face down, +for nearly two yards. + +"Thunder!" he shouted, wiping the sand from his mouth. + +[Illustration: THE WIRY STRENGTH OF THE LITTLE MAN WAS EXERTED] + +"Go," said the stranger, advancing upon the prostrate twain, who +scrambled promptly to their feet. + +Both dove for the loose plank in the fence and disappeared through it. +The stranger drew out a pocket-knife and relieved Andy of his bonds. + +"I look at you and then at those two," he said simply, "and your face +tells me the true story. Where would you go?" + +Andy pointed in the direction of the Parks' Aerodome, and the man walked +by his side in its direction. + +"I don't care to have those fellows find out where I am working," +explained Andy. "Mister," he added admiringly, "how did you do it?" + +"It was simple jiu-jitsu." + +"Eh? Oh, yes, I've heard of that," said Andy, but vaguely. "It's a new +Japanese wrestling trick, isn't it?" + +"I am from Japan," observed his companion with a courteous dignity of +manner that impressed Andy. + +"I see," nodded Andy, "and you come from a wonderful people." + +"We strive to learn," replied his companion. "That is why I am here. I +was sent to this country to study aeronautics. Besides that, the science +has a peculiar attraction for me. My father was chief kite maker to the +family of the Mikado." + +"Is it possible?" said Andy. + +"I therefore have an absorbing interest in your airmen and their daring +work. You must know that we make wonderful kites in my home country." + +"I have heard something of it," said Andy. + +"Two hundred years ago many of the principles now used in your airships +were used in our kite flying, only we never tried to fly ourselves." + +"We have a gentleman up at our camp who would be just delighted to talk +with you," declared Andy enthusiastically. "He is an inventor, a Mr. +Morse." + +"I should like to meet him," said the Japanese. + +"Then come right along with me," invited Andy cordially; "only, say, +please, don't mention the fix you found me in." + +"It shall be so," declared his companion. + +Andy made sure that his recent captors were not following them as they +made a cut across a field and reached the Parks' camp. He led his guest +into the sitting room of the living building, to find his employer and +Mr. Morse there. Andy introduced his companion. It did not take long for +the inventor to discover a kindred spirit in the Japanese, who gave his +name as Tsilsuma. + +That night after he had got into bed Andy wondered if he had not better +tell Mr. Morse or his employer his entire story, and the former about +the near proximity of his old-time enemy, Duske. Then, too, he worried +some over the appearance of Gus and Dale and his daily risk of being +arrested. With daylight, however, Andy forgot all these minor troubles. + +There was to be a race for a small prize that afternoon on the aviation +field, and Parks had arranged for the _Racing Star_ to participate. The +aeronaut was busy half the morning seeing to the machine, while Mr. +Morse flitted about adjusting a device suggested by the intelligent +Tsilsuma for folding the floats under the aeroplane. The Japanese, too, +had suggested sled runners in front and wheels at the rear for starting +gear. + +The _Racing Star_ had not appeared in the general field before, and this +was a kind of qualification flight. Just after two o'clock Parks made +his final inspection of the bearings of the motors and the word to go +was given. Andy sailed over the railroad tracks and landed in the field +half a mile distant, with a dexterity that made his rivals there take a +good deal of notice of him and the _Racing Star_. + +When the word came Andy started the motor, and a friend of the aeronaut +tugged at the propellers. With a blast that resembled a cyclone the +airship started. + +The helpers worked at the rudders, and after a run of only seventy-five +feet the _Racing Star_ shot up into the air. + +Andy tried a preliminary stunt that he had practiced for two days past. +It was to fly around the field in a figure eight at a height of +ninety-five feet. Then, just to test the excellency of the machine, he +plunged for the ground. + +"The boy will kill himself!" shouted the man in charge of the race, but +just at the critical moment Andy shifted his steering planes and flew +across the ground, barely skimming the grass. + +Once in this fashion he went around the course, then another upward +lunge and he circled back to the starting point and came gently to +earth. The crowds sent up an enthusiastic roar. + +Four other machines made their exhibition in turn. Two went through a +clumsy process, one became disabled, and the other retired with the +derisive criticism of "Grasshopper!" as its pilot failed to lift it more +than ten feet from the ground at any time. + +"Mind the wind checks, Andy, lad," warned John Parks anxiously, as the +three aeroplanes were ranged for the prize test of a mile run around the +course. + +"I'll be the pathfinder or nothing!" declared Andy, his eyes bright and +observant, his nerves tingling with the excitement of the moment. + +"Go!" + +The three powerful mechanical birds arose in the air, dainty creations +of grace and beauty, Andy in the lead. Then his nearest competitor +passed him. Then No. 3 shot ahead of the other two, and then the turn. + +"Huzza!" breathed Parks. + +At his side, safe from recognition in his great disfiguring goggles, Mr. +Morse moved restlessly from foot to foot. The _Racing Star_ had +accomplished what he had worked so hard to bring about--a true circle in +a rapid turn. + +The two other machines bungled. One nearly upset. Down the course came +Andy, headed like an arrow for the starting point. A slanting dive, and +the _Racing Star_ skimmed the ground fully five hundred feet in advance +of the nearest opponent. + +Watch in hand, John Parks ran up to Andy, his face aglow with +professional pride and delight. + +"Won the race--but better than that you have beat the home record by +eight seconds!" + +"Winner, the _Racing Star_," sang out the starter. + +And then he added: + +"Time: forty-eight seconds and seven-eighths." + +"Hurrah!" shouted John Parks, throwing his hat in the air. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV--THE OLD LEATHER POCKETBOOK + + +"No sky-sailing to-day, Andy," said John Parks, the aeronaut. + +"I guess you are right," answered Andy. + +"A rest won't do you any harm. There are three days before the last +event, and plenty of time to try Morse's new wrinkles." + +"I think I'll go and see what the latest one is," said Andy. + +It was a rainy day with a strong breeze, and waste of time, Andy well +knew, to attempt any flights under the conditions. He went to the +workshop to find Mr. Morse and the Japanese deep in discussion over some +angle of a new reversible plane, they called it. Tsilsuma had become +almost a fixture at the Parks' camp. He was unobtrusive generally, but +his instincts and mission to delve and absorb were accommodated and +encouraged by the inventor, and a strong friendship had sprung up +between the two. + +Andy wandered about promiscuously, time hanging heavily on his hands. +Finally he settled down in the comfortable sitting room looking over +some books on scientific subjects, and picking out here and there a +simple fact among a group of very abstruse ones. + +"If ever I get any money ahead," he observed, "I'll put some of it into +education, and I'll study up aeronautics first thing. It seems as if +it's natural for me to see right through a machine first time I see it, +but I don't understand the real principles, for all that. No, sir, it's +brains like Mr. Morse has got that counts. If sky-sailing is going to +last, and I follow it up, I'm going to dig deep right down into it, +college fashion, and really understand my business. Hello!" + +Andy had laid aside the scientific book and had taken up a newspaper. +Glancing over its columns, his eye became fixed upon an advertisement +occupying a prominent position just under some local reading matter. +This is what it read. + + Notice--Important! + +Lost--Somewhere on a train between Macon and Greenville, an old leather +pocketbook, marked Robert Webb, Springfield, and containing $200. The +finder may keep the money, and upon return of the pocketbook will be +handsomely rewarded. + + West, Thorburn & Castle, _Attorneys_, + Butler Block, Greenville. + +"Well," aspirated Andy energetically, "here's something new!" + +The incident stirred up his thought so much that he found himself +walking the floor restlessly. Andy had a vivid imagination, and he built +up all kinds of fancies about the singular advertisement. + +"Wonder what lies under all this?" ruminated Andy. "They don't want the +two hundred dollars, and they offer more money to get back that old +pocketbook! They will never get the whole of it, though, that's certain. +Gus Talbot tore off the flap of it. The rest of it--lying in my old +clothes in that shed on the Collins farm, where I helped drive those +geese. There was nothing left in the pocketbook, I am sure of that. What +can they want it for, then? Evidently Mr. Webb didn't get my postal +card." + +Andy could not figure this out. He found it impossible, however, to +dismiss the subject from his mind. + +"People don't go to all the bother that advertising shows," he reasoned, +"unless it's mighty important. Can I get the pocketbook, though, after +all. I threw it carelessly up on a sort of a shelf in that old shed, and +it may have been removed and destroyed with other rubbish. I've got the +day before me, with nothing to do. I wouldn't be at all sorry if the two +hundred dollars came my way in a fair, square manner. I'll run down to +Greenville. It won't take four hours, there and back. I'll see what +there is to this affair--yes, I'll do it." + +Andy sought out Mr. Parks and told him he was going to take a run down +to Greenville on business, and would be back by evening at the latest. +He caught a train about ten o'clock, and noon found him at the door of +the law offices of West, Thorburn & Castle, Butler Block. Our hero +entered one of three offices, where he saw a gentleman seated at a desk. + +"I would like to see some member of the firm," he said. + +"I am Mr. West," answered the lawyer. + +"It is about an advertisement you put in the paper about a lost +pocketbook," explained Andy. + +"Oh, indeed," said Mr. West, looking interested at once, and arising and +closing the door. "Do you know something about it?" + +"I know all about it," declared Andy. "In fact, I found it only a few +minutes after it was lost." + +"On the train?" + +"No, sir. Mr. Webb did not lose it on the train." + +"He thinks he did." + +"He is mistaken," said Andy. "He lost it in an automobile that took him +on a rush run from Princeville across country to Macon. I was his +chauffeur, and found it." + +"Where is the pocketbook?" inquired the lawyer eagerly. "Have you +brought it with you?" + +"No, sir; but I think I can get it." + +"We will make it richly worth your while," said Mr. West. + +"There is something I had better explain about it," said Andy. + +"Spent the two hundred dollars?" insinuated the lawyer, with an +indulgent smile. + +"Oh, no--the two hundred dollars is waiting for Mr. Webb to claim it with +Mr. Dawson, the banker at Princeville. Let me tell you my story, Mr. +West, and then you will understand better." + +Andy told his story. He had a surprised, but intent listener. When he +had concluded, the lawyer shook his hand warmly. + +"Young man, you are a good, honest young fellow, and you will not regret +acting square in this affair. Mr. Webb did not get your postal card, +because he is no longer located at Springfield. How far from here is the +farm you spoke of where you left the pocketbook?" + +"About eighteen miles, I should think." + +"Can you get there by rail?" + +"Within two miles of it." + +"And soon?" + +"Why, yes, sir," replied Andy, glancing at his watch. "There is a train +west in a quarter of an hour." + +"At any expense," said Mr. West earnestly, "get there and return with +the pocketbook. As to your reward----" + +"Don't speak of it," said Andy. "Mr. Webb treated me handsomely when I +brought him over to Macon. I can't imagine, though, why he puts so much +store by the pocketbook." + +"If you find it, he will tell you why," responded Mr. West. "You will be +doing the best piece of work you ever did in finding that pocketbook. I +shall telegraph my client to come here at once. He will be here by four +o'clock." + +"And I will be here not more than an hour later," said Andy. + +He left the office on a brisk walk, planning his proposed route to the +old farm. As he reached the street, he again glanced at his watch and +found he had just ten minutes to reach the depot. Andy made a running +spurt down the pavement. + +He dodged an automobile speeding around a corner, heard its driver shout +something he did not catch. Then he heard the machine turn and start +furiously down the street in the direction he was going. + +Andy saw some people stare at him, halt, and then look towards the +speeding machine. Wondering what was up, he glanced back to notice the +driver of the machine waving one hand frantically towards him as if bent +on overtaking him. + +At the same moment the man in the machine bawled out: + +"Hey, stop that boy!