CHAPTER XV.
A CRIPPLED AEROPLANE.
A CRIPPLED AEROPLANE.
A CRIPPLED AEROPLANE.
Left together in the camp, astonished and angry at the sudden departure of Jimmie, Ben and Carl saw theLouisedisappearing with varying emotions.
“Now what did he do that for?” demanded Carl.
“He’s always up to some mischief!” growled Ben.
“Well, if he’s going sailing around over the mountains in broad daylight,” Carl suggested, “we may as well go up to San Francisco and bring down a band. A brass band wouldn’t give us any more prominence in the community, and it might be more amusing.”
“Oh, the boy always has some fairly good reason for what he does,” defended Ben, chuckling inwardly at the daring of his chum, “but I wish he’d tell us a little more about his plans before he makes such breaks. It would take the strain off a little!” he added.
From the valley in which theBerthalay the boys could not, of course, see what was taking place until theLouisewas high up above the lower summits, with the third aeroplane in full pursuit.
“Now, what do you think of that?” demanded Carl. “That fool boy has found the crook’s machine, and the chances are that he’ll be sorry he did it before the day is over!”
“Oh, well,” Ben replied, “we’ll have to wait and see what comes of this absurd trip. Perhaps we’d better be getting something to eat, so as to be ready for a flight if the boy should need assistance.”
While the two were eating a hastily prepared meal, an exclamation of astonishment came from the vicinity of theBertha, and they both sprang to their feet and chased off in that direction.
At first no one could be seen, then a figure crawled slowly out from under the planes and stood upright.
“The Chink!” exclaimed Ben.
“Now, I wonder how he found his way here?” Carl questioned.
“That’s the fellow we released from captivity over at the first stopping-place, isn’t it?” asked Ben.
“You may search me!” replied Carl. “Negroes and horses and Chinamen all look alike, so far as I’m concerned.”
“Me savvee you!” exclaimed the Chinaman, in most outrageous pidgin English. “Me savvee you, alle same.”
“Where’d you come from?” demanded Ben impatiently.
The Chinaman put a finger to his lips and looked puzzled.
“No can do!” he said.
“Look here!” Ben exclaimed. “How did you ever find this place, anyway? If a Chink fresh from the odorous Orient can walk in on us like this, I’d like to know what an outlaw who really meant business could do!”
“No can do!” repeated the Chinaman.
“You’re the fellow we found tied up, aren’t you?” asked Carl.
“Me savvee you!” was the only reply, the words being accompanied by a foolish grin. “Me savvee you, alle same.”
Ben pointed to the provisions spread on a cloth lying on the turf.
“Hungry?” he asked. “You seem to me to look rather lank!”
“I bet you don’t shake your head at that, and chatter out that everlasting ‘No can do’,” Carl laughed. “Fall to, friend!” he added.
The Chinaman quickly accepted this invitation, and was soon devouring bread and butter, tinned meats, and vegetables, as if he had eaten nothing before for a week. The boys watched laughingly.
“We’re next to you!” Carl cried. “You came to visit on purpose to get a good feed! Look here!” he added as the Chinaman looked up with a submissive grin, “what did those fellows tie you up for?”
“No can do!” answered the Chinaman. “No can do.”
“Go to it!” exclaimed Ben. “Put a couple of pounds of groceries under your belt at our expense and then you may be able to talk United States.”
“No can do,” was the only answer received to this suggestion.
Watching the man critically as he ate the provisions with all the gusto of one near to the point of starvation, Ben thought he saw indications of a different sort of a life in his manner of handling his food.
The fellow’s face expressed only stupidity. His eyes were dull and staring, but the manner in which he brought the food to his mouth was not that of a man who had been trained to eat with chopsticks.
In a moment Ben drew his chum to one side.
“There’s something strange about that Chink,” he said, when they were out of hearing of their strange guest. “He’s not as stupid or as ignorant as he would have us believe. And he never stumbled on us by chance, either! How does the idea strike you?”
“There is no doubt in my mind that the fellow is disguised in manner and speech if not in person,” Carl replied. “For all we know, he may be one of the leaders of the smuggling gang.”
“Then why should the bunch we found in the cavern tie him up?” asked Ben. “You remember the shape in which he was found?”
“I guess we’ll have to decide that we don’t know anything about it!” Carl replied. “We only know that we stirred up a nest of Chinamen, and that they ran away from us like rats. We don’t know where they went to either, although we may have time to find out later on.”
“We might have learned something more concerning the combination right there,” Ben grumbled, “only for the second beacon light and the schooner. Of course we couldn’t remain there with a new bunch of smuggled Celestials swarming about our ears.”
“We don’t know yet whether that schooner landed any Chinamen or not!” suggested Carl. “We had to duck away so fast that we couldn’t see what took place. I wish we’d kept in the air long enough to find out!”
“I don’t wish anything of the kind!” Ben declared. “Daylight was coming on and Mr. Havens told us to keep out of the air except during the night. After we round up Phillips and Mendoza, we may take a throw at the smugglers.”
“Perhaps Jimmie has gone over to the coast now,” suggested Carl.
“Much good it will do him!” grumbled Ben, “with that outlaw machine chasing him up! I’m afraid the boy has got us into serious trouble,” he added, “though I’m sure he meant everything for the best!”
