CHAPTER XXISCOUTING AROUND
Fairlywell satisfied that he had secured some clews that would be of value to him, Tom Swift hurried home with Ned, Koku and Eradicate in the electric runabout. On the way the giant recovered somewhat from the rough treatment accorded him by the robbers, and talked of what he would do to them when he caught them.
“You must be hungry,” suggested Ned, as they neared Shopton. For Koku had been taken away the previous midnight and evening was now coming on again.
“Me eat ten loaves of bread!” cried the giant, opening wide his enormous mouth.
“We’ll give you something else, too!” chuckled Tom. “But I know poor Mrs. Baggert will almost faint when she sees you begin to eat.”
The giant’s appetite was always a source of wonder to the housekeeper, and now, starved as he was by his enforced fast, it might reasonably be expected that he would clean out the pantry. Tom had the foresight to stop and telephone word to Mrs. Baggert of the situation, so she sent out and got in plenty of food before the wayfarers returned. Thus was Koku provided for.
“Well, Ned, let’s get together and talk this thing over,” suggested Tom to his manager, leaving the giant still eating, long after the others had finished. Eradicate, true to his promise to be friends with the big man, remained to help serve him.
“Yes,” agreed Ned, “we had better make some plan to work on. But this discovery that Renwick Fawn is in the plot rather surprises me.”
“I must see if Mr. Damon knows anything about him in this connection. He may have heard Blythe speak of him.”
Mr. Damon was communicated with over the telephone, and after several queer “blessings” announced that, as far as he knew, Fawn was a stranger to Mr. Blythe.
“He doesn’t know anything of Blodgett either,” Tom told Ned, recalling the conversation Mary had overheard in the restaurant.
“Then we’ll have to tackle Fawn on our own account,” said Ned. “I know where he lives. Shall we go to his house and ask for him?”
“What shall we say to him if he’s at home?” Tom wanted to know.
Ned thought for a moment and replied:
“We can ask him, for a starter, if he has recovered any of the Liberty Bonds he says my father took. Then, after that opening, you can mention the theft of your box and ask if Fawn thinks there is any connection between the two.”
“Then what?” Tom inquired.
“Well, if things turn out the way we expect—I mean if this Fawn has really had a part in the robbery at your place—he’ll get confused and maybe give himself away. That’s our one hope—that he will give himself away.”
“It’s worth trying,” decided Tom, after a little consideration. “Come on.”
A little later in the evening the two young men set off in a small gasoline car to call at the home of the suspected man. Ned had had occasion to go there before some time since, months prior to the accusation against Mr. Newton.
But it was with some feelings of apprehension and with wonderings as to what they had best say to the man when he saw them that Ned and Tom walked up the steps of the Fawn home.
A maid answered the door, and when they said they had called to see Mr. Fawn she remarked:
“I think Mr. Fawn is not at home, but Mrs. Fawn is. Please come in and I will tell her you are here.”
Mrs. Fawn, a small, pale, unimpressive woman, came timidly into the room where the boys waited.
“You wanted to see my husband?” she asked, and Tom jumped at once to the conclusion (in which Ned later joined) that she knew nothing of the man’s peculiar activities. Their feeling that he was a brute and a bully toward her was afterward borne out by facts.
“We have some business to transact with Mr. Fawn,” stated Ned. “But the maid said he wasn’t at home.”
“No, he isn’t,” answered Mrs. Fawn, and the boys did not doubt her. “He has gone to Chicago on business. At least I think it is Chicago,” she added. “He goes to so many places I sometimes forget. But I know it was out West.”
“Well, if he’s that far off, I guess we can’t see him to-night,” returned Tom with a smile as he arose to go. “When did he leave town?”
“The day before yesterday,” answered Mrs. Fawn.
Ned had not given his name, and though Tom had mentioned his, he did not believe Mrs. Fawn knew enough of her husband’s business to connect her callers with the bond accusation against Mr. Newton.
But the two young men glanced sharply at each other when Mrs. Fawn spoke of her husband having gone to Chicago two days previous. If that was the case he could hardly have been engaged in the theft of Tom’s strong box.
“Do you want to leave any word for Mr. Fawn when he returns?” asked his wife.
“Thank you, no,” answered Tom. “It wasn’t important. We’ll see him when he gets back.”
When they were outside Ned asked:
“Well, what do you think now, Tom?”