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV--BEHIND THE BARS + + +Andy stopped running at the loud alarm from the automobile. Several +persons started to block his course and one man caught him by the coat +sleeve. Andy recognized his pursuer at once. It was Seth Talbot. + +The Princeville garage owner ran his car up to the curb and jumped out. +His face was red with exertion and excitement, and he grasped Andy +roughly by the arm. + +"What's the trouble?" queried the man who had detained Andy. + +"Escaped criminal--firebug," mumbled Talbot. "In with you," and he forced +Andy into the machine. "Hey, officer, take charge of this prisoner." + +Talbot hailed a man in uniform pressing his way through the gathering +crowd. + +"What is he charged with?" inquired the officer. + +"Burning a barn at Princeville. Get him to the station and I'll explain +to your chief." + +There was no chance for Andy to expostulate or struggle. The officer +held him tightly by one wrist, while Talbot whisked them away till they +reached a police station. + +Here the garage owner drew the officer in charge to one side. They held +a brief consultation. Andy caught a word here and there. It was +sufficient to apprise him of the fact that there was a reward offered +for his arrest, and Talbot was agreeing to divide it with the officer if +he would take charge of Andy till he was delivered over to the +authorities at Princeville. + +"You are in charge of the law now, young man," said the officer, leading +Andy back to the automobile. "I won't shackle you, but don't try any +tricks." + +He and Andy occupied the rear seat in the automobile, while Talbot drove +the machine. + +"May I say something to you?" inquired Andy of the officer. + +"About what?" asked the officer. + +"My being arrested this way. I don't see what right Mr. Talbot has to +chase me and give orders about me like some condemned felon. I haven't +seen any warrant for my arrest." + +"You'll see it soon enough. Meanwhile don't say anything to incriminate +yourself," returned the officer, glibly using the pet phrase of his +calling. + +"I've done nothing to be incriminated," declared Andy indignantly. "What +I wanted to ask was the simple favor of getting word to some people here +in Greenville, who have sent me on an errand, and will be put out and +disappointed if I don't show up." + +"What people?" quizzed Talbot, overhearing Andy and half turning around +in his seat. + +"A firm of lawyers here----" began Andy. + +"Yah!" derided the garage owner. "Guessed it was something of that sort. +Want to tangle up this affair with some legal quibble! Officer, you just +hold on to him tight. He's a slippery fellow." + +Andy saw that it would be useless to appeal to either of his companions +in the automobile, and put in his time doing some pretty serious +thinking as the machine sped over the landscape. + +"This is a bad fix at a bad time," reflected Andy. "The lawyer will +expect me back as I promised, and think all kinds of things about me +because I don't come. And there's Mr. Parks. And the race. I mustn't +miss that! But then, I am arrested. They'll lock me up. Suppose they +really prove I fired that barn?" Andy's heart beat painfully with dread +and suspense. + +The town hall at Princeville was reached. Andy had been in the main +offices of the structure many times, but this was his first visit to the +lower floor of the building where the prisoners were kept. He only +casually knew the deputy sheriff in charge of the barred cage, and who +looked Andy over as he would any criminal brought to him to lock up. + +"This is Andy Nelson--Jones' barn--ran away--reward." Andy was somewhat +chilled as the deputy nodded and proceeded to enter his name in a big +book before him on the desk. + +"Search him," said the official to the turnkey. + +"Hello!" ejaculated Talbot, as Andy's watch was brought into view, and +"hello!" he repeated with eyes goggling still more, as Andy's pocketbook +came to light, and outside of some small bills and silver, a +neatly-folded bill was produced. + +The officer himself looked surprised at this. Andy, however, did not +tell them that this represented the prize he had won at the aviation +meet, treasured proudly in its entirety. + +"Wonder if that's some of the money I've found short in my business?" +insinuated Talbot. + +"If there is any shortage in your receipts," retorted Andy indignantly, +"you had better ask your son about it." + +The shot told. The garage owner flushed up. + +"What's that?" he covered his evident confusion by asking, as the +officer unfolded a slip of printed paper. + +It was the advertisement about the lost leather pocketbook, that Andy +had preserved. Glancing over the shoulder of the officer and taking in +its purport, Talbot gave a start. Then he eyed Andy in an eager, +speculative way, but was silent. + +"What are you going to do with me?" Andy asked of the officer. + +"Lock you up, of course." + +"Won't I be allowed to send word to my friends?" + +"Who are they?" demanded the officer. + +"I think Mr. Dawson, the banker, is one of them," replied Andy. + +"Mr. Dawson has been away from town for a week, and will not return for +two." + +Andy's face fell. The thought of the banker had come to him hopefully. + +"Can I telegraph, then?" he asked, "to friends out of town?" + +"Telegraph," sneered Talbot. "My great pumpkins, with your new suit of +clothes and watch and one hundred dollar bills and telegrams!" + +"I can grant you no favors before I have notified the prosecuting +attorney of your arrest," said the deputy. "Lock him up, turnkey." + +All this seemed very harsh and ominous to Andy, but he did not allow it +to depress him. He followed the turnkey without another word. The latter +unlocked a great barred door, and Andy felt a trifle chilled as it +reclosed on him and he was a prisoner. + +"How do you do, Mr. Chase?" he said, as he recognized the lockup-keeper, +an old grizzled man, who limped towards him. + +"Got you, did they?" spoke the man. "Sorry, Andy." + +"Yes, I am sorry, too, just at this time. Of course you know, I'm not +the kind of a fellow to burn down a man's barn." + +"Know it--guess I know. I can prove----" began Chase, so excitedly, that +Andy stared at him in some wonder. "See here," continued Chase, +controlling himself, "I've got something to say to you later on. Just +for the present, you count on me as your friend. I'll see you get the +best going in this dismal place." + +"Thank you, Mr. Chase," said Andy. + +"You needn't sleep in any cell. I'll let you have a cot in my room," +continued Chase with earnestness and emotion. "Andy----" and there the +speaker choked up, and he grasped Andy's hand, and turning away trembled +all over. "You're a blessed good boy, and you've got a true friend in +me, and remember what I tell you--they will never find you guilty of +burning down Jones' barn." + +Andy returned the pressure of the hand of the man whom he was meeting +under peculiar circumstances, feeling sure that his avowed friendship +was genuine. He had good reason to believe this. + +When Andy had come to Princeville, Chase was a worthless drunkard, who +worked rarely and who was in the lockup most of the time. One winter's +night, as Andy was returning from taking a customer to the lake, he +lined a swampy stretch and noticed a huddled-up figure lying at its +half-frozen edge. + +Andy got out of the automobile and discovered a man, his body and +clothes half frozen down into the reeds and grass. It was Chase, sodden +with drink and fast perishing. + +Andy managed to get the poor fellow in the tonneau and drove home. It +was late, and Talbot had left the garage for the night. Andy dragged his +helpless guest into his little den of a room and hurried for a doctor. +He was a favorite with the physician, for whom he had done many little +favors, and the latter worked over the half-frozen Chase for nearly two +hours. He refused to think of taking any pay, and at Andy's request +promised to say nothing about the incident. + +Andy kept his little oil stove going all night and plied the patient +with warm drinks. When morning came Chase was awake and sober, but he +was so weak and full of pain he could hardly move. + +All that day and into the next Andy managed to house and care for Chase +without detection. Talbot finally discovered the intruder, however. He +stormed fearfully. He was for at once sending for an officer and having +Chase sent to jail or the workhouse. + +Andy pleaded hard for the poor refugee. Talbot declared that his wet +garments had spoiled the automobile cushions. Andy got Chase to agree +that he would work this out when he got well, and Talbot was partly +mollified. + +When Chase got about he did some drudgery at Talbot's home. Then one day +he came to tell Andy that Talbot had got him a position. Chase was well +acquainted with prison ways. Talbot had quite some political influence, +and the forlorn old wreck was installed as lockup-keeper at the town +jail. + +Once a week regularly he came to visit Andy at the garage. It was +usually Saturday nights, after the others had gone home. Chase would +bring along some dainty for Andy to cook, and they would have quite a +congenial time. During all this time Chase never touched a drop of +liquor. He told Andy he had received the lesson of his life, leaving him +crippled in one limb, and that he would show Andy his gratitude for his +rescue by keeping the pledge. + +"Mr. Chase," now said Andy, "there is something you can do for me, if +you will." + +"Speak it out, Andy," responded the lockup keeper eagerly. + +"I want to send a telegram to a friend right away. They have taken all +my money from me, but the message can go collect." + +Chase hobbled down the corridor rapidly to return with paper and pencil. + +"Write out your message, Andy," he said. "I'll see that it goes without +delay." + +Andy wrote out a telegram to John Parks. It ran: + +"Under arrest on a false charge. I want to see you on important +business." + +Chase took the message, put on his hat, and going to the barred door +tapped on it. + +The turnkey appeared and unlocked the door. As Chase passed out, Andy +observed that someone passed into the cell room. It was Seth Talbot. + +"I want a little talk with you, Andy Nelson," spoke the garage owner, +"and it will pay you to listen to what I have to say." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI--BAIL WANTED + + +The garage owner moved a few feet away from the grated door of the cell +room and sat down on a bench. He beckoned to Andy. + +"No, I'll stand up," said our hero. + +"All right, I won't be long. Short and sweet is my motto. To begin with, +Andy Nelson, I've been a second father to you." + +"I never knew it," observed the boy. + +"Don't get saucy," replied Talbot. "It don't show the right spirit. I +gave you a job when you didn't have any, and took on myself a big +responsibility--agreeing to look after you like a regular apprentice. +What is the result? Ingratitude." + +Andy was silent, but he looked at Talbot, marveling that the man, mean +as he was, could imagine that he meant what he said. + +"You've brought me lots of trouble," pursued Talbot in an aggrieved +tone. "The worst of all is that it's led to my son running away from +home." + +The speaker evidently thought that Andy knew all about this, while in +reality Andy only guessed it. + +"Oh, I'm responsible for that, too, am I?" observed Andy. + +"Yes, you are. You left me in the lurch, and while Gus was off with a +customer some one robbed the money drawer. I was mad and accused Gus of +taking it. Gus got mad and left home." + +"What did I have to do with that?" + +"Why, if you'd stayed where you belonged it wouldn't have happened, +would it?" + +Andy actually laughed outright at this strange reasoning. + +"What!" he cried. "Me, the firebug, me, the thief you accuse me of +being!" + +"Well, anyhow, you've been a lot of expense and trouble to me. Now +you're in a hard fix. You are dead sure to go to the reformatory until +you are twenty-one years of age, unless some one steps in and saves +you." + +"You think so, do you, Mr. Talbot?" + +"I am certain of it." + +"Who's going to step in and save me?" inquired Andy innocently. + +"I'm the only man who can." + +"Oh!" + +"And I will, if you're willing to do your share." + +"What is my share?" demanded Andy. + +"Doing what I advise you. I'm a man of influence and power in this +community," boasted the garage owner. "I can fix up this business all +right with Jones. You've got to help, though." + +"All right, name your terms," said Andy. + +"I wouldn't put it 'terms,' Andy," replied Talbot, looking eager and +insinuating, "call it rights. There's that two hundred dollars at the +bank. It was found on my property by one of my hired employees. Good, +that gives me legal possession according to law." + +"Does it?" nodded Andy. "I didn't know that before." + +"You can get that money by going after it," continued Talbot. + +"How can I?" + +"Why, that advertisement they found in your pocket says so, don't it? +See here, Andy," and Talbot looked so mean and greedy that our hero +could hardly keep from shuddering with disgust, "tell me about that +advertisement--all about it, I want to be a good friend to you. I am a +shrewd business man, and you're only a boy. They'll chisel you out of +it, if you don't have some older person to stand by you. I'll stand by +you, Andy." + +"Chisel me out of what?" inquired Andy, intent on drawing out his +specious counsellor to the limit. + +"What's your due. They're after the pocketbook that held the two hundred +dollars. Don't you see they're breaking their necks to get it back? Why? +aha!" + +"That's so," murmured Andy, as if it were all news to him. + +"So, if you know what