During this conversation the strange visitor had been busy with the provisions. He now drew back and regarded his hosts through half-open eyes. The two boys approached the place where he sat.
“Me savvee you, alle same!” the Chinaman said.
As he spoke he drew one yellow finger across a wrist and an ankle, thus indicating that he remembered them as friends because they had released him. Then he arose to his feet and looked about.
“Savvee him,” he exclaimed pointing to theBertha. “Savvee mate, alle same!”
The Chinaman pointed straight to the east as he spoke.
“Do you mean,” asked Ben, “that you saw a machine like that in that direction? How long ago was it?”
“No can do!” replied the Chinaman shaking his head vigorously.
“I believe he understands well enough,” exclaimed Carl. “I believe he knows what we’re talking about!”
The Chinaman gazed stupidly from one boy to the other and then turned away. The lads gazed after him in amazement.
“Where are you going?” asked Ben, and the Chinaman turned back.
“Savvee you, alle same!” he replied and pointed off to the north. “Savvee you, alle same,” he repeated. “No can do.”
“Go to it!” shouted Carl. “Trot along and play you’re in a Chinese laundry on Pell street. We love to see you eat, but we don’t like the exuberance of your conversation!”
In ten minutes’ time the Chinaman, climbing the steep dip of the bowl toward the north, disappeared from view in a thicket.
“Well, of all the consarned, everlasting, inscrutable combinations I ever saw in my life!” exclaimed Carl, “this combination of Chinaman and ignorance and hunger is about the worst! Now, what do you suppose he came in here for, and then went away in broad daylight?”
“He probably came here to fill up!” answered Ben.
“What do you understand he meant by pointing to theBerthaand then pointing east? It seemed to me that he wanted to inform us that he had seen a machine like that in that direction.”
“It might have been the outlaw machine now chasing Jimmie,” suggested Ben. “He might have seen it before it passed over to the coast. It’s a wonder to me that he wouldn’t get out of the country after being trussed up by his own people.”
“It’s just one of the mysteries of the case,” laughed Carl. “We don’t know anything about the Chinaman, or of Jimmie’s motive in going away, or of the smugglers!”
The boys gathered up the remnants of the meal and sat down to wait for the return of their chum. They had remained seated only a short time when Carl called the other’s attention to the glistening planes of a flying machine away to the north and east.
“There’s the Chink’s machine!” he exclaimed.
Both boys sprang to their feet and Ben rushed to theBerthafor a field glass. He looked steadily at the machine for a moment before speaking, then he handed the glass to Carl.
“That’s certainly one of the largest aeroplanes I ever saw!” he cried. “I’ve seen big ones, but I never saw anything like that before! What do you make of it?” he continued as Carl lowered the glass.
“I’ve been thinking,” the latter replied, “that it might be theAnn!”
“If it is,” Ben answered, “she will miss us, for there she goes straight off toward San Francisco. She’ll miss us sure!”
“Why don’t we get up in the air and chase her up?” asked Carl.
“I was just thinking of that,” answered Ben, “but, you see, there’s Jimmie and Kit away, and they’d never be able to find us!”
“Don’t you ever think they won’t be able to find us!” exclaimed Carl. “You can’t hide a flying machine the size of theBerthaby taking it up in the air. First thing we know,” he continued, “we’ll have all four machines bunched. And then there’s likely to be a mix-up!”
“Well,” Ben said, “if we’re going to start after that flying machine, we may as well be getting under way.”
As will be remembered, theBerthahad been overhauled early that very morning, and now it took only a moment to get her into the air. When she came to the lip of the valley the boys saw the large aeroplane sailing northward at great speed. Before Ben put on full power he turned to Carl with an anxious look on his face.
“I shall have all I can attend to at the levers,” he said, “so you’ll have to keep watch for Jimmie and his outlaw escort. Keep your eye on the sky every minute of the time, and if you see two flying machines doing a Marathon, just give me a poke in the ribs with your elbow.”
Carl nodded and Ben put on full speed, after which conversation was, of course, impossible.
The machine ahead was going at terrific speed, and theBerthafor a time had all she could do to keep in sight of her. At that time it was not a question of overhauling their quarry. The plucky littleBertha, however, clung tightly to the chase, and Ben saw crags, canyons, shelves of rock, and grassy valleys go whirling under his feet as one watches a swiftly flying landscape from the window of a mile-a-minute train.
All through the exciting flight Carl kept his glass in use. He searched the sea, now plainly visible to the west, the green landscape to the east, and the rocky summits to the north and south but for a long time, caught no glimpse of what he sought. After the chase had continued a couple of hours the boys felt the machine sinking beneath them. They both knew that there could be no good reason for this, as everything had been in working order only a short time before.
Ben examined the mechanism as carefully as he could from his seat and Carl glanced apprehensively at the tanks. Their judgment told them that everything about the flying machine was exactly as it should be, and yet she kept dropping down without any apparent reason.
Straight ahead was a level summit comparatively clear of rocks. Realizing that something must be done at once, Ben shut off the motors and volplaned down. The machine sank faster and faster, and the boys looked at each other with frightened eyes.
It seemed as if the machine must fall short of the summit!