“I don’t know what to think. Koku is pretty sharp. When he says he saw a thing you can make up your mind that he did. Of course it’s possible there may be two men who limp and throw out their left elbows, you know.”
“It’s possible, but not very probable,” answered the young manager. “I believe Fawn is guilty, but his wife may not, and very likely doesn’t, know anything about it. She’s a meek little lady.”
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Tom. “Well, we’re stuck for the time being. However, to-morrow is another day. Something may turn up then. Anyhow, even if it doesn’t, I’m going to start out.”
“Start out where?” Ned wanted to know.
“To look for that blue aero-hydroplane. I’m going to scout around in theBlackbirdand see if I can’t get on the trail of the fellows who have my chest of secrets.”
“I’d like to go with you.”
“Wouldn’t think of taking off without you, old scout!” cried Tom.
He guided the car down the street and out on a wide avenue, going along at a steady pace and with such an evident object in view that Ned asked:
“Where are you heading?”
“I thought I’d stop at the Nestors’ a minute,” answered Tom.
“Then let me out here and I’ll take a trolley home,” said Ned.
“Let you out here! What’s the idea?” cried Tom.
“Well, you’re going to call on Mary, and——”
“Forget it!” laughed Tom, clapping his chum on the back. “This is a sort of joint call, and you’re coming in. Mary isn’t fussy that way, and she always likes to see you.”
“Thanks,” murmured Ned.
The two young men were no strangers in the Nestor home, Tom especially; and soon the whole family was in conversation. Tom mentioned the fact that he and his chum had just called on Mr. Fawn but found that he had left for the West two days before.
“Left for the West!” exclaimed Mr. Nestor. “That’s queer!”
“Why so?” Tom asked.
“Because I saw him in town yesterday morning. And he couldn’t have been going to Chicago.”
“Are you sure?” inquired Ned.
“Of course. I know the man as well as I know you. He was limping along, tossing his left elbow out every now and then as he has a habit of doing.”
Ned and Tom glanced at one another. If this was the case it would explain matters. Fawn may have told his wife he was leaving for Chicago, and even have packed a bag to go. But he went to some other place and remained about Shopton long enough to take part in the robbery that night.
Mr. Nestor’s mention of the peculiar gait of the man and his habit of tossing his left elbow away from his body while walking or talking was almost positive proof that there could be no mistake.
But Tom was not yet ready to let it be known that Fawn was caught in a falsehood. There were many more points to be cleared up before the affair was on the way to be solved. So, passing the matter off as though it did not amount to much, murmuring that possibly he had misunderstood Mrs. Fawn, Tom turned the talk into other channels.
The chums left the Nestor home near midnight, Mary expressing her indignation at the loss inflicted on Tom and asking if she could not do something to help.
“I’ll let you know if you can,” Tom told her as he pressed her hands.
For a few minutes Tom and Ned rode on in silence, each busy with his thoughts, and then Ned asked:
“Well, Tom, what do you make of it?”
“You mean about Fawn not going to Chicago at all?”
“Yes.”
“Well it means he’s a trickster surely, but more than that. He’s in the plot, of course. And I’m beginning to believe that it’s bigger than I thought. Fawn and Barsky—both in the same town, both probably working together against dad and me. It was a sorry day when I let that so-called Russian into my shop!”
“It surely was,” agreed Ned. “But it’s too late to think of that now. What is the next move? I want to get my hands on Fawn, as well as on the others.”
“We start scouting to-morrow morning!” decided the young inventor. “It oughtn’t to be hard to pick up the trail of this blue aeroplane. I had some inquiries made around Lake Carlopa, and she seems to have headed west. That, naturally, would be the best place for the robbers to go—plenty of open places to land, and with widely scattered cities and towns they wouldn’t run so much risk of being captured. We’ll start scouting in the morning.”
Accordingly theBlackbirdwas made ready. This craft was not as small nor as speedy as theHummer, but she would carry three, and Tom decided to take Koku along to identify the robbers if possible.
“Good luck, Tom!” called his aged father, as he was ready to take off the next morning. “Bring back that chest!”
“I’ll do my best!” was the answer.
CHAPTER XXIIA STRANGE MESSAGE
Thoughhe had no more than very slight clews on which to pursue the robbers, Tom Swift was not without a definite plan on which he proposed to operate.