became of that pocketbook----" + +"Yes," nodded Andy. + +"And where it is----" + +"I do," declared Andy. + +"Capital!" cried Talbot, getting excited. "Then we've got them. Ha! Ha! +They can't squirm away from us. Where's the pocketbook, Andy? You just +hand this business right over to me. I'll do the negotiating." + +"And if I do?" insinuated Andy. + +"You won't be prosecuted on this firebug charge. I'll take you back at +the garage and raise your salary." + +"How much?" inquired Andy. + +"Well--I'll be liberal. I'll raise your wages twenty-five cents a week." + +"Mr. Talbot, if you made it twenty-five dollars I wouldn't touch it, no, +nor twenty-five hundred dollars. You talk about your goodness to me. +Why, you treated me like a slave. As to the two hundred dollars, it +stays right where it is until its rightful owner claims it. If he then +wants to give it to me as a reward, you can make up your mind you won't +get a cent of it." + +"You young reprobate!" shouted Talbot, jumping to his feet, aflame with +rage. "I'll make you sing another tune soon. It rests with me as to your +staying in jail. I'll just go and see those lawyers myself." + +"You will waste your time," declared Andy. "I have told them all about +you from beginning to end, and they're too smart to play into any of +your dodges." + +"We'll see! We'll see!" fumed the garage owner, as he went to the +cell-room door and shook it to attract the attention of the turnkey. +"I'll see you once more--just once more, mind you, and that's to-morrow +morning. You'll decide then, or you'll have a hard run of it." + +Andy was left to himself. He walked around the stout cell room with some +curiosity. There were two other prisoners in jail. Both were locked up +in cells. One of them asked Andy for a drink of water. The other was +asleep on his cot. + +A clang at the barred door attracted Andy's attention again, and he +reached it as the turnkey shouted out in a tone that sounded very +official: + +"Andrew Nelson!" + +He stood aside for Andy to step out. An officer Andy had not seen before +took him by the arm and led him up two flights of stairs to a large +courtroom. + +It had no visitors, but the judge sat on the bench. Near him was the +prosecuting attorney and the court clerk. Talbot occupied a chair, and +conversing with him was Farmer Jones. + +"We enter the appearance of the prisoner in this case, your honor," +immediately spoke the attorney, as if in a hurry to get through with the +formalities. + +"Let the clerk enter the same," ordered the judge in an indifferent +tone. "Take the prisoner before the grand jury when it convenes." + +"In the matter of bail----" again spoke the attorney. + +"Arson. A pretty serious offense," said the judge. "The prisoner is held +over in bonds of two thousand dollars." + +Andy's heart sank. He had heard and read of cases where generally a few +hundred dollars bail was asked. He had even calculated in his mind how +he could call friends to his assistance who would go his surety for a +small amount, but two thousand dollars. + +"How are you, Andy?" said Jones, advancing and looking him over +critically. Andy was a trifle pale, but his bearing was manly, his +countenance open and honest. He was neatly dressed, and looked the +energetic business boy all over, and evidently impressed the farmer that +way. + +"I'm glad to see you, Mr. Jones," he said respectfully. + +"I suppose you feel a little hard agin' me, Andy, but I couldn't help +it. That barn cost me eight hundred dollars." + +"It was a serious loss, yes, sir," said Andy, "and I am sorry for you." + +Jones fidgeted. Talbot was talking to the attorney, and the farmer +seemed glad to get away from his company. + +"See here, Andy," he said, edging a little nearer, "I've got boys of my +own, and it makes me feel badly to see you in this fix." + +"What did you place me here for, then?" demanded Andy. + +"I--I thought--you see, Talbot had the evidence. He egged me on, so to +speak. Honest and true, Andy, did you set fire to my barn?" + +"Honest and true, Mr. Jones, I had no hand in it. Why should I? You have +always been pleasant and good to me." + +"Why, you see, I stopped you running away from Talbot that day." + +"And you think I turned firebug out of spite? Oh, Mr. Jones!" + +"H'm--see here, judge," and Jones moved up to the desk. "I don't know +that I care to prosecute this case." + +"Out of your hands, Mr. Jones," snapped the prosecuting attorney +sharply. "The case must go to the grand jury." + +"Andy--I--I'll come and see you," said Jones, as the officer marched Andy +back to the jail room. + +"Two thousand dollars bail," ruminated Andy, once again under lock and +key. "I can never hope to find anybody to get me out. Too bad--I'm out of +the airship race for good." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII--A TRUE FRIEND + + +"All right, Andy." + +"Did you send the telegram?" + +"Yes, and paid for it, so there would be no delay." + +"You needn't have done that." + +"I wanted to be sure that it went double rush." + +"All right, I will settle with you when they give me back my money." + +Chase, the lockup-keeper, had promptly and willingly attended to the +errand upon which Andy had sent him. + +"See here, Andy," said Chase, "I understand they had you up in court." + +"Yes," answered Andy, "they took me up to fix the bail." + +"How much?" + +"Two thousand dollars." + +"Why!" exclaimed Chase, his face darkening, "that's an outrage." + +"I think so, too." + +"There's something behind it," muttered the lockup-keeper. + +"Yes," returned Andy. "Mr. Talbot is behind it. He seems to stand in +with the prosecuting attorney. Mr. Jones was quite willing to drop the +case, and said that Mr. Talbot had egged him on." + +Chase did not say any more just then, but as he strolled away, he +muttered to himself in an excited manner. He busied himself about the +place for the next hour. Then he showed Andy his own sleeping quarters, +a quite comfortable, well-ventilated room, and set up an extra cot in +it. + +"You and I will have our meal in my room after I feed the other +prisoners," he said. "I'll make it as easy for you as I can, Andy." + +"I know you will, Mr. Chase," responded Andy heartily. + +"I'll do a good deal for you," declared the faithful old fellow. "What +do I care for this mean old job, anyway? Say," and he dropped his voice +to a cautious whisper, "suppose there was a way for both of us to get +out of here?" + +"What do you mean?" queried Andy quickly. + +"Just what I say. Suppose you and I could get to some place a long way +off, where they couldn't trace us, could you get me another job, do you +think?" + +"Don't you like this one?" + +"No, I don't. I despise it. I have to give Talbot half of my salary for +getting it for me, and I'm tired of the jail." + +"Do you mean to tell me that Talbot takes one half of your salary?" +questioned Andy indignantly. + +"I do." + +"Then he's a meaner man than I thought he was. I can get you a much +better job when I get free," said Andy, "and I'll do it, but you mustn't +think of such nonsense as my escaping." + +"Why not?" + +"Because I'm a sticker, and never ran away like a sneak in my life," +declared Andy strenuously. "No, I'm going to face the music like a man." + +Chase was silent for a while. Finally, evidently struggling with some +new disturbing thought, he said: + +"Sure you can get me a job, Andy?" + +"I am." + +"If I cut loose from here and make Talbot an enemy for life, you'll see +to it that I get work?" + +"As long as you keep sober, Mr. Chase, you can always get a position. +You have made a brave start. Now brace up, think something of yourself, +and earn a comfortable living." + +"I'll do it!" cried Chase. "I'll risk everything. Andy, you didn't +fire that barn. Do you know who did?" + +"I have a suspicion," replied Andy. + +"If I guess right who you suspect, will you nod your head?" + +"Yes." + +"It was Gus Talbot and Dale Billings." + +Andy nodded his head. He started slightly as he did so, wondering at the +sturdy declaration of Chase. Then he asked: + +"Why do you think so, Mr. Chase?" + +"I don't think, I know," declared the lockup-keeper. + +"Did you see them do it?" + +"No, I didn't, but--see here, Andy, I've nothing more to say." + +"Why not?" + +"I want to find an old tramp named Wandering Dick, before I go any +farther." + +"Does he know?" + +"I'll not say another word except this: they'll never prove you a +firebug, and old Talbot will be sorry for the day he stirred things up +and started out to persecute an honest boy. Drat the varmint! I'll be +afraid of him no longer, Andy, you are a good friend." + +"I try to be, Mr. Chase." + +"I'll prove that I am to you." + +Chase refused to say another word. Andy curiously watched him stump +around attending to his duties. The old fellow would scowl and mutter, +and Andy believed he was mentally discussing Talbot. Then he would +chuckle, and Andy decided he was thinking something pleasant about +himself. + +Chase appeared to have entire charge of the cell room. At five o'clock +in the afternoon he let the other prisoners out in the corridor for +exercise, and at six o'clock he gave them their supper in their cells. +Then he and Andy adjourned to the little room beyond the cells and had a +hearty, appetizing meal. + +Chase supplied Andy with some newspapers, and later they played a game +of checkers. About nine o'clock a prisoner was brought in and locked up. + +At ten o'clock, just as Andy was going to bed, the turnkey's ponderous +key rattled at the barred door, and again his voice rang out: + +"Andrew Nelson!" + +"Wonder who wants me now?" said Andy. + +"Somebody to see you in the sheriff's room," said the turnkey, "follow +me." + +Andy did so. As they entered the apartment indicated, a man with one arm +in a sling advanced and grasped Andy's hand warmly. + +"This is a blazing shame!" he burst out, "but I'll have you out of here +if it takes all I've got and can beg or borrow." + +It was Andy's employer, John Parks, the Airship King. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII--OUT ON BAIL + + +Andy's heart warmed up and he felt that the tide was turning. Parks was +an energetic, impulsive man, and generally put through what he started +at. His hearty greeting showed what he thought of Andy and the charge +against him. + +"Is that the sheriff coming?" he demanded impatiently of the officer or +guard at the door of the room. + +"He'll be here soon," was the reply, "we have sent for him." + +"Come over here, Andy," directed the aeronaut, leading the way to a +corner of the apartment so the others could not overhear their +conversation. "I want to talk with you. Now then," he continued, as they +were seated by themselves, "tell me the whole story." + +"I wish I had done it before," began Andy, and then he recited his +experience with Talbot and the details of the barn burning. + +"Guesswork and spitework, eh? The whole business," flared out Parks. +"They haven't a foot to stand on in court. I'll see that you have the +right kind of a lawyer when the case comes to trial. All I am anxious +about is to get you back to camp double quick. You know the race takes +place day after to-morrow." + +"Yes, I know it only too well," replied Andy; "I've worried enough about +it." + +"Here comes my man, I guess," interrupted Parks, as a portly +consequential-looking person entered the room. + +"I wanted to see you about this young man," explained Parks. "They've +shut him up here on a false charge, and I want to get him out. He's a +trusted employee of mine, and I need him badly in my business." + +"You want to give bail, do you?" inquired the sheriff. + +"Every dollar I've got, judge," responded the aeronaut with emphasis, +"so long as he gets free." + +"The bail is two thousand dollars, and I suppose you know the bondsman +must qualify as a real estate owner in the county." + +"I'm not that, judge," said Parks, "but I've got some money." He pulled +out a roll of bills. "I've got nigh onto one thousand dollars personal +property, and I'm going to earn the aviation prize down at Montrose day +after to-morrow." + +"Considerably up in the air, part of your schedule, eh?" remarked the +sheriff, smiling, "I'm afraid we can't accept you as a bondsman. +Residence here as a real estate owner is absolutely necessary." + +"Why, do you think I would leave you in the lurch or a boy like Andy +sneak away. No sir-ree! You can trust me, Mr. Sheriff." + +"I don't doubt that, but the law is very strict." + +Parks paced the floor excitedly. He looked disappointed and bothered. + +"I've got to do something--Andy has just got to be at the aviation meet +day after to-morrow. I've got it! Say, suppose I could line up two +thousand dollars through friends, in cash, mind you, couldn't I hire +some man in Princeville to go on the bond?" + +"It is very often done," acknowledged the sheriff. + +"Then I'll do it. Andy, I'll be back here to-morrow. Mr. Sheriff, you +can fix the papers for quick action. I'll raise that two thousand +dollars if I have to mortgage everything I've got. I've got some friends +and I own a farm out West." + +"Just a word, Mr. Parks," said Andy. + +"What is it, lad?" inquired the aeronaut. + +"I wish you would get word to a lawyer at Greenville, a Mr. West, about +something. He expected to see me yesterday, and I was arrested before I +could get to him." + +Andy explained about the advertisement and the lost pocketbook. Mr. +Parks was very much impressed and interested over his story. + +"Why, Andy," he commented vigorously. "There's