As silently as possible the escaped captives made for the Electric Monarch. They had almost gained the side of the craft when an unexpected obstacle barred their further progress. The interruption was in the form of a big white bulldog.
“Gosh all hemlock!” gasped Reuben, “I plumb forgot about old Lion.”
“Is he mean?” asked Tom.
“Mean, wa’al he’s a sight meaner than old Turpin hisself, and thet’s a-goin’ some.”
As if to show that his character had been described correctly, Lion gave a low growl and then, without any further warning, sprang straight at Jack. The boy jerked up his foot and caught the animal under the chin. With a yapping bark it tumbled back, but collected itself in an instant for another spring.
“Maw! Maw!” They heard him yell at the top of his lungs,“the boys is got out”.—Page 249
“Maw! Maw!” They heard him yell at the top of his lungs,“the boys is got out”.—Page 249
At the same instant the boys heard a window go up in the farmhouse.
“Wow!” exclaimed Tom, “about this time watch out for trouble.”
“Lion! Lion!” came a voice which they recognized as Turpin’s.
The dog gave a yapping bark. Simultaneously old Turpin must have seen, by the moonlight, that the barn door in which the boys had been confined was open.
“Maw! Maw!” they heard him yell at the top of his lungs, “the boys is got out, gimme my gun!”
Lion at the same instant decided to make another attack, but in the brief pause while he was listening to his master’s voice Tom had taken time by the forelock and picked up a big rock. As Lion made another spring Tom flung the rock.
There was a howl of dismay from Lion, who rushed toward the house. Shouts and cries filled the air.
“Maw! the young varmints hev killed Lion!”
“Paw, take arter ’em. Hev the law on ’em.”
Then came another feminine voice.
“Look out, paw, they’re des’prit characters. They might kill you.”
“That’s the old man’s darter. Teaches school,” said Reuben laconically, “we’d best be lighting out o’ here.”
They scrambled on board in less time than it takes to tell it. Jack jumped for the controls and turned full power into the motor. There was a yell of dismay from Reuben as the Electric Monarch leaped forward like a horse under the lash. The amazed farm hand would have rolled overboard had it not been for Tom, who grabbed him by the collar as he lost his balance and fell sprawling on the bridge.
“Hey! Whoa thar’! Come back, you young varmints!”
The voice of Farmer Turpin came shrilly out of the night. Then behind them came a streak of flame and the roar of an explosion. Looking backward they could see the figure of the farmer sprawling on his back, kicking and yelling frantically.
“Gosh ter mighty,” exclaimed Reuben, who was by this time on his feet, “the old man fired both barrels of his scatter gun ter oncet.”
“Up we go!” cried Jack, and almost simultaneously, with his exclamation, the Electric Monarch shot up toward the star-sprinkled sky at an angle that almost sent Reuben into hysterics.
“Hey, stop this flying threshing machine,” he yelled, “lemme out! Lemme——”
Tom placed a hand over the frightened farm hand’s mouth.
“You want to get to Portstown, don’t you?”
“Yer—yer—yes, sir.
“Well, you’re going there by the air-line express. Now be quiet. Heiny, for goodness sake, cook us up some supper, and look lively about it,—we’re almost famished.”
The next morning will be one long remembered in Portstown. Early rising citizens saw, swooping down from the skies, a vast aerial craft manned by a crew of youths anxiously looking over the side to descry the best landing place. They had arrived above the town shortly before daylight but Jack had decided to cruise about till the light grew stronger, not wishing to risk a landing in the dark. He adopted, in fact, the same tactics that the captain of a vessel about to enter a strange port would employ.
By the time the Electric Monarch swooped down into the twenty-acre park in which the fair was to be held, there was a crowd of several hundred people in the streets clamoring about the entrance to the fenced grounds. The Electric Monarch was actually a fact, a circumstance which was astonishing to a good many of the Portstown folks who had thought that Captain Sprowl’s flowery advertisement was a good deal in the nature of an exaggeration. But now they had seen, with their own eyes, the most wonderful craft of its kind in existence, and the whole town was wild with excitement and curiosity.
Early as the hour was, Captain Sprowl, who had been on the lookout for the boys, soon came dashing into the grounds in a runabout automobile. He extended them a hearty welcome and showed them where they would be quartered during the carnival, that is, if they wished to camp on the grounds. The boys unanimously voted in favor of the camping proposal. They decided that it would be much more fun than stopping at a hotel.
They accompanied the captain to the hotel for breakfast, however, a big crowd following them through the streets, much to the boys’ embarrassment. The captain, however, gloried in the notoriety.
“It shows what good advertising will do,” he said, glowing with pride, as he escorted his young charges through the streets. Reuben did not accompany them. He had gone out to find his brother-in-law. In the meantime the captain, at the boys’ solicitation, had promised to get him a job on the fair grounds if he did not find employment at anything else, an offer which Reuben subsequently accepted.
Breakfast was a merry meal, and the boys had much to tell of their experiences on the trip. After they had finished, they returned to the fair grounds and were shown round by the captain. Several of the aviators who were to take part in the carnival had already arrived and erected their tents with gay festoons of bunting floating over them.
The boys were much disappointed, however, to learn that an air craft they had been most anxious to see was not yet on the grounds. This was the celebrated Sky Eagle, a big dirigible, equipped with wireless and one of the first aërial craft to be so fitted. The captain told them that the dirigible was on the way, however, and was expected ere long on the grounds.
“Have you been notified by them, then?” asked Jack, rather puzzled as to how the captain could have such information.
“Yes, they sent us a message by wireless not long since that they expected to arrive to-day.”
“Then there is a wireless plant in the town?” asked Tom, somewhat surprised.
“There’s one right on the grounds,” rejoined the captain, “it’s one of the exhibits. See the aërials over yonder?”
Sure enough, in one corner of the grounds the spider-like strands of a vertical aërial mast could be seen leading into a hut about which a small crowd was clustered. The captain explained that the operator of the plant was even then trying tolocate the Sky Eagle. He had hardly finished explaining this when a boy came rushing out of the wireless hut in hot haste.
“There’s a messenger now. Maybe he’s looking for me!” cried the captain. “Hey, boy!”
The boy turned and came running toward them.
“I was just looking for you, Captain,” he said. “Hutchings, the operator, wants to see you.”
“News from the Sky Eagle?” asked the captain.
“I don’t know, but he said it was important.”
The boys hurried after the captain to the wireless hut. Inside they found Hutchings, the operator, greatly excited.
“Bad news for you, Captain,” he said, holding out a yellow sheet of paper, “a message from the Sky Eagle. She is disabled and drifting out to sea.”
“By the trident of Neptune!” exclaimed the captain, scanning the message,“this is bad.”
He read the message aloud:
“On Board Sky Eagle.—We are disabled. Drifting out to sea off Scatiute. Send help.—Jennings, operator.”