As he had mentioned to Ned, he had obtained information which indicated that the big blue aeroplane, after the robbers had put the chest on board and had left Koku tied to the tree, had departed toward the west. Of course there was no guarantee that it would keep on this course, and absolutely no way of telling how long it would hold it.
“But we can stop from time to time,” said Tom to Ned, “and make inquiries about the plane. A big blue aeroplane isn’t easily hidden from sight.”
“It sounds like good dope,” agreed Ned.
Koku was no stranger to aeroplane rides, and he felt perfectly at home in theBlackbird. Indeed, as those of you remember who have read the earlier books of this series, Koku was brought from his home in a strange land by an airship. He rather liked to ride in them.
So Tom, Ned and Koku flew off on their strange quest.
Up into the air soared theBlackbird. She was a powerful machine, and, as has been said, was roomy. Really, she was built to carry four, but on account of the size of Koku a partition between two cockpits had been taken out, making a large space where he could dispose of his enormous legs and big body.
Before starting on the search for his chest of secrets, Tom had caused inquiries to be made about the missing Barsky. But the man seemed to have disappeared completely after leaving Tom in the cistern.
“Though of course he might have been, and probably was, one of the gang that took the chest and bound Koku,” suggested Ned.
For several hours the trio of adventurers soared along, not going so high but what they could from time to time make observations of the earth below them through field glasses. For of course it was possible that the blue aeroplane might be on the ground.
She also might be soaring along in the air, and Tom and Ned did not neglect to scan the heavens for signs. Once they saw a plane coasting along, and gave chase. But when within good viewing distance they made out that it was one of the government mail-carriers, and they turned back on their original course.
It was near noon when Ned heard Tom give a sudden exclamation.
“See anything?” asked the young manager.
“Nothing that gives me any pleasure,” replied Tom grimly. “I see a leak in one of the oil pipes and that means we’ve got to go down and mend it. Lucky I discovered it in time!”
An aeroplane engine, or for that matter an auto motor, that does not receive copious and continuous lubrication is going to overheat, bind and stop in a surprisingly short time.
A look over the side showed Tom that they were flying across fairly open country, and, picking out a broad meadow as a suitable landing place, he, having shut off his motor, headed for it. Koku, half asleep in his enlarged cockpit, sensed that they were going down and asked:
“We catch ’um robbers?”
“Not yet, Koku,” replied Tom, with a grim laugh. “So far they are a couple of tricks ahead of us, but the game has only started.”
TheBlackbirdmade a perfect landing under Tom’s skillful guidance, and when it had come to a stop after a run over the somewhat uneven field, Tom and Ned got out to begin work on repairing the oil pipe. Ned had some knowledge of mechanics, and could at least help his chum.
“It isn’t as bad as I thought,” Tom said, after a careful inspection. “It’s just a loose union connection, and not a break. I won’t have to solder anything, and I think I have a spare union in the tool box.”
It was while he was looking for this and while Koku was strolling about, heaving big stones for his own amusement (and possibly with the sensation that he was thus treating his enemies) that Ned called:
“Some one’s coming, Tom!”
The young inventor, who had found the union connection he was looking for, looked up and saw a farmer approaching across the field.
“Maybe he’s going to order us off,” suggested Ned. “We’re trespassers all right. Didn’t even ask his leave to drop in on him.”
“No, we didn’t have time,” grimly chuckled Tom. “But if he makes a fuss I guess a few dollars will make him see the light of reason. I’ve dealt with that kind before.”
However, the farmer, for such he proved to be, was a friendly person. He smiled at the chums, looked with amazement at Koku, who was lifting a rock that three ordinary men could not have handled, and then asked:
“Are you having trouble? Can I help you?”
“Thank you, very much,” responded Tom. “It’s only a slight defect, and I’ll have it mended in a minute or two.”
“We thought possibly you were coming to order us off,” said Ned, as he got ready to help his chum replace the broken union on the oil feed pipe.
“Oh, no,” laughed the farmer, who gave his name as Mr. Kimball. “We’re getting used to aeroplanes landing here.”
“You mean the government machines?” asked Tom. “I know this is their route.”
“Well, a mail plane was forced down in this field last year,” said Mr. Kimball. “But I didn’t mean that. Only yesterday a big blue machine had to come down about where you are.”
“A blue machine?” repeated Tom, concealing his excitement.
“Regular landing or a crash dive?” asked Ned.