something strange about +all this." + +"There is probably something very important for the man who lost the +pocketbook," said Andy. "I don't want the lawyer to think I fooled him." + +"Can you find the pocketbook, Andy?" + +"Unless it has been removed from the place where it was three weeks ago, +I am sure that I can." + +"H-m, this sets me thinking," observed Parks. "I'll see that the lawyer +gets the message, Andy. I'll be back here to-morrow." + +"Mr. Parks," said Andy seriously, "I don't think you had better try to +raise the money. It will be harder than you think, and all this will +take up your time and attention away from the airship race." + +"There won't be any airship race for me if you are out of it, will +there?" demanded Parks. + +"Why not? You can surely find someone to take my place. It's the _Racing +Star_ that is going to win the race, not the man at the lever. He's got +to keep his eyes open, but the machine is so far ahead of anything I've +seen, that a careful, active pilot can hardly fail to win." + +Parks looked dubious and unconvinced. + +"I'm going to get you out of here," he maintained stubbornly, and, +knowing the determined character of his employer, Andy went back to the +lockup believing that he would keep his word. + +"What's the news, Andy?" inquired Chase eagerly. + +"The best in the world, Mr. Chase," replied Andy brightly. + +"Are they going to let you out?" + +"I hope so, soon." + +Andy had told Chase something about his circumstances, and now told him +more, mentioning the airship race. + +"I say, you shouldn't miss that, should you, Andy?" excitedly proclaimed +Chase. "I wish I could help you. I can in time. I have a good mind----" + +Chase paused mysteriously, and began stumping about in his usual +abstracted, muttering way. + +Andy sat down on a bench as there was a movement at the cell-room door. + +"Here, give this man shelter for the night and something to eat," +ordered the turnkey. "Turn him out in the morning." + +"Hello!" spoke Chase, evidently recognizing a regular habitue of the +place, "it's you again, is it?" + +"On my rounds, as usual," grinned the newcomer, a harmless-looking, +trampish fellow. + +"Been in some other lockup, I suppose, since we saw you last?" +insinuated Chase. + +"No, Wandering Dick and I have been following a show. You see----" + +"Who? Say that again," interrupted Chase excitedly. + +"Wandering Dick." + +"Where is he now?" + +"Three days ago I left him about fifty miles south of here." + +"Is he there now?" + +"I think so. The show broke up and that threw me out, but Dick talked +about staying around Linterville till he could panhandle it south for +the winter." + +"See here," said Chase, drawing out his pocketbook. "There's a +ten-dollar bill," and he flipped over some bank notes. + +"I see there is," nodded the tramp wonderingly. + +"I'll start you out with a good breakfast and that money in the morning. +I want you to find Dick, bring him here, and I'll give you each as much +more money when you do." + +The tramp looked puzzled, then suspicious, and then alarmed. + +"See here," he said, "what are you going to work on us, same old +charge?" + +"Not at all. I want Dick to answer a half dozen questions, that's all, +and then you are both! free to go." + +"Say, let me start to-night!" said the tramp eagerly. + +"No, it's too late," replied Chase. "There's no train until morning." + +Andy had overheard all this conversation. Wandering Dick was the name he +had heard Chase speak once before, and he had coupled it with the +suggestion that in some way Wandering Dick was concerned in the incident +of Farmer Jones' burned-down barn. + +Andy slept in a good bed and got up early in the morning, believing that +the new day would bring some developments of importance in the +situation. + +The tramp was started off by Chase, breakfast was over, and Chase had +been let out by the turnkey into the main room. He came rushing back in +a few minutes carrying an armful of towels for jail use. + +"Andy," he chuckled, throwing his load recklessly on a bench and +slapping his young friend gleefully on the shoulder, "You're free!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX--A DISAPPOINTMENT + + +Andy was led into the office of the jail and up to the desk of the +official who had registered his name the day before. This man opened a +drawer and pushed a package before Andy and a receipt. + +"See if your money is all right," he directed, "and sign that receipt." + +"Going to give them back to me, are you?" said Andy brightly, feeling +delighted at recovering his liberty. "They must have found out that I am +innocent." + +"H-m! that's to be determined later on." + +Andy looked questioningly about the room. Who had set him free? What did +it mean? Just then he caught the sound of voices in another room and the +officer pointed to it. + +"Your friend is in there," he said. "He's waiting for you." + +Andy felt as if he had wings on his feet. His heart was overflowing with +gladness. He crossed the threshold of the doorway the officer had +indicated, looked in, and then stood stock still, very much surprised. + +"Well, young man, we've reached you at last?" spoke a hearty voice. + +"Why, it's Mr. Webb!" exclaimed Andy. + +He had at once recognized the gentleman whom he had driven over in the +automobile from Princeville to Macon, the day when all his troubles in +life seemed to have begun. + +With Mr. Webb was a man who nodded pleasantly but curiously to Andy. +This was Joshua Bird. He was reported to be the richest man in +Princeville, and dealt principally in real estate and had the reputation +of being something of a miser. + +Mr. Webb, holding Andy's hand, turned to Mr. Bird. + +"Well, sir, everything is satisfactory?" he asked. + +"Entirely so," answered Bird. "You're putting a good deal of faith in a +lad you scarcely know, though." + +"I'll bank on my confidence," answered Mr. Webb. "Nelson, you remember +me, do you not?" + +"Perfectly, sir, but I don't understand." + +"My being here?" questioned Mr. Webb. "A purely selfish motive is at the +bottom of it, I am free to confess, although I am glad to be of service +to you on general principles. Are you ready to leave here at once?" + +"Where for, sir?" + +"An automobile dash across the country." + +"And then am I to return here?" + +"Not until your trial comes on. Let me explain, so you will understand +the situation. I have gone on your bail bond." + +"I don't know how to thank you," said Andy gratefully. + +"Your friend, Mr. Parks, found me late last night at Greenville, where +Mr. West and myself were anxiously awaiting you. He explained about your +arrest, and told us the whole story of your affairs. It seems that your +trouble began with the finding of my pocketbook. It was only right, +therefore, that I should stand by you--which I have done, and intend to +keep up, Andy, for you have proven yourself a good, honest boy." + +"Thank you, Mr. Webb," said our hero with considerable emotion. + +"Mr. West, my legal adviser, arranged with Mr. Bird, who has just left +us. The signing of your bail bond is the result. You are free to get to +those anxious friends of yours at the aviation meet, but first I want +you to take a little trip with me." + +"After that old leather pocketbook, I suppose." + +"You've guessed it right, Andy." + +"I would like to speak with a good friend of mine in the jail here for a +moment," said Andy, "and then I will be ready to go with you." + +"All right, Andy." + +Chase had already heard the good news and congratulated Andy, chuckling +and hobbling about at a great rate. + +"Remember you're to look out for a new job for me," he intimated. + +"I'll attend to that all right, Mr. Chase," promised Andy. "If things go +as I think they will, I have a friend as well as an employer who will +probably need a man such as you to potter about and look after things." + +"Andy, I'll potter for keeps if you get me that situation," declared the +old lockup-keeper earnestly. "You get it fixed for me, and when your +trial comes up, I'll show you how much I think of you." + +"Things are certainly coming out famously right," chirped Andy gaily, as +he left Chase. + +"Now then, Nelson, take a try at my new machine," said Mr. Webb, as he +led Andy to the street. + +Seth Talbot, one of his own machines waiting at the curb for a fare, was +strolling around inspecting the beautiful touring car which Mr. Webb had +indicated. + +"Eh, hey! what's this?" he blubbered out, as Andy walked smartly to the +machine and leaped into the driver's seat. + +An officer who was aware of the situation nudged Talbot and spoke a few +quick words to him in an undertone. The face of the garage owner turned +white with astonishment and malice. Mr. Webb had noticed him, and asked +Andy: + +"Who is that man?" + +"Mr. Talbot, my old employer," responded Andy. + +"I don't like his looks," spoke Mr. Webb simply. "Now then, Nelson, of +course you know where I want to go." + +"After the leather pocketbook--yes, sir." + +"I hope you can find it." + +"I feel sure we shall, sir. We will have to take some roundabout roads +to get to the farm I told Mr. West about." + +"This is a very important matter to me," explained Mr. Webb. "I may as +well tell you, Nelson, that the fortune and happiness of two orphan +children, distant relatives of mine, depend on the finding of that old +pocketbook." + +"I am very much interested, Mr. Webb," said Andy. + +"You did not notice perhaps, but glued down in the big part of that +pocketbook is a thin compartment. Secreted in that is an old time-worn +sheet of paper that I spent thousands of dollars and a year's time in +locating and getting into my possession. I was on my way to my lawyer +with it, and had placed two hundred dollars in the pocketbook for costs +in the law suit, when I lost the pocketbook, as you know." + +"I never dreamed there was any value in the old pocketbook," said Andy. +"I knew it was in my old clothes which I threw away at a farm near Wade, +I told you about. I remember perfectly well tossing them up on an old +shelf. Unless they have been disturbed, we will find the clothes and the +pocketbook. It was a regular old rubbish pile where I tossed them, and +out of anybody's way." + +"I shall feel immensely relieved and glad when I find that document," +declared Mr. Webb, with a sigh of anxiety. + +John Parks was responsible for bringing the word to Mr. West that had +sent Mr. Webb to Princeville. The aeronaut had told the lawyer +considerable about Andy and the approaching airship race, and as they +rolled along Mr. Webb showed a great deal of interest in Andy's aviation +ambitions and asked a great many questions. + +"I shall want to see you again as soon as I get that document in the +pocketbook to the lawyers," said the gentleman. "The airship race is +to-morrow?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"I will keep track of you through Mr. Parks, and probably meet you day +after to-morrow. I hope you win the race, Nelson, and get the prize. You +deserve it, my boy. If you fail, do not get discouraged. You have some +good friends, and I am one of them." + +"You have shown that," said Andy with feeling. "I wouldn't have missed +the race for a good deal." + +Andy entertained his companion considerably by a recital of his +adventures three weeks previously when he had helped the goose farmer +get his product to market. + +"Just yonder is where I met him first," explained Andy, as they passed +over a bridge crossing the river. "It's a straight road to the Collins +farm now, but not very even." + +"I hope we find things as you expect," said Mr. Webb. + +"I think we will," answered Andy cheerfully. + +It was about an hour later when they rounded a curve in a beautiful +country road. + +"Just beyond that grove of trees," said Andy, "and we come in full view +of the Collins farmhouse. Now we can see it--Why, +I--don't--understand--this." + +Andy slowed down in speech, with a series of wondering gasps, as he +likewise slowed down the machine. + +"Why, what's the matter, Nelson?" queried Mr. Webb. + +"Don't you see?" began Andy. "No, you don't see, and that's just it. +There's something wrong. The farmhouse did stand right over where that +gravelled road runs into the farm, and now----" + +"Nelson," interrupted Mr. Webb almost sharply, "there has been a fire +here." + +Andy stared dubiously, but in great concern. There could be no doubt of +it, this was the site of the Collins' farm. There were the white-washed +posts where the farm road began, the horse block where he bade the goose +farmer good-by, but the farmhouse itself had disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XX--A NEW CAPTIVITY + + +"Nelson, could you possibly be mistaken?" + +"No, sir, positively not." + +Andy had come to a dead stop with the automobile. He stared blankly at +the prospect before them. The site of the Collins farmhouse was a flat +stretch of waste and ruin. Grass, weeds, trees, fences showed the +ravages of a great fire. + +Mr. Webb looked dreadfully disappointed. His face had become almost +pale. Andy shared his disquietude, but he could simply say: + +"I am very sorry." + +"You did all you could, Nelson," responded his companion. "Here comes +some one. We will question him a little." + +A farm laborer with a hoe across his shoulder sauntered down the road. +Andy hailed him. As he came nearer to them Mr. Webb said: + +"My man, what has been happening around here?" + +"Don't you see?" queried the man, with a comprehensive wave of his hand +across the bleak