CHAPTER XI
IN PERIL
IN PERIL
IN PERIL
“Wake up, Hiram,” shouted our hero, seizing the arm of his sleeping assistant, who, rolling against Elmer, jogged him into wakefulness also.
“Ah, what did you say?” droned Hiram. “I was just dreaming that we were on the last home stretch with theCometand——”
“Hurry up and dress, fellows,” ordered the young airman, rapidly.
“Why, it isn’t daylight yet,” remonstrated Elmer, with a drowsy stare.
“No,” answered Dave, seriously. “But there is some trouble over on the aero grounds, and we may be interested.”
“Say,” cried Hiram, fully aroused at the announcement, “you don’t mean trouble for theComet?”
“I don’t know,” replied Dave. “There was an explosion. The man in the next room heard it, too. He called up the hotel clerk, and he told him that a hangar and its machine had beenblown to pieces. Take everything with you, fellows,” advised the young airman. “We won’t come back here, even if this affair doesn’t affect us.”
“Do you think it does?” inquired Elmer anxiously. “How could there be an explosion of an airship? Yes, I’m ready.”
The boys hurried down the stairs. Dave, in the lead, found two men who had machines on the aero grounds. They, too, had been aroused and were questioning the clerk.
“All I got over the ’phone from the office on the grounds was what I told you,” the clerk was saying—“building and machine blown to pieces.”
“Let’s hurry,” said Hiram anxiously, as they reached the street. The two men from the hotel ran along with them. They overtook others, aroused by the explosion, and discussing it and trying to figure out what it might mean.
The guard at the gate of the grounds knew no more than what the boys had already learned. He said, however, that several from the office building had gone to the scene of the trouble. Half way across the field, a hangar man running to the office building with information, met them.
“What’s the trouble?” inquired one of the hurrying group.
“One of the hangars blown up—dynamite, I guess,” was the reply.
“Accident?”
“No, looks more like malicious spitework. The superintendent and his men are trying to find out.”
Our hero and his comrades could see lanterns moving about over at the row of hangars where theCometwas housed. Another man from the scene was halted by them, and Dave asked quickly:
“Which one of the hangars was blown up?”
“The concrete one—the one theCometwas in.”
Hiram uttered a groan. Dave grew pale with anxiety and distress. Elmer grasped hold of his arm as if the blow had made him reel.
“Dave,” spoke Hiram, in a trembling tone, “they stole our machine back at Washington. They’ve destroyed it, now!”
The young airman did not reply. His lips tightly compressed to hide his emotion, he hurried on. Then they all came to a stop. In dismay they stood staring at a mass of ruins—what was left of the wrecked hangar.
Pieces of concrete blocks littered the ground in all directions. Parts of an airship mechanism showed in the glare of the lanterns. The young aviator felt sick all over. He had known all along what there was to fear. His mind was quickly decided as to the motive and source of the vandal act.
“Dave,” suddenly whispered Hiram, in a shaking tone, “theCometis gone! That may not matter, for we might get another machine, but—what about Will Mason?”
Dave thrilled at the question. He steadied himself as he best could, and touched the superintendent of the grounds, who was standing nearby, on the arm.
“There was somebody in the hangar,” he said.
“We suppose so,” replied the official, gravely. “Young Mason slept there nights and——”
“I’m all right,” interrupted an excited but clear voice, and the person under discussion came into view pulling on his sweater. “Just woke up, and they told me about this.”
“Will! Will!” spoke Dave, grasping the hand of the hangar lad fervently. Elmer was crying for joy. Hiram threw an arm about the young fellow and fairly hugged him.
“Oh, nothing matters so long as you wasn’t blown to pieces along with the machine,” almost sobbed the loyal Hiram. “How was it—how did you get out?”
“I wasn’t in,” replied Will. “When I moved theCometout——”
“When you what?” shouted Hiram, in a frenzy of suspense.
“Why, I guess you’re thinking your machine was blown up,” said Will.
“Of course we do,” answered Elmer.
“Well, theCometis all snug and safe in that fourth hangar down the row. The man who owns the wrecked hangar came in with his machine shortly after midnight. He routed me up, and I got theCometout and his biplane in. I promised you I would keep an all-night watch over your biplane, and stayed with it.”
“Oh, Dave, I’m so glad!” cried Hiram, in a tone of immense relief.
The young pilot of theCometleft the group and drew the superintendent to one side.
“This is a pretty mysterious happening,” that official had just remarked.
“I may be able to throw some light upon it,” said Dave, in a very serious way. “I feel certain that the explosion was intended to destroy theComet.”
“Is that so!” exclaimed the superintendent. “Then it was done by design?”
“Yes,” affirmed Dave, positively. “I think the Association people should know about it. Perhaps some search can be made for the persons who did the work. You know, theCometwas stolen from the grounds near Washington.”
“It seems to me I did hear something about that,” replied the official.
“We did not say much about it at the time,” went on Dave; “but I had my suspicions.”
“What were they?”
“Someone was very much interested in keeping us out of the race,” explained the young airman.
“You mean professional rivals?”
“I won’t say that positively,” responded Dave, “although expert airmen certainly shared in the Washington end of the plot. I cannot doubt that instructions were sent to confederates here at Chicago to catch theCometand finish the work.”
“You can’t name any one in this outrage; can you, Dashaway?” inquired the superintendent, roused up to a high pitch of excitement and indignation.
“I have a suspicion as to the person at the bottom of the scheme,” answered Dave. “I have a further idea as to the men who are carrying out instructions, but I have no positive proof as to their guilt. Neither of them is probably here. No, they must have wired accomplices at this point. All I can say is, that hired emissaries in a big plot to keep us out of this race are probably posted and instructed all along the line, determined to carry out their plan to prevent our making the world-circling flight.”
“I must report this to the officers of the association at once, Dashaway,” said the superintendent.
Hiram had sidled up to Dave. He seized the arm of the latter in a detaining grip as he was about to move nearer to the ruins of the hangar.
“See here, Dave Dashaway,” he said, earnestly, “there’s a lot you are keeping to yourself, and I’ve a right to know what it is.”
“I think so, too,” replied the young airman at once. “I saw no good accomplished by worrying you with that I only guessed, until this explosion occurred. Now I feel it a duty to share my knowledge with you and Elmer, just as you are sharing the risk and danger of this journey. As soon as we get started again, I will have an interesting story to tell you.”
“All right, Dave,” agreed Hiram, “only I’m terribly anxious and curious. Can I ask you just one question?”
“Yes, if you choose,” replied Dave.
“Is the man behind all this trouble the fellow I have all along guessed—that fellow, Vernon?”
“You needn’t guess it,” answered Dave. “You have hit it just right. It is Vernon.”