“I guess they came down on purpose,” said Mr. Kimball. “They landed gently enough—no crash. It seems they ran out of water in their radiator. That’s happened to me many a time in my little Ford, so I knew just how they felt about it. I came over and showed them a spring where they could get water. Then they went on again.”
Ned and Tom looked at each other. They did not want to tell too much of their plans, yet they must make inquiries and get information. Koku was still doing his “daily dozen” with the big rocks.
“How many men were in this blue machine?” asked Tom.
“Oh, four or five, I should say. Maybe half a dozen. It was the biggest aeroplane I’ve ever seen. But then they look a lot bigger on the ground than when they’re up in the air.”
“It must have been a pretty good-sized plane to carry four or five men,” observed Ned. “Did you notice any of the passengers? Did one of them walk with a limp?”
“Why, yes, come to think of it, one of them did seem a bit lame,” replied Mr. Kimball. “And he had a queer habit of jerking his elbow out like this,” and the farmer illustrated.
“Was it hisrightelbow?” asked Tom, emphasizing the word that indicated the dexter hand.
“No—let me see now—no, it was his left. Why? Do you know him?”
“Yes,” answered Ned, with a queer look at Tom. “We know him.”
“I suppose they’re friends of yours, both of you being in the airship business, so to speak,” went on Mr. Kimball.
Neither of the young men answered that, but Tom, after he had taken off the damaged union coupling, asked:
“Did you happen to notice if one of the men had red hair?”
The farmer considered for a moment, and then replied:
“No, I didn’t see any one like that.”
This was not surprising, considering that Barsky’s hair was so short that its redness could not be noticed until he took off his hat. And very likely he would be wearing a leather helmet in the aeroplane.
But Tom and Ned had established the fact that the blue aeroplane containing the robbers had passed this way recently. Tom made a cautious inquiry about the chest, but Mr. Kimball had not noticed that. And, very likely, it was stowed away in the fuselage of the craft, out of sight.
“How long did they stay?” asked Ned.
“Oh, only long enough to buy some food off me and take on water, then they soared away again.”
“Headed west?” asked Tom.
“Headed west,” answered Mr. Kimball.
The farmer remained, an interested observer, while Tom and Ned made the slight repairs needed. When they had finished and were about to go on, Mr. Kimball, with a glance toward the giant, asked:
“Is he yours?”
“Yes, in a way,” replied Tom. “Why?”
“Um! I only want to say if you ever want to get rid of him I’d like to hire him. What a hired man he’d make! My, the chores he could do without getting tired! He’d be worth three ordinary hired men—and they’re so hard to get now. But I don’t suppose you want to let him go?”
“No,” answered Tom, with a laugh and a glance at Koku, who, to amuse himself, was tossing up great rocks and catching them in his bare hands.
“Well, I don’t know as I blame you,” said Mr. Kimball.
Having made repairs and gotten some unexpected and valuable information, Tom and Ned called to the giant, took their places in the machine again, and, after Koku had spun the propeller, once more were off.
All that day they traveled, Tom and his chum keeping a lookout for the blue machine, but not seeing it. The young inventor had so laid his plans that before it got too dark he descended in a broad field on the outskirts of a big city. As the aeroplane was large enough to permit of sleeping in it and as Tom had brought along blankets, they decided to spend the night in theBlackbird.
It was the next morning about nine o’clock, and just about the time Tom and Ned were taking off again on the second day of their trip, that Mr. Swift was summoned to the telephone in his office.
“Dey’s somebody dat wants to talk to you ’ticklar like,” reported Eradicate.
“Perhaps it’s a message from Tom!” exclaimed Mr. Swift. “He may have caught the robbers and gotten back his chest.”
“No, sah, it don’t sound like Massa Tom,” said the colored man.
The voice to which the aged inventor listened was not that of his son. Instead, over the wire came strange tones asking:
“How much will you pay us for the return of your chest of secrets?”
Mr. Swift was so surprised that he almost dropped the receiver.
CHAPTER XXIIITHE BLUE MACHINE
Barton Swiftwas the true father of his energetic son, and Tom inherited his qualities from his father. Which is to say that in his youth Barton Swift had been fully as active and quick as was now the young inventor.
Though age and illness had to some extent dimmed and enfeebled the powers of the man, still it needed but this spark—that strange telephone message—to galvanize him into action. After the first shock of hearing so unexpectedly about the stolen chest of secrets, Mr. Swift was ready to take active measures to trace the voice coming out of the machine.