ruins. "Fire." + +"This is the Collins farm, isn't it?" + +"It was," answered the man. "The fire took them in the night a week +ago." + +"And burned everything about the place?" + +"Down to the pig styes." + +"Where are the Collins people?" + +"Gone over into Bowen County until they can arrange to build again." + +"Start up, Nelson," ordered Mr. Webb. "It's a waste of time to loiter +around here." + +Mr. Webb felt cruelly disappointed. Andy saw this and was sorry for him. +He glanced at the spot where he remembered the old shed to have stood. +Even the tree that had sheltered it had burned to a crisp. + +"Where am I to go?" inquired Andy. + +"You had better strike for Rushville," replied Mr. Webb. "From what I +remember, you can get a train to Montrose earlier than on the Central." + +"I am to go on to John Parks?" + +"That's the programme," said Mr. Webb, trying to appear cheerful; "why +not?" + +Andy reflected seriously for a moment or two. Finally he spoke: + +"Mr. Webb," he said; "I hardly feel right to leave you on my bond for +that big amount. Something might happen so that I could not appear for +trial--trickery, or a dozen things." + +"And because you have not succeeded in recovering that pocketbook, you +suppose I'm going to desert you, Nelson?" inquired the gentleman. + +"You are not the man to do a single mean thing," replied Andy, "but, +with all your troubles, and me being a stranger----" + +"Drop it, Nelson. You have tried to be the best friend in the world to +me, and I'd go on your bond for double the amount I have. You are to go +straight on to Montrose, win that airship race, and when you have got +that off your mind we will have a talk together." + +"You are a good, kind man," said Andy, with fervor, "and I'd walk +barefooted on hot coals to get you back that pocketbook." + +When they reached Rushville, Mr. Webb took charge of the automobile. He +made many encouraging references to the coming airship race, and when he +left Andy at the railroad station shook his hand in a friendly way. + +Andy made a disappointing discovery as soon as he consulted the train +schedules. A change in the service of the road had been made only that +week, and there was no train south until seven o'clock. It was now +three, and he would have to wait four hours. + +"I won't be able to get home until after dark," reflected the lad. "I +hoped to have an hour or two of daylight for practice, but this knocks +my plans awry. Well, as it is, this is a good deal better than missing +the race altogether." + +It was quite dark when the train reached the limits of Montrose. It +stopped at a crossing, and Andy got off and made a short cut for the +Parks camp. + +His course led him past the large aviation field. Andy was anxious to +report to Mr. Parks as soon as possible, but unusual light and animation +about the big enclosure aroused his curiosity and interest, and he +passed the gate and strolled by the various aerodromes. + +Everything was "the race!" Groups were discussing it, contestants were +oiling up their machines and exploiting the merits of the others. An +hour passed by before Andy realized it. He came to halt in front of the +last tent in the row, turned to retrace his steps, and then suddenly +halted. + +"I'd like to know what the Duske crowd is about," he reflected, glancing +towards the isolated camp which he had surreptitiously visited only a +few nights previous. "Mr. Parks might be glad to know, too. I'll do a +little skirmishing and find out what I can." + +Andy crossed a dark space. Lights were moving about the Duske camp, and +these served as a guide. He neared the fence surrounding the camp, got +over it, and cautiously approached the large tent which held the airship +he had inspected on his first stealthy visit to the place. + +Suddenly Andy tripped and fell. His foot had caught in a wire stretched +taut under the grass. As he went headlong across the grass, a bell began +to jingle, and he realized that the wire was one of many probably set to +trap intruders. At all events, before he could get to his feet two men +ran out of the tent. + +One of these was Duske. The other was his companion of the evening when +Andy had previously visited the place. They pounced on him promptly. + +"Another spy," spoke Duske, dragging the captive toward the tent. + +"They're getting thick," observed his companion. "Those fellows at the +big camp are mighty curious to pry into the secrets of our craft here. +Hello! why, Duske, this is the same fellow we caught snooping around +here three nights since." + +"Eh? Oh, it's you again, is it?" + +They had come inside the tent. The light burning there revealed Andy +fully. Without letting go of him Duske scowlingly surveyed his captive. + +"Say, Duske," spoke the other man quickly, "it's Parks' boy, and he's +the one who won the pony prize." + +"Was that you?" demanded Duske; "are you Andy Nelson?" + +"Suppose so?" queried Andy. + +"Then you're the fellow who is going to take Parks' place in the race +to-morrow?" + +"I guess that is right," affirmed Andy. + +"No," cried Duske, showing his teeth, and looking fierce and malicious, +"it's wrong, dead wrong, as you're going to find out. Fetch me some +rope." + +"Hold on," objected Andy, "you aren't going to tie me up?" + +He put up a manful struggle and very nearly got away. The two powerful +men were more than his equal, however, and in a very few minutes Andy +found himself tied hand and foot. + +Duske and his companion carried him bodily along through the tent, past +the flying machine, and threw him onto a mattress lying on the ground in +a small compartment partitioned off with canvas. Duske tested the ropes +that bound Andy, gave them another twist, and went out into the main +tent. + +"This looks like luck," observed the companion of Duske. + +"Yes, if we've got the bearings right," replied the other, "Are you sure +he was scheduled to take Parks' place in the race?" + +"Of course I am. Hasn't Tyrrell told us already about his getting into +trouble somewhere, and couldn't be here to make the race? Hasn't Parks +hired Tyrrell in his place?" + +"Then how comes the boy to be here? I don't like the looks of things at +all." + +"Tyrrell will be here before long. He can post us if there is any break +in our arrangements." + +The two men passed out of hearing. Andy made one or two efforts to +loosen his bonds, found them unusually secure, and gave up the +experiment. What his captors had said startled and disturbed him +considerably. + +"Mr. Parks doesn't expect me to show up in time to make the race, and +this man they talked about, Tyrrell, is going to take my place," +reflected Andy. "He is a friend of the people here, and that certainly +means harm for Mr. Parks." + +Andy worried himself a good deal during the next hour, imagining all +kinds of plots on the part of Duske and his friends to prevent the +_Racing Star_ from winning the prize. + +Finally Andy heard voices in the large tent. His name was spoken, and he +listened intently to catch what was said. + +"If that's so, and it's really Andy Nelson," sounded a new voice, "it's +funny, for up to this morning he was in jail at Princeville." + +"Then he's escaped, or got free somehow," answered Duske. "He's that boy +of Parks' who was the winner in the dash for the pony prize." + +"If he is," came the reply, "you want to hold him a close prisoner till +the big race is over." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI--A FRIEND IN NEED + + +The voices that Andy heard died away in the distance. In about ten +minutes, however, they came back again within his range of hearing. The +man he believed to be Tyrrell, who in some way had induced Mr. Parks to +accept him as a substitute for himself in the aviation race, was +speaking to his companion, who was Duske. + +"That's the programme, is it?" he was asking. + +"To a T." + +"You will look out for the Nelson boy." + +"Don't fret on that score. We'll cage him safe and sound until the race +is over." + +"You think I had better use the bottle?" + +"Yes, here it is. Stow it anywhere in your clothes." + +"Isn't there some easier way? What's the use of fire? It may strike +investigators as suspicious." + +"Not at all. They tanked you too full, a spark did the mischief, see? +You know enough to descend in among some trees?" + +"Of course." + +"Let the flame singe your clothing, tell some sensational story of a +hairbreadth escape, and you'll be quite a hero." + +"You think with the _Racing Star_ out of the way that your machine is +bound to win, do you?" + +"I know it," affirmed Duske confidently. "Those other aeroplanes are +mere botches. They will do as playthings, but as to distance, they're +not in it with the _Moon Bird_." + +"All right, I'll follow instructions. Keep that boy safe. I'd better go. +It would be all up with our scheme if Parks should suspect I was your +friend." + +Andy fairly writhed where he lay. The plot of the villains was now +perfectly clear to him. The man Tyrrell had wormed himself into the +confidence of Mr. Parks, who little suspected that he was a confederate +of Duske. Tyrrell was to make the start with the _Racing Star_, pretend +that an accident had happened, and burn up the airship. + +"What shall I do--what can I do?" breathed Andy. "They don't intend to +let me go until after the race is over to-morrow." + +In about an hour Duske and an old man who seemed to be the cook of the +camp came to where Andy lay. Duske released one hand of the captive. The +anxious prisoner did not feel much like eating, but he realized that he +must keep up his strength. He ate some bread and meat which the cook +brought, and drank some water. + +Duske tied him up again, tighter than ever. Then he spoke to the cook: + +"You get your armchair right outside the canvas flap here, Dobbins." + +"All right, Mr. Duske," replied the man. + +"Every fifteen minutes, right through till morning, you are to look in +on that boy. See that he is comfortable, but particularly that he is +safe." + +"I'll attend to it." + +"If you let him get away, you're out of a job, remember." + +The cook followed out the programme directed by Duske to the minutest +detail. Andy had no opportunity to free himself--he was watched so +closely. He decided that the effort would be futile. Until midnight he +lay wide awake, nervous and worried. Then he made up his mind that it +did no good to fret, and got some sleep. + +He was given his breakfast about six o'clock in the morning. Then he was +tied up again and left to himself. He lay on the mattress so that when +the wind blew the canvas lifted and he could look out. He was faced away +from the direction of the aviation field, however, and twenty feet away +the fence stared him blankly in the face. + +From sounds near by and in the distance during the next two hours, Andy +could figure out just what was going on about him. The _Moon Bird_ was +carried from its aerodrome and taken to the aviation field. The old cook +seemed to be left in possession of the camp. He looked in on Andy every +so often. The rest of the time he was busy in the larger tent or outside +of it with his cooking utensils. + +Poor Andy was in sore straits of despair. He had a vivid imagination, +and could fancy all that was shut out from his view by captivity. He +heard a distant town bell strike nine o'clock. + +"In an hour the airships will be off," soliloquized the captive +mournfully, "and I won't be there." + +Andy pictured in his mind all that was going on at the aviation field. +He could fancy the airships ranging in place for the start. He could +imagine the animation and excitement permeating the groups of +spectators. He shut his eyes and tried to forget it all, so keen was his +disappointment. + +He heard the band strike up a gay tune. Then a gun was fired. Andy +almost shed tears. In twenty minutes the starting signal was due. + +"They'll have a head wind," he ruminated, as the breeze lifted the +canvas at the side of the mattress upon which he lay. "It will be light, +though, and won't hinder much;" and then he thrilled, as he fancied +himself seated in the operator's stand of the splendid _Racing Star_, +awaiting the final word, "Go!" + +Andy stared blankly at the fence of the enclosure of the Duske camp. A +section of it had been broken down, and the gate left open in removing +the airship. Of a sudden he stared eagerly. Some one had come into the +enclosure. + +The intruder was evidently some casual sight-seer, a boy. His hands were +in his pockets, and he strolled about as if curiously inspecting +everything that came under his notice. He cast a careless glance at the +tent, and was proceeding on his way towards the main aviation field, +when Andy gave a great start. + +"Silas--Silas Pierce!" he shouted, ignoring discovery by the cook. + +Andy's heart was thumping like a trip-hammer. It seemed as if on the +verge of the blackest despair a bright star of hope had risen on the +horizon. He had recognized the intruder with surprise, but with gladness +as well. + +It was his companion of the goose trip, the son of Mr. Pierce--the farmer +Silas--whom Andy had last seen at the Collins place, the farm he had +visited the day previous. Silas wore a brand-new suit of clothes. He +suggested the typical country boy, with some loose cash in his pocket, +enjoying a brief holiday to the utmost. + +"Hey!" exclaimed Silas, with a startled jump, his eyes goggling all +about, and unable to trace the source of the challenge. + +Andy uttered a groan. At the moment the breeze let down, and the canvas +dropped, shutting