“What’s that you say?” he asked, nerving himself to carry on an ordinary conversation about a most extraordinary topic. “Who are you and where are you?”
“Don’t you wish you knew?” came back the challenging inquiry. “Are you ready to talk business?”
“Of course I am,” answered Mr. Swift. “We want that chest back, and we’ll pay any reasonable amount.”
“I’m not saying the amount will be reasonable,” was the reply, and emphasis was laid on the last word. “But you’ll pay our price or you don’t get the chest. And I warn you that if you try to communicate with the police or set the detectives on our trail we’ll immediately break off negotiations.”
Trying to get in touch with the police was just what Mr. Swift was then doing. Ned Newton’s father had entered the office, and, seeing him, Mr. Swift at once took pencil and paper from his desk and while he talked in a rather general way with his unseen listener, he jotted down a few words, explaining matters and suggesting that Mr. Newton go to another telephone to learn from the central operator where the mysterious call was coming from.
There were several trunk telephone lines running into the Swift office, so it was a comparatively easy matter for Mr. Newton to go to another instrument to get the information needed.
Meanwhile Mr. Swift was holding the other man in conversation. Having started Mr. Newton to ferreting out some information, the aged inventor asked:
“How much do you want to return the chest and how can I get in touch with you?”
“If you will take fifty thousand dollars in unmarked bills, make a bundle of them and bring them——”
But at that moment the criminal either heard something—perhaps the movements of Mr. Newton—or he suspected something, for he sharply broke off what he was saying and cried:
“It’s all off! You’re trying to double cross me! Now you’ll never get your chest back!”
There was a click which told that the distant receiver was hung up, and then the line went dead.
“Wait a minute! Wait just a moment! I want to talk business with you!” cried Mr. Swift, rapidly moving the hook of the receiver up and down.
But it was too late. Only silence ensued until finally the operator, attracted by the flashing light which resulted when Mr. Swift moved the hook, asked:
“Number, please?”
“I was talking to some one, but I was cut off,” said the inventor. “Can you get them back for me? It’s important.”
“What number were you talking to?” the girl asked.
“That’s just what I want to know,” said Tom’s father.
“I’m sorry, but if you don’t know the number I can’t ring it for you.”
Mr. Swift knew only too well that this was the case. It was not the girl’s fault—it was the fault of the system, and not so much the fault as the limitation.
“If I had only had Tom’s photo-telephone attachment hitched on here I could have seen who it was I was talking with,” lamented Mr. Swift. “How about it, Mr. Newton, did you succeed in getting any information?” he asked, as the latter came away from the second instrument.
“The manager said he would try to trace the call for you,” was the reply. “But I didn’t have much time. Whoever it was got suspicious too quickly.”
“Yes,” agreed the inventor. “He must have heard me giving you the paper and he jumped to the conclusion that there was a second person in the room. Well, we’ll have to wait and see what they can do for us in the central telephone office. I wish Tom were here!”
“I suppose he and Ned are on the trail of the robbers,” remarked Mr. Newton.
“Yes, but this would be a good clew for them. However, it’s too late now. It shows, though, that our chest is still safe. They probably realize that they cannot make as much use of our plans, designs and patents as they thought at first.”
“It’s as if they stole a lot of non-negotiable securities,” commented Mr. Newton. “They’ll have trouble in disposing of your stuff, and they probably think that they will get more out of it by giving it back to you for a consideration than by peddling the plans about the country. In fact, no reputable manufacturer would deal with the scoundrels.”
“That’s true, Mr. Newton! They are scoundrels. I hope Tom catches them. As soon as he calls up, as he will sooner or later, we must tell him what has happened.”
But Tom, with Ned and Koku, taking off about that same time for a further search after the mysterious blue machine, had no present intention of calling up his home, though he realized that it would be wise to get in communication with his father before very long.
“I want to have something to tell him first,” said Tom to Ned. “I want to give him news that we have at least sighted the robbers.”
Up and onward soared theBlackbird. After the night of rest, though the machine was not the most comfortable bedroom in the world, the travelers were refreshed and ready for what the day might bring forth. They kept on the western trail, ascending at times to great heights, far above the clouds, where they had an unobstructed view of a vast expanse. This they scanned for a sight of the blue machine. But up to noon they had not sighted her.
“I think I’ll circle a bit,” decided Tom, as they ate a hasty lunch on board, Ned steering while Tom munched sandwiches and drank milk they had in a thermos bottle, for they had put food in the machine at the last stopping place. Then Tom managed the machine while Ned ate. As Koku was not capable of operating theBlackbirdhe could devote his whole attention to food—and it may be said that he did so.
About the middle of the afternoon, following his circling movements which resulted in nothing, Tom asked Ned to take the helm for a while.
“I want to get a bit of rest,” the young inventor explained.
“Sure, give me a chance to distinguish myself,” suggested Ned, who liked to handle the craft.
Tom made himself as comfortable as possible in his cockpit, and for an hour Ned guided theBlackbird, giving Koku the glasses with which to make observations. The giant had remarkable sight. But even this did not succeed in bringing into view the blue machine.
Ned presently saw trouble ahead of him in the shape of ominous black clouds, and, recognizing them as a storm and not caring to trust to his abilities in this emergency, he awakened Tom.
“It’s only a thunder shower,” said the young inventor. “Run through it, Ned.”
They had often done this, sometimes shooting up above the edge of the storm and getting into clear air higher up, and sometimes skirting the edge of the disturbance.
This time Tom Swift miscalculated the size of the storm, or else it suddenly developed larger proportions after they entered it. No sooner had theBlackbirdpushed her beak into the bank of black clouds than Tom awoke to the realization that they were in considerable danger. Not only had they rashly entered the area of a thunderstorm, but a hail storm as well.
In another instant theBlackbirdwas all but overwhelmed by a fierce wind while big hailstones fell on the wings with such force that one or two of them ripped through the stout fabric.
The thunder was like the sound of big guns in the ears of the travelers, while the lightning hissed about them in blinding sheets and jagged forks until it seemed a miracle that they were not struck.
“This is awful!” cried Ned. “You’d better take the wheel, Tom!”
Tom thought this himself. He bent his head to the blast and endeavored to ascertain the direction of the storm that he might steer out of it.
Koku did not seem at all afraid. In fact, he always liked a storm, for it seemed to give him a chance to pit his strength against the elements. He laughed and shouted and caught up handfuls of hailstones from his cockpit, throwing them over the side.
“Stop it!” commanded Tom. “We’ve got trouble enough without that. Sit still!” For the giant was moving about so that he endangered the craft, tossed as it was in the furious wind.
However, Tom Swift had not managed aeroplanes several years without learning how to handle them in fair weather and foul, and in a short time he took theBlackbirdout of the storm and up above the burst of almost tropical fury.
“Whew!” whistled Tom, when he could relax for a moment. “That was a humdinger!”
“You said it!” echoed Ned. “Do you think we’re damaged any?”
“Can’t tell. It will be best, I think, to make a landing and look ourselves over. It will soon be time to tie up for the night, anyhow, and we might as well go down now.”
“Let’s take a last look for the blue machine,” suggested Ned. Carefully he scanned the heavens above them and the earth below them for a sight of the robbers, but saw nothing. Then, having passed far beyond the thunderstorm, they made a descent in a lonely field where they passed the night.
It was about ten o’clock the following morning and they had been under way for about an hour when Tom, using the glasses while Ned ran theBlackbird, suddenly uttered an exclamation.
“What is it?” asked his chum eagerly.
“The blue machine, I think!” cried Tom. “I think I see her hidden down there under some trees. Circle a bit to the left, Ned.”
When this had been done, Tom meanwhile looking down, the young inventor cried:
“There she is! We’ve spotted them. The blue machine is down there! Now for a trick!”
CHAPTER XXIVA NIGHT WATCH
Tom Swiftmade up his mind quickly. He generally did so in an emergency, and this was one of those times. While he still held the powerful glasses focused on that clump of trees amid the green of which he had spotted that glimpse of blue, he called to Ned:
“Put her about five points to the south!”
“The south?” cried Ned. “What’s the idea!”
“I want to throw those fellows—if they’re down there, as I think they are—off the track,” explained Tom. “It’s just a trick which may work and may not. They’ll either see us or hear our motor down where they are. And if they see us sheer off to the south they may take us for a mail plane. At any rate, they may not suspect that we’re after them.”
“I guess that’s good reasoning,” murmured Ned.
Accordingly, he shifted the steering wheel until theBlackbirddid as many of her namesakes do when winter approaches—she headed for the south.
“How far on this course?” asked Ned as his chum continued to gaze down through the glasses.