him in and Silas out. Then a puff of wind came and +lifted the flap again. + +"Here, here, Silas!" called out Andy in tones of strained suspense. +"Quick--help!" + +"I vum!" gasped the farmer boy, staring blankly at what he saw of Andy. +"Who is it? And--I say, you're dad's great friend, the Nelson boy!" + +Silas had advanced, and took in the situation, and recognized Andy +slowly. + +"Lift up the canvas; come in here," directed Andy in a more cautious +tone of voice. "You remember me, don't you?" + +"Guess I do; but what in the world of wonder is the matter with you?" + +"Don't talk so loud," pleaded Andy anxiously, fearing the arrival of the +cook at any moment. "Some bad men have tied me up. Have you got a +knife?" + +"Yes; and a brand-new one. Won it in a funny game where you throw rings. +See there," and with great pride Silas produced and opened a +gaudily-handled jack-knife. + +"Oh, thank you, Silas; I'll never forget this." + +"Hold on! Say! Thunder! Is he crazy? Stop! Stop!" + +In profound excitement, Silas Pierce regarded Andy. The minute he had +cut the bonds of the young aviator, Andy had bounded to his feet as if +set on springs. Afar from the aviation field there boomed out the +second, the get-ready gun. + +"Ten minutes!" gasped Andy, on fire with resolve. "I've got to make it." + +He swept aside the canvas, headed in the direction of the main camp. Hot +on his heels came his amazed rescuer, now a wondering pursuer. Andy ran +at the fence, gave a spring, and cleared its top in a graceful leap. +Silas, more clumsy, ran at two loose boards, and by sheer force of his +might and strength, sent them out of place and put after Andy. + +"Nelson!" he bawled. "What's the matter? Nobody's following you. +Crickey, but you're a sprinter!" + +"I'll see you later--Parks' camp--in a hurry." + +In a hurry, indeed, was Andy. He was running against time. As a turn +past some tents brought him in full sight of the open field, he was a +lone heroic figure--heart, brain and body strained to reach the dainty, +natty _Racing Star_, just being wheeled in place for flight. + +There were seven airships entered for the race. These were now stationed +a distance of several hundred yards apart, ready to start. The +spectators were held back from the dead line by ropes stretched from +post to post, but Andy was coming across the field from its inside edge. +Silas Pierce was putting after him, puzzled and excited, breathless, and +far to the rear. Their unconventional arrival attracted no attention, +for those in charge of the airships were engrossed in seeing that +everything was right for the start. + +The _Racing Star_ was being pushed forward to its starting position. All +the others were in place. In a swift glance, Andy made out the _Moon +Bird_, and recognized Duske seated amidships. + +Near the _Racing Star_ was Mr. Parks, directing affairs, and Scipio was +standing near by. At one side were Mr. Morse and Tsilsuma, deeply +interested in the manoeuvres going on. + +"It's Tyrrell!" panted Andy, and he redoubled his speed as he made out +the treacherous ally of Duske. Tyrrell was arrayed in leather jacket and +gloves, keeping pace with the _Racing Star_ as it moved along. As the +airship came to a halt on the starting line, Andy saw him move forward +to take his seat amidships. + +It was then that Andy massed all his strength of being, accompanied by +animated gesticulations, as he shouted out: + +"Stop that man!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII--"GO!" + + +"Andy!" shouted John Parks in a transport of amazement. + +"It's me," panted Andy, running up to his employer and pointing at +Tyrrell. "Mr. Parks, stop that man. He's a traitor; he's a villain!" + +Tyrrell had heard and seen Andy. He gave a great start. Then he made a +move as if to hasten aboard the airship and get out of his way. Mr. +Morse and the Japanese hastened forward. The men guiding the aeroplane +stared hard at the newcomer. + +"Andy, what do you mean?" demanded Mr. Parks, lost in wonderment. + +"Just what I say. Don't let him get aboard." + +"Hold on, Tyrrell," ordered the aeronaut. + +"We'll lose the start," spoke Tyrrell hurriedly. + +"Don't you get aboard." + +"No, sah; yo' just obey Mistah Parks, suh," interposed Scipio, laying a +great hindering hand on the arm of Tyrrell. + +"I have been a prisoner in the Duske camp since yesterday," explained +Andy, catching his breath. "This man Tyrrell came there last night. He +is in the employ of Duske." + +"What!" shouted Parks, his face growing dark. + +"It's true, Mr. Parks," asseverated Andy. "They are in a plot to burn +the _Racing Star_ and have you lose the prize." + +"Do you hear what this boy says?" thundered the aeronaut, moving down on +Tyrrell with threatening mien. + +"It's--it's not true," declared Tyrrell, but turning pale, shrinking +back, and looking about him for a chance to run. + +"If you don't believe me," cried Andy, "search him." + +Scipio held Tyrrell's arm in a viselike clasp. Parks ran his hand over +his clothing. He drew from his pocket a parcel done up in a +handkerchief. Mr. Morse took it, opened it, and revealed a bottle filled +with some substance like kerosene, a small box of matches and some lint. +Quick as a flash the hand of the aeronaut shot out for the throat of +Tyrrell. + +"You treacherous scoundrel!" he shouted. + +Boom! + +"The third gun! They're off, Mr. Parks," cried Andy. "Oh, don't let the +_Racing Star_ miss it." + +"What can I do?" + +"Send me. Men, get ready. Mr. Parks, I'll win this race!" + +Andy was in no trim physically or in attire to attempt the race. At a +glance the aeronaut saw this. But our hero was irresistible. He ran +towards the machine, and with nimble movements he glided among the +planes and reached the operator's seat. Already the other airships were +sailing skywards. + +"Go!" shouted Andy. + +Upon the operator's seat lay the skull cap and goggles, ready for +Tyrrell, and Andy hastily donned them. He heard the voice of Parks, now +as excited as himself, giving orders, a tacit consent to make the start. + +There was a run of scarcely a hundred feet along the grass. Andy placed +a firm hand on the wheel. Then came a series of curves and sweeping +arcs, which kept the crowd of spectators turning first one way and then +the other in entranced silence. + +The young aviator followed the popping of the motors of the contestant +machines. One was fast becoming a mere speck in the sky. + +"The _Moon Bird_, Duske's machine," murmured Andy. + +It seemed poised in the air without motion, so direct was its course, so +true its mechanism. Two of the other airships had already descended, one +of them wrecked and out of the race. The forty-foot mechanical bird, the +Duske machine, however, had made the lead and kept it. + +The climax came in Andy's preliminary ascent. Now the _Racing Star_, +light and dainty as a lark, mounted with amazing speed. A glance at +three of the airships convinced Andy that they were too faulty to make a +record. The _Moon Bird_, however, was a marvel. From what he had heard +Mr. Parks say, Duske had been an expert balloonist, and he now showed +amazing ability in the aviation line. He seemed to be putting the stolen +airship idea to marked advantage. + +Andy struck a level about fifteen hundred feet in the air. There was a +head wind, but it was not strong. Andy put on fine speed gradually. The +_Racing Star_ passed two of the contestants, and, fully in action, he +drove keen on the trail of the _Moon Bird_. + +The train that acted as a pilot with an American flag on its last car, +Andy kept in view as a guide. When they came to Lake Clear, the _Moon +Bird_ did not follow the rounding land course, nor did Andy. Lake Clear +was a shallow body of water, but of considerable extent, and dotted here +and there with little islands. + +Suddenly the _Moon Bird_, a machine of good utility, but, as Andy knew, +of little lasting power, made a decided spurt, passed the _Racing Star_, +and at a distance of half a mile got fairly abreast of the lake. It was +here that Duske met his Waterloo. Hitherto he had maintained practically +a steady course. More than once Andy had got near enough to this rival +to hear the loud gasping of the tube exhausts drown out the sharp +chug-chug of the motor. Suddenly Duske made a sharp turn. + +An appalling climax followed. In consternation and suspense Andy watched +aerial evolutions that fairly dizzied him. + +"He is lost!" breathed Andy, a-thrill. + +In an instant he recalled what Mr. Morse had told him of the unfinished +model that Duske and his crowd had stolen from him. The inventor had +explained to Andy that while the suction principle involved in the +rudder construction was unique and bound to increase speed, there should +have been added automatic caps to close the rear ends of the suction +tubes where a curve was attempted. + +Of this Duske evidently knew nothing. The moment he turned the machine, +however, there was a whirl. The aeroplane described a dive, then a +somersault. Its lateral planes collapsed, and, tipping from side to +side, it began to descend with frightful velocity. + +Once it half righted, balanced, went over again, and, fifty feet from +the ground, shot clear of a little islet, and went down in the water of +the lake, a wreck, first spilling Duske out. + +"He is killed or stunned!" exclaimed Andy. + +The boy aviator saw the other airships forging ahead, indifferent to the +accident. Minutes counted in the sixty-mile race to Springfield and back +to the starting point, but Andy was humane. He saw clearly that, if +alive, the half-submerged Duske would be suffocated in a few minutes' +time. + +"I can't leave him to die," murmured Andy, and sent the _Racing Star_ on +a sharp slant, landing on the island. + +Andy was soon out of the airship. He waded to the spot where Duske lay, +and dragged him bodily up on dry land. As he turned him on his face, +Andy knew from its purple hue, the lifeless limbs and choked gasps of +the man, that another minute in the water would have been his last. + +A boat put out from the mainland where a crowd of spectators was +watching the race. Four men jumped out as the island was reached. + +"Take care of this man," ordered Andy. + +"You're a pretty fair fellow to risk losing the race to save a +competitor," spoke one of the men heartily. + +He and his companions followed Andy's instructions the best they could +in starting the _Racing Star_, and Andy shot skywards again, making up +for lost time. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII--THE GREAT RACE + + +"Hurrah!" + +"Why, it's only a boy!" + +"Parks' man--get your rest, lad, while we see to things." + +Andy found himself in a whirl of motion and excitement. When he had left +the island where he had sacrificed his time and risked his chances of +winning the race, he had discovered that he was fourth on the programme. +The _Flash_ was becoming a distant speck, and the two other contesting +biplanes were lagging after the leader. + +Andy now set a pace to force the _Racing Star_ to do its utmost. His +good knowledge of detail as to the machinery and his masterly +manipulation of the same soon brought results. The _Racing Star_ easily +passed two of the airships ahead. Then Andy ran neck-and-neck with the +pilot train for several miles. + +The _Flash_, however, kept up admirable speed, but finally a wing broke +or oil ran out at Wayne, and the operator descended to a relief station. + +Now was Andy's chance, and he made the most of it. With those +inspiriting shouts of "Hurrah! Why, it's only a boy!" and the +announcement from the relay posted at Springfield by Parks that they +were on hand to tank up the _Racing Star_ and adjust the machinery, Andy +landed at the outskirts of the city, just half the race distance +covered. + +It made him quite dizzy-headed to sail down along a vast sea of human +beings, wild with enthusiasm at greeting the leader so far in the race. + +Two men took entire charge of the _Racing Star_, with quick movements, +tanking, oiling the cylinders, testing every part of it. A third man +brought Andy a tray containing a cup of steaming coffee, one of beef +tea, and some crackers. + +"There she comes!" + +"Hurrah No. 2!" + +"The _Flash_!" + +"And there she goes!" + +"All aboard, Parks," sang out the leader of the relay gang, and with a +glide and a whiz the _Racing Star_ was once more up in the air. + +Again the _Flash_ was in the lead. Having been supplied with fuel and +oil at its recent stop, the operator did not make any halt at the +turning post. Andy felt fresh and ambitious, and the _Racing Star_ +responded loyally to every touch of wheel and lever. + +Fifty feet from the ground a wheel dropped from place, but Andy paid no +attention to this. The train did not act as pilot on the return trip. +Instead, at intervals of five miles to indicate stations, smudges were +being sent aloft. Andy made a direct run for the first one of these, +mapping out his route from those dimly visible on the course ahead. + +At Dover Andy passed the _Flash_. For the next five miles they kept +pretty well abreast. + +The last smudge was about eight miles from Montrose. Andy flew past it +making a circular turn as he plainly made out the aviation field in the +distance. His competitor made a short cut, lost on a turn to strike the +straight course and Andy overtook him. + +Now it was that Andy tensioned up the splendid machine to its highest +power. The white expanse of canvas and wood shivered and trembled under +an unusual strain. + +"In the lead!" cried Andy in delight, and his eyes sparkled through the +goggles as he took a swift backward glance. The _Flash_ was bungling. +Its progress was a wobble and its operator was at fault in striking an +even balance. + +The speed of the _Racing Star_ had now been increased to its utmost. + +"Five minutes more, six at the most, will decide the race," breathed +Andy. "I can't lose now." + +The _Racing Star_ was no longer a bird afloat, but an arrow. Giving to +the machine a certain slant, calculating to a foot how and where he +would land, Andy saw nothing, thought of nothing, but the home post. + +He was conscious of a frightful bolt downwards that fairly took his +breath away. There was a blur of flying fences, buildings, tents, a +green expanse, a sea of human faces, a roar as a great shout went up, +and the _Racing Star_ met the ground on a bounce, and Andy Nelson was +the winner of the great race. + +Our hero did not step from the airship as eager, willing hands eased the +_Racing Star_ down to a stop. Cheering, excited men fairly pulled him +over the drooping planes. Some one hugged him with a ringing yell of +delight, and John Parks' voice sounded in his ears. + +"Oh, you famous boy--Andy, my lad, it's the proudest moment of my life!" + +Mr. Morse caught Andy's hand, his serious face flushed with pride. + +"The _Racing Star_ did it," said Andy. + +"Yo' did it, chile, and yo' did it brown," chimed in Scipio, his mouth +expanded in joyous delight from ear to ear. + +John Parks never let go of Andy's arm as they made their way through the +crowds to the main aerodrome stand. The official starter had unscrewed +the speedometer and elevation gauge. He ran before them to the stand. +Someone quickly chalked a legend on the big, bare blackboard. It ran: + + Start of flight--10:04. + Finish--11:39. + Distance traveled--60 miles. + Maximum height--1,200 feet. + Wind velocity--12 miles from the west. + Winner--Racing Star. + Operator--Andy Nelson. + +Somehow the boy aviator thrilled as he read his name at the bottom of +the little legend. + +"It's like a dream, Mr. Parks--just like a dream," and his voice was +faint and dreamy in itself. + +"Don't collapse, lad," directed the aeronaut anxiously--"the best is to +come." + +"It's only the reaction," said Andy. "To think I did it--me, only Andy!" + +"There isn't another Andy like you in the whole world," enthusiastically +declared Parks. "Yes, sir," as a man waved to him from the table on the +grand stand. + +"Here's the check, Parks," notified the judge. + +"Well, we've won it, haven't we?" chuckled the aeronaut. + +"You have, and it's ready for you. A pretty piece of paper, hey--five +thousand dollars. Make it out to you?" + +"I'll take it in two checks," answered Parks. + +"Mr. Parks----" began Andy. + +"There's only one check for the whole amount," replied the judge, "and +only the name left to be filled in." + +"Oh, that's the way of it, eh?" said the aeronaut. "All right, fill it +in John Parks and Andy Nelson. I reckon, Andy, I can't get that +twenty-five hundred dollars away from you without your signature." + +He poked Andy in the ribs in jolly fun. He was all smiles and laughter +as he shouted an order to Scipio to hurry home and get up the best +celebration dinner he knew how. Then, Andy following him, he stepped +forward to take the arm of Mr. Morse, and thus, the Japanese walking +with Andy and congratulating him on his great feat, they crossed the +field away from the crowds. + +Some one broke over the dead line ropes and made a dash after them, +yelling loudly: + +"Andy, oh, Andy Nelson!" + +"Hold on there!" ordered an officer, trying to head off the trespasser. + +"Silas Pierce!" exclaimed Andy. + +"He goes with us, officer," called out Parks. "You bet you go with us, +you grand old hero!" he cried, giving the farmer boy a joyful, friendly +slap on the shoulder. + +"Yes, indeed," smiled Andy, catching the arm of Silas and hugging it +quite, "if it hadn't been for you, there would have been no race." + +"Andy," gasped Silas, "I can hardly believe it. Why you're famous." + +"Am I?" smiled Andy. + +"And rich." + +"Rich in good friends, anyway," replied Andy. + +"I hung around. When I saw you coming in on the lead, I nearly fell flat +I was so excited," declared Silas. + +"I want a chance for a little talk with you, Silas," said Andy. "I want +to show you how much I appreciate what you have done for me." + +The merry, happy coterie crossed the field, and coming out at a gate +made a short cut for the Parks camp. They had just neared it, when among +the crowd thronging about the place, Andy made out a boy edging towards +him. + +He crowded past several persons and came up to Andy's side and caught +his sleeve. + +"Andy," he said in a bold but sheepish way, "you know me, don't you?" + +"Why, yes, I know you," answered Andy. + +He stared in mingled surprise, perplexity and distrust at the speaker. + +It was Dale Billings. Hungry-faced, unkempt looking, as if he had not +slept for a week, and then in a hay mow or a freight car. Andy's +old-time enemy confronted him in the hour of his great triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV--A HOPEFUL CLEW + + +"Did you want to see me, Dale," inquired Andy. + +"Yes, I do, and bad," responded Dale Billings. "See here, you've won a +big race. You're rich. If it hadn't been for me and Gus Talbot, you +wouldn't be." + +"How is that?" inquired Andy. + +"We figured along the line, didn't we? If I'd gone to work for old +Talbot when I had a chance, you'd have been out and wouldn't have +learned about automobiles and machinery and such, and couldn't have run +an airship and won the race." + +This was queer reasoning. Andy had to smile. He couldn't feel any way +but pleasant and happy with the great airship prize his, however, and he +said: + +"Well, let that go. What are you driving at, Dale?" + +"We're in hard luck, me and Gus." + +"You look it," said Andy. + +"We haven't got a cent, we don't dare to go back home. Gus is sick in an +old shed down the tracks, and we haven't had a mouthful to eat since +yesterday morning. There's no friends here we know but you. I'm just +desperate. Loan me two dollars, Andy." + +"Why certainly," answered Andy. + +"I mean five--yes, if you'll loan us ten dollars till we get work and on +our feet, we'll pay it back." + +"All right," agreed Andy, "only you'll have to come up to our camp for +it. You know where it is--Parks' camp." + +"Yes, I know." + +"I want to have a talk with you. You can depend on the money, Dale." + +A thought ran through the mind of the young aviator that by kindness he +might make some impression on the two outcasts. As he summed up the +meanness and audacity of his recent capture, however, Andy secretly +confessed that it would be a hard undertaking. + +First thing of all, our hero took a bath and got himself in better shape +generally. Mr. Parks and a group of his friends occupied the main +sitting room. Andy had left Dale in one of the smaller apartments of the +old shack. As he went thither he passed Scipio, arrayed in white apron +and natty cap and warbling a plantation ditty as he brandished knife and +carver gaily. + +"Getting sech a dinnah, Andy, chile," he chuckled. "Ah give you a feast +you nebber forgit." + +"Now then, Silas," said Andy, entering the room where he had left the +farmer boy, "I've got time to shake your hand good and hearty, and glad +to do it." + +"And I'm glad you're not too proud to do it," replied Silas. + +"You've done a big thing for me, Silas," went on Andy. + +"Think so?" + +"Where would the race be if you had not come along in the nick of time +and set me free?" + +"I was mightily surprised to see you in that queer fix," said Silas, +"and I didn't know what had happened when you started on a rush for the +airship." + +"Well, you understand now," said Andy. "Now then, Silas, what can I do +for you?" + +"Do, how?" + +"I want to acknowledge your usefulness in some way. There must be +something you want or need." + +"You mean you'd like to give me some little memento for trying to help +you along?" + +"That's it." + +"But I'm glad to do it for nothing." + +"Never mind. Come, speak out, Silas. A bicycle, a nice new watch and +chain?" + +"Why, see here," said Silas, after a moment's deep thought, "if it's the +same to you, I'd like ten dollars and seventeen cents." + +Andy smiled. "For something special?" he inquired. + +"Why, yes. You see I want to go to school this winter and learn +shorthand. The term is eighteen dollars, and I've only saved up seven +dollars and eighty-three cents." + +"I'll do better than that for you, Silas," said Andy, "and I'm glad to +find you so ambitious. How is your father?" + +"All right, I guess, though I haven't seen him for nigh onto a month." + +"Why, how's that?" + +"I've been staying at the Collins farm." + +"You have?" exclaimed Andy, at once interested. + +"Yes. Just came up from there yesterday. There hasn't been much doing, +and won't be until the folks get their new house built. I was on their +hands, though, and I'm staying around visiting relatives." + +"How do you mean you was on their hands, Silas?" inquired Andy. + +"Why, dad got talking with Mr. Collins after we'd got rid of the geese. +There's a good academy at Wade, and Mr. Collins was going into sheep in +a big way. He offered me quite a good job and the chance to go to school +in the winter, and I took it." + +"But Mr. Collins' house burned down," said Andy. + +"What, did you hear of that?" asked Silas in surprise. + +"Yes," nodded Andy. + +"Well, that put things in bad shape for the family, but they are coming +back soon, and in the meantime I tend to the sheep in the pasture lot. +Lucky they had moved the old shed over there for storm shelter before +the house and barns burned down." + +"What shed?" asked Andy, with a quick start. + +"The one that stood under the old elm tree. Don't you remember? Why, it +was the shed you changed your clothes in." + +"What!" shouted Andy, jumping to his feet in intense excitement; "that +shed wasn't burned down?" + +"Ain't I telling you? They moved it over to the pasture on skids two +weeks before the fire." + +"And it is there now?" + +"Yes--but don't!" + +Andy felt like making a rush at once at the great hopeful news Silas had +told. The latter had grabbed his arm. + +"Don't what?" + +"Bolt. You're going to make a dash like you did this morning." + +"No, Silas," said Andy, trying to be calm. "You can't imagine what great +news you have brought me." + +"I don't see how." + +"We must go to the Collins farm at once, Silas, that old shed had a +shelf up over the side window?" + +"Remember that, do you? So do I." + +"It had a lot of rubbish on it." + +"I noticed that." + +"Has it ever been disturbed?" + +"Not that I know of. You see, Mr. Collins was arranging to have the old +barracks patched up by a carpenter from Wade, when the fire came along." + +"Silas," said Andy, "I threw my old clothes up on that shelf. If they +are still there, I shall be able to find an old leather pocketbook in +them that contains a paper upon which depends a fortune." + +"You don't say so?" remarked Silas, in open-mouthed wonderment "What +queer things you happen across!" + +"A gentleman named Webb is very, very anxious to recover that +pocketbook. I want you to go at once with me and see if the clothes are +still there," and Andy briefly recited the story of the lost pocketbook +and the details of his recent visit to the Collins farm. + +He was consulting a railroad timetable to determine when the next train +left Montrose, when Scipio rushed into the room. + +"Andy, boy," he spoke quickly, "yo' told a boy to told me dat he was to +be let come to see yo'?" + +"What kind of a boy, Scipio?" inquired Andy. + +Scipio described Dale Billings, and as he did so passed some personal +comments on his "'spicious" appearance. + +"Yes, that's right, Scipio," said Andy. + +"Den somefin's wrong," declared the perturbed cook. "When he come, I say +Mistah Nelson very much preoccupied with another gemman, and he must +wait. He sot down on dat chair just outside the door hyar." + +"Go on, Scipio." + +"I keep my eye on him. Dat boy," announced Scipio, "remind me of mean, +low-down people, I meet afore in my 'sperience. Bimeby I watch him bend +towards de door. He seemed listening. Den I saw him start and draw +closer to de door. Den all of a sudden he make a rush out of de place. I +run to de gate. Den anoder sneaking-looking boy meet him. Dey talk fast, +berry much excited. Den dey make a run towards the railroad tracks as if +dey was in a turrible hurry." + +"Dale Billings and Gus Talbot!" exclaimed Andy, on fire with the +intelligence imparted by his loyal, dusky friend. "Silas, they have got +our secret. They are after the old leather pocketbook on the Collins +farm. We must get there first!" + +Andy directed Silas to wait where he was. Then he ran to the room where +Mr. Parks was engaged with his friends. Appearing at the doorway he +attracted the attention of the aeronaut and beckoned to him. + +"What is it, Andy?" inquired Parks, coming outside. "You look excited." + +"I am," admitted Andy, and then very briefly, but clearly, he explained +his urgency. + +"I say, you mustn't let any grass grow under your feet!" exclaimed +Parks. "I reckon you've got it right--that sneaking fellow you was trying +to help is off on the track of the old shed you tell about. There's the +_Racing Star_--no, that won't do, but--I've got it, Andy. Wait here a +minute." + +John Parks flashed in among his friends and then flashed