“Just far enough to take us out of their sight. Then we’ll go down.”
“Go down?” cried Ned, in some surprise.
“Yes. We’ll make a landing and then come back by auto. I’ve got it all planned out. If we try to make a landing near those fellows they’ll spot us and light out, taking my chest with them. But if we go down in some spot a few miles off and then come back by auto, we can get pretty close to them before they suspect anything.”
“More good dope,” decided Ned, after thinking it over. “Do you think they’re the fellows you want, Tom?”
“It’s hard to say. That’s a blue aeroplane down there, I’m sure. But whether it’s the same one the robbers used isn’t so sure. However, I’m taking no chances.”
It did not take long for theBlackbirdto put enough distance between her and the place where the blue aeroplane had been sighted to make it safe to descend. Now that he could no longer hold the glasses focused on the clump of trees, Tom put them aside and took charge of his craft.
“Do you think you can get back to this same place in an auto?” Ned questioned, as they looked about for a good field in which to land.
“I think so,” was the answer. “I picked out a few prominent objects by which to plot a return course.”
This was all that could be done under the circumstances, and a few minutes later, noting a broad and level field below them, Tom began to guide theBlackbirddownward.
“I hope we meet as good a chap as our farmer friend, Kimball, was,” remarked Ned, as they lightly struck the grass-covered earth and taxied across it.
“I hope so,” echoed Tom. “But we’ll buy our way if we have to. It’s important to get back as soon as we can to where those fellows are.”
This landing of theBlackbirdattracted more attention than on the occasion when the travelers landed in Mr. Kimball’s field. No sooner was the machine at rest, and while Tom, Ned and Koku were alighting, than a crowd of men, women, boys and girls began to flock toward it.
“Guess they think we’re giving an exhibition,” laughed Ned.
“Shouldn’t wonder,” agreed Tom. “But the first thing we’ve got to do is to make sure our machine will be all right if we leave it here. Then we’ve got to hire a car to get back to the place where those scoundrels are.”
“A lot of work ahead of us,” commented Ned.
There was little time to say more, for by this time the advance crowd of the curious ones was at theBlackbird. The boys, especially, would have overrun the craft and climbed up on her in their eagerness, but Tom told Koku to act as a guard. Even the sight of the giant was enough to drive back the most venturesome of the lads, while Koku’s actions, in parading around the craft with a big stick he picked up served as a further effective deterrent. Curiosity, too, was about equally divided between Koku and the machine.
Among those who came rushing to the field to see why the aeroplane had landed, was the owner of the property. At first he seemed a bit belligerent, and it looked as if he would make trouble. But Tom knew just how to handle his kind.
“We want to rent this field for a while, just to store our machine here,” said the young inventor in a business-like way. “I’m willing to pay well for the accommodation. And I’d like to engage you or some of your men to act as caretakers while we are away. No one must meddle with this machine!”
“I’ll see to that all right,” answered the farmer, who changed his manner when he learned that he was to make money out of the affair. “Now you fellows get away from here!” he cried. “This is private property and you can’t trespass on it or I’ll have the law on you! Move off!”
“You can’t order us off, Jason Stern, unless you’ve got signs up saying ‘no trespass,’ ” declared one man. “I know the law as well as you do!”
“I’ll have the signs up before you can say Jack Robinson!” was the answer. “Tume,” he called to a tall, lanky youth, evidently one of his hired men, “you go back to the barn and get that trespass sign I put up in my orchard when apples are ripe. Then you and Ben and Jake stand guard here. Bring my shotgun and a pitchfork or two. We’ll see who’s boss here!”
The farmer was evidently no favorite with his neighbors, for there were boos and hisses at this. But on the present occasion Tom Swift was just suited with this sort of man. It insured his craft being well looked after. And a little later, the crowd having been driven from the field, the hired men went on guard.
“Now, where can I hire a good automobile?” asked Tom of the farmer, who had been called Jason Stern.
“Do you mean a tin Lizzie?” asked the man. “We call them pretty good cars around here.”
“They are good,” conceded the young inventor. “But I’m afraid I’ll need a bigger one. I’ve got to take him along,” and he pointed to Koku who was indulging in his favorite pastime of tossing big rocks in the air and catching them to the no small astonishment of the hired men.
“Say, he is a big fellow!” exclaimed Mr. Stern. “Well, the best thing you can do is to go to Nathan’s garage. Tell him I sent you and he won’t gouge you on the price. He’s dealt with me before,” and Jason Stern said this with an air that boded no good for Mr. Nathan should the latter try any unfair tactics.
Arranging to have some one on guard over hisBlackbirdnight and day until he should return, Tom and his friends set off to the village. They found Nathan’s garage and quickly arranged to hire a big touring car, with room in it for Koku.
“We’ll put in something to eat and take some blankets along,” decided Tom. “No telling how long we may be on the road, and I don’t want to have to stop and put up at a hotel. We’ll either camp out in the open or sleep in the car. The nights are warm.”
“Suits me,” agreed Ned.
Of course saying nothing of their object, the travelers started off in the machine, Tom heading it to the north and as near as he could judge in the general direction of the bandits and where the blue machine had last been observed.
Tom Swift’s training had made him a careful observer, and it was not idly that he had told Ned he had marked the place where the trees sheltered the blue aeroplane. After one or two false turns, the young inventor got on the right road, and as evening was falling he guided the machine along a country thoroughfare in a sparsely settled neighborhood.
Coming upon a lonely cabin where an aged man and his wife lived, Tom inquired whether they had heard of an aeroplane landing in that vicinity lately.
“Yep,” replied the old man. “A big blue flyin’ machine come down in a lot over by the river early this morning. I went over to see it. Say, I didn’t ever believe there was such things. I’d never seen one before except in pictures. Hattie here, she won’t believe I saw it.”
“You can’t tell me!” declared the man’s wife. “Nobody can fly in the air! I never believed it and I never will. It’s agin nature!”
Leaving the queer couple, but satisfied that they were on the right track, Tom and his companions rode on until further inquiries gave them the information that they were within half a mile of the place where the aeroplane, for some reason, had come down.
“We’d better not take the auto very close,” said Tom. “They might suspect something, though I suppose they have been as overwhelmed with curious ones as we were back there.”
“It will be better to go up easy, I think,” agreed Ned.
Accordingly, the auto was parked in a secluded place, and, taking Koku with them to identify the robbers should the men prove to be those under suspicion, the chums cautiously approached the clump of trees.
As they drew near they could see that a sort of camp had been established about the aeroplane which was painted blue. It was a large machine, as Koku had said.
Several men were observed moving about a small tent that had been set up, and in the light of lanterns Tom and Ned counted five separate figures. They crept near enough to overhear some of the talk.
“Well, Blodgett, what’s the next move?” some one asked.
Tom nudged Ned.
“That’s the man Mary heard spoken of,” he whispered. “He’s the one who was going to ‘fix things.’ ”
“He seems to have done so,” murmured Ned grimly. “Listen!”
“Well, we might as well divide the stuff and separate,” came the answer to the one who had asked Blodgett the question. And at the sound of this voice Tom whispered:
“That’s Barsky. I’m sure of it!”
“Sounds like him!” agreed Ned. “The plot is thickening!”
They listened further.
“Yes,” went on the man who had suggested dividing the loot, “I tried the old man on the telephone, but he got wise and tried to catch me by sending some one to another telephone to trace the call. I don’t think he succeeded, however. If we could sell him the stuff back we might make more than by separating it. But since he won’t deal with us we’ll have to do something else.”
“We want our shares!” exclaimed another voice, and at the sound of it Ned started.
“What’s the matter?” asked Tom.
“I should know who that is,” was the answer. “The voice is familiar. I’m trying to think where I’ve heard it before.”
There was some further talk among the thieves.
“What are we going to do, Tom?” asked Ned, after a while.
“Stay here on night watch for a while,” was the answer. “If we get a chance we’ll slip in and take away the chest. I want to get it back before they start dividing the papers. If that happens I may lose some of them forever. Those fellows will likely get careless and not keep guard all night. That will give us the chance we want. Koku can pick up the chest and carry it away for us. We’ll stay here and watch for a while.”
It was about an hour later, while still keeping watch, that Ned caught a glimpse of a figure moving about the bandit camp. The man limped slightly, and as he was carrying a lantern Ned saw his elbow thrown out in a peculiar way.
“Renwick Fawn!” he exclaimed. “Now I know whose voice that was! It was that of the man who unjustly accused my father of taking the Liberty Bonds! Renwick Fawn is among those who robbed you, Tom!”
“Whew!” whistled the young inventor. “I should say the plot is thickening!”