out again. Now +he was accompanied by a well-dressed portly gentleman whom Andy had seen +about the aviation grounds, and whom he knew to be one of the principals +in getting up the race. + +The aeronaut was busy talking fast and urgently to this person, who +nodded to Andy and said: + +"That's all right Do you know how to run an automobile?" to Andy. + +"Why, that was his old business," explained Parks. + +"I'll risk anybody getting ahead of you, then. My machine is just +outside the camp." + +"Come on, Silas," hailed Andy as they passed on towards the gate. + +Andy found a magnificent six-cylinder automobile just outside the camp. +He thanked its owner heartily for allowing its use, beckoned Silas to +the rear seat, and waved adieu to his employer with the cheery words: + +"I'll be back inside of two hours, Mr. Parks." + +"Say," bolted out Silas, holding on with both hands as they crossed the +railroad tracks and struck a winding country road due north, +"isn't--isn't this going pretty fast?" + +"Oh, this is just starting up," declared Andy. + +"I never rode in one of these before," said Silas. "Those sneaks won't +get much ahead of this, I'm thinking." + +Andy thought this, too. There was not the least doubt in his mind that +Dale Billings and Gus Talbot were already on the trail of the old +leather pocketbook. All they could do, however, was to steal their way +on some slow freight train. Still, they might induce someone to go for +them or with them by faster travel. They might get an automobile, even +if they had to steal one. Andy felt that it was pretty hopeless trying +to make Dale or Gus respectable. He had intended, in the liberality of +his heart, to put them on their feet. Here, the first thing, Dale was +acting the part of a sneak and a thief. + +It felt good to Andy to get back to his old business once more. Once out +on a clear, level road, he made the machine fairly hum. Various +ejaculations back of him told that his unexperienced passenger was +having spasms. In considerably less than an hour the machine reached +Wade. They were soon at the site of the Collins farmhouse. + +"There's the old shed, see?" spoke Silas, as Andy directed the machine +across the fields. + +"Yes, I see," said Andy, "and it's a sight for sore eyes." + +He halted the machine and jumped out as they reached the fence of a +pasture lot containing several flocks of sheep. In one corner of it +stood the old shed. Silas was worked up to quite as high a pitch of +suspense and expectation as Andy himself. + +"There's the shelf!" he cried, as Andy passed through the doorway. + +"Yes, but--my old clothes are not here." + +"Oh, don't say that!" almost choked out Silas. + +"It is true," said Andy, getting down from the keg he was standing on. +"Here's a lot of old truck, wagon hardware and hoops and a grindstone, +but the clothes are gone." + +Silas uttered a dismal groan. + +"Oh, I'm a hoodoo!" he declared, banging his head first on one side and +then on the other. "Here I've made you all this trouble, all for +nothing. But, say," added the farmer eagerly, "some one must have taken +those clothes. We may trace them down. And say, some one has been in +this shed since I left it yesterday." + +"Why do you think so?" + +"Someone has slept here. See, the floor is covered with straw. Some +tramp, I suppose. It rained last night, and he came in here for shelter. +Oh, whoop! whoopee!" + +At first Andy thought his companion had taken leave of his senses. With +a Comanche-like yell Silas had made a spring. Then a method to his +apparent madness was disclosed. + +Andy saw him pull a wadded mass out of a hole formerly used to admit a +stove pipe. Andy gasped with gladness and hope. + +"My clothes," he said, "sure enough!" + +"Don't you see?" said the jubilant Silas, dancing a joyful hornpipe. "It +rained. The tramp who stayed here stuffed up the hole to shut out the +rain. Say, sure your clothes?" + +"Yes," said Andy, searching them. + +"And the pocketbook?" + +"Here it is," cried our hero in a strained tone that trembled. "Yes, the +pocketbook is here all right." + +"Hurrah!" yelled Silas Pierce at the top of his voice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV--GOOD-BY TO AIRSHIP ANDY + + +"A visitor for yo', Marse Andy," announced Scipio. + +"It's only me," said Mr. Chase, stepping into the sitting room of the +aerodrome at the Parks' camp. + +"Well, no one is more welcome, Mr. Chase," declared Andy heartily. "Come +in, sit down, and make yourself at home." + +"Not till I ask a certain question," dissented the grizzled +lockup-keeper of Princeville. + +"Fire away," smiled Andy. "What's the question?" + +"Can you get me a job?" + +"Right off, and a good one," responded Andy promptly. "My employer, Mr. +Parks, is going into the airship line as a regular professional, and I +don't know a better all-round handy man I would recommend sooner than +you." + +"All right," said Chase, with a sigh of relief, dropping into a chair +and placing a bulging, ancient carpet bag on the floor. "I'm done with +lockups." + +"Is that so, Mr. Chase?" + +"It is, and with that conscienceless old grafter, Talbot. You know I +told you I was waiting for something when I last saw you." + +"Yes," nodded Andy. + +"It was Wandering Dick." + +"So you told me." + +"I sent that tramp after him. He found him. I got from Dick what I +wanted, paid for it, resigned my position, and now I am here." + +"Quick work." + +"And here's what I got from Wandering Dick." + +Chase extended to Andy a neatly folded paper. + +"And what is this, Mr. Chase?" asked Andy. + +"A confession and affidavit." + +"How does that interest me?" + +"Read and see." + +Andy's face grew interested and then startled as he perused the sheet of +paper. It was a legal document attested to by Wandering Dick before a +regular justice of the peace at Princeville. + +In his affidavit the tramp stated that on the night that the barn of +Farmer Jones burned down, he was in its hay mow. He saw distinctly the +two boys who set the fire--Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. He got out of +the way for fear of being charged with the crime, sought later shelter +at the jail, and told Chase about it. + +The latter was so dependent upon Talbot and in dread of the garage +keeper, who held his position at his mercy, that he made no move to +right Andy with the public until the latter was arrested. + +"You have done nobly, Mr. Chase," said Andy with deep gratitude, "and +where is your bill of expenses to settle?" + +"Settle nothing!" flared out Chase stormily. "You ever mention it again +and I'll get out of here bag and baggage, double quick." + +"Well, well," answered Andy, "we'll try to find some way to make it up +to you." + +Two days later Andy learned that the attention of Seth Talbot had been +called to the affidavit. Runaway Gus Talbot and Dale Billings had +returned to Princeville. In some way the garage keeper settled with +Farmer Jones, hushed up the matter, and sent his graceless son on a sea +voyage. The charge against Andy was, of course, dismissed. + +Andy went to visit Duske in the town hospital. His accomplice, Tyrrell, +had been driven out of the aviation camp and threatened with a coat of +tar and feathers if he ever returned. The rest of Duske's party +disappeared, and creditors seized what little property he had. + +Duske would never drive a balloon or airship again. One arm and one foot +were broken, and he had sustained other severe injuries. Andy found him +a dispirited, wretched man. + +He had an object in visiting the crippled aeronaut. He began by telling +Duske that deeply as he tried to wrong Parks, the latter had ordered and +paid for the best care during his stay in the hospital. + +"I am circulating a subscription paper among the aviators," added Andy. +"We expect to raise a thousand dollars for you to go to some quiet town +and buy some small business that will give you a living." + +No person could resist the kindliness of Andy under the circumstances. +Duske broke down completely. He was as sincere and penitent as a man of +his rough mould of mind could be. + +"I don't deserve it, I've been a bad man," he declared, with tears in +his eyes. "What can I do for you for all your kindness to me?" + +"You can do something, Mr. Duske," said Andy. "There is a man named +Morse. Do you know him?" + +"Why, yes, I do," replied Duske, with a great start. "Do you?" + +"I happen to." + +"What has he got to do with you and me?" + +"Just this," said Andy, "you have treated him badly. He is my friend. +You had a hold on him. What was it?" + +"A forgery he never committed." + +"Are you willing to prove that, and clear him?" + +"Yes, indeed. I've done enough wickedness in the world." + +"Then clear his name of an unjust charge, so he can stand before the +public the good, noble man he is." + +"I will," declared Duske earnestly, and he did. + +One week after the airship race Mr. Webb, to whom Andy had sent the old +leather pocketbook by registered mail the day he recovered it, came down +to the Parks camp. + +"I have been too busy to come before," he explained to Andy. "That +document in the old leather pocketbook took up my time. I tell you, +Nelson, it has brought brightness and comfort to two orphan children in +a grand way." + +"I am very glad," said Andy. + +"I got back the two hundred dollars you left at the bank in +Princeville," continued Mr. Webb. "I have added something to it, and my +attorneys have directed me to pay you what they intended to give the +finder of the pocketbook--five hundred dollars." + +Andy made some demur at the largeness of the amount, but Mr. Webb was +persistent, declared he was simply acting as agent for the lawyers, and +Andy had to take the money. + +"As to myself," observed the gentleman, "I want to say what you must +already know, Nelson--I am greatly interested in you. I wish you could +suggest some way in which my means can benefit you." + +"So do I," broke in John Parks. "The lad is a genius in the aviation +line, and I want him to keep on at it." + +"Don't I intend to?" challenged Andy. + +"Not when you say you are going to leave me next month," declared the +aeronaut. + +"Yes, but why?" said Andy. "I'll leave it to Mr. Webb here if I have not +decided in a sensible, practical way." + +"What is it, Nelson?" inquired Mr. Webb. + +"Why, I have over two thousand five hundred dollars in the bank. I want +to put one thousand of it aside for my half brother, when he turns up. +He was good and kind to me in the old days, and I must not forget it. +Then I want to go through college and learn something so I may be of +some use in the world." + +"An excellent idea," commended Mr. Webb. + +"Yes," growled Parks, but playfully, "and spoil a good aviator!" + +"Not at all," declared Andy quickly. "I love the airship business, Mr. +Parks, but I want to learn every branch of the science that covers it. +It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, you +say, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and the +professional aviator will be just a common, everyday person." + +"Well, I suppose that's so," admitted Parks. + +"Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship. +Why, I'll go through college, come out with my head chock full of new +ideas, and Mr. Webb and you and I will get up the World's Airship +Construction Co." + +"That's a pretty grand scheme, Nelson," said Mr. Webb. + +"Mayn't it become a true one?" + +"Yes, it may," said John Parks, "but I'll always think most of you just +as you are--Airship Andy." + + + THE END + + + + +The Webster Series + +By Frank V. Webster + +Mr. Webster's style is very much like that of the boys' favorite author, +the late lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales are thoroughly +up-to-date. + +Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. Stamped in various +colors. + +Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid. + +[Image] + + Only A Farm Boy + or Dan Hardy's Rise in Life + The Boy From The Ranch + or Roy Bradner's City Experiences + The Young Treasure Hunter + or Fred Stanley's Trip to Alaska + The Boy Pilot to the Lakes + or Nat Morton's Perils + Tom The Telephone Boy + or The Mystery of a message + Bob The Castaway + or The Wreck of the Eagle + The Newsboy Partners + or Who Was Dick Box? + Two Boy Gold Miners + or Lost in the Mountains + The Young Firemen of Lakeville + or Herbert Dare's Pluck + The Boys of Bellwood School + or Frank Jordan's Triumph + Jack the Runaway + or On the Road with a Circus + Bob Chester's Grit + or From Ranch to Riches + Airship Andy + or The Luck of a Brave Boy + High School Rivals + or Fred Markham's Struggles + Darry The Life Saver + or The Heroes of the Coast + Dick The Bank Boy + or A Missing Fortune + Ben Hardy's Flying Machine + or Making a Record for Himself + Harry Watson's High School Days + or The Rivals of Rivertown + Comrades of the Saddle + or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains + Tom Taylor at West Point + or The Old Army Officer's Secret + The Boy Scouts of Lennox + or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain + The Boys of the Wireless + or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep + Cowboy Dave + or The Round-up at Rolling River + Jack of the Pony Express + or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail + The Boys of the Battleship + or For the Honor of Uncle Sam + +CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK. + + + + +The Boy Ranchers Series + +By Willard F. 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