Kitabı oku: «The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune», sayfa 9
CHAPTER XXII. – REUNITED!
Frank’s heart sank as he cast a look about him and perceived the helplessness of his position.
“If I could only get this gag off and shout for help,” he thought, “maybe somebody would hear me.”
But there seemed to be no means of compassing this end, try as he would to think of some way. All at once, as the stars were beginning to fade and a faint flush of gray appeared in the east, he perceived a nail sticking up on the rim of the barrel. This gave him an idea. By bending slightly he would be able to bring the edge of the gag against the sharp pointed bit of metal, and possibly tear it out. At any rate, it was worth trying, and Frank at once proceeded to put his plan into action.
It was a hard job to bend low enough to bring his mouth on a level with the nail, but fortunately the barrel was a large one, and consequently he had not so very far to stoop. By making a desperate effort he succeeded at last in dragging the gag across the nail. In doing this he scratched his chin, but he did not mind that, for the nail caught and held the rag, tearing it out of his mouth as he moved his head.
“Hurray!” breathed Frank, inhaling a great lungful of fresh air. “Now I can at least make a racket, and maybe that will bring some one.”
With all his might he began shouting for help. In the still morning air his voice carried clearly across the water, and to the lad’s huge delight it was not long before he perceived, coming toward him a small fishing boat, which, from the “chugging” sound it made, was evidently furnished with a gasolene engine.
But the question that now agitated the boy was, “Would they see him or hear his voice above the loud noise of the motor?” If they did not, Frank realized that his plight would pass from a serious to a desperate state, for the barrel was, by this time, caught in a current which was rapidly increasing the distance between himself and the shore.
To his intense relief, however, he saw the fishing boat suddenly change her course, and before long she was close enough for him to read the name “Two Sisters” on her broad, bluff bow.
“Waal, by the tarnal!” came a gruff voice, “who and what are yer out here in a ba’rl?”
The speaker, a burly-looking fellow, with a rough but kindly countenance, regarded Frank’s face, which was all that was visible of him, with the most intense astonishment, as well he might. In a long experience off shore, covering all sorts of adventures, Captain Elihu Carney of the Two Sisters had never before beheld a floating barrel with a human head projecting from it.
“It’s a kid – a boy!” shouted one of his mates from the stern of the Two Sisters, where he held the tiller.
“Crack-e-e! so it air. Hey, kid, what yer doin’ out here? Takin’ a cruise, or is this one of them new-fangled health cures?”
“It’s neither, I assure you,” cried Frank; “get me out of this and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“I’ll run alongside and you can climb out.”
“No, I can’t,” returned Frank; “I’m bound hand and foot.”
“What! Say, you be’ant one of them movin’ picter fellers makin’ a fillum be yer?”
Captain Carney’s rugged face held a look full of suspicion. Once not long before his boat had been boarded by a beauteous maiden, apparently fleeing from a band of desperadoes. The gallant captain had fished her out of the dory in which she was rowing from her pursuers and had threatened the apparent rascals with all sorts of dire things. Then to his chagrin a voice had hailed him:
“Hey, you old mossback! You’ve spoiled a grind!”
A “grind” being moving picture language for a film.
“I certainly am not,” returned Frank indignantly; “no moving pictures about this, I can tell you. This is the real thing.”
“Waal, as I don’t see no camera about I reckon it’s all right. Put her head round, Eph, and we’ll pick him up, but ‘once bitten twice shy,’ you know.”
Eph, the helmsman, brought the bow of the Two Sisters round and slowed up the engine. A minute later the fishing boat’s side was scraping the barrel, and Captain Carney’s muscular arms lifted Frank out of his floating prison as if he had been an infant.
“Waal, I’ll be double decked consarned!” he roared, as he saw the ropes that confined the boy’s limbs. “Who done this?”
“Some rascals who had good cause to wish me harm,” said Frank. “I suppose they thought they could get rid of me while they made their escape.”
“What’s the world comin’ to?” cried the rugged skipper, throwing up his hands.
He reached into his belt for a tarry sailor’s knife and cut Frank loose in a few strokes of the keen blade. But the boy was so stiff from loss of circulation that it was some time before he recovered the use of his limbs. The Two Sisters, it turned out, was headed for Bayhaven, to which port she belonged, but so far had Frank drifted in his – or rather somebody else’s barrel – that he was able to tell his whole story before the wharf was reached.
As they neared it the skipper ordered Eph to blow the compressed air whistle so as to apprise every one ashore that something unusual was happening. Among the crowd that hastened to the wharf in response to the frenzied tooting Frank recognized Dr. Perkins and Harry. As they drew close he saw how white and strained their faces were, and realized what anxiety they must have been through on his account. He shouted loudly, and at the sound of his voice both Harry and the staid inventor set up a series of cheers that drowned the tooting of the whistle. As for Plumbo Boggs, who was also on the wharf, he burst into rhyme at once.
“Home again! home again from the stormy sea; now that your chum is found all right, don’t blame me!”
So saying he capered about, snapping his fingers and performing a dozen odd antics while the Two Sisters was making fast. Without waiting for Frank, who was still stiff and sore, to come up on the wharf, Harry and Dr. Perkins jumped to the deck of the Two Sisters, and the former fairly threw his arms about his brother’s neck.
“If you only knew how glad I am you have come back,” he exclaimed.
“What ever happened to you?” demanded Dr. Perkins.
“It’s a long story,” said Frank, “and I’m famished. Suppose we ask Captain Carney and Eph to breakfast with us and while we are eating I’ll tell you all about it.”
CHAPTER XXIII. – OFF ONCE MORE
AS our readers are fully acquainted with Frank’s adventure it would only tedious to relate all that took place at the breakfast. It may be said, however, that both Captain Carney and his mate received a substantial recognition of their services, from Dr. Perkins, in the form of a check. At first the bluff fishermen were by no means willing to take pay for what they had done, but were finally prevailed upon to accept the present, which, as Captain Carney owned, “would come in mighty handy.”
After the conclusion of the meal all hands adjourned to the wharf, and a thorough examination was made once more of the Sea Eagle, with the object of detecting any damage which the Daniels and Duval might have done her, and which might have been overlooked in the lamplight investigation made by Dr. Perkins and Harry. A bright spot was found on one of the metal braces. Undeniably it had been done by the teeth of a file, but it was only a superficial damage, which did not affect the strength of the Sea Eagle in any way.
“I guess Frank scared them away before they had time to do any more harm,” was Dr. Perkins’ conclusion; but later on he was to have a different opinion.
As things were at present, however, Dr. Perkins felt no hesitation in declaring the Sea Eagle fit to resume her voyage without further delay. The fresh provisions being on board, and there being nothing to prevent an immediate start, the voyagers at once made ready for a continuance of the trip which, so far, had proved so packed with adventure.
The gasolene tank was refilled, and the emergency receptacles for the liquid fuel seen to. Plumbo Boggs was paid and instructions left to telegraph Dr. Perkins in New Orleans in case any trace was found of the miscreants, who undoubtedly had intended to injure the Sea Eagle, and who had played such a dastardly trick on Frank.
“You’ll fly from the sea far up to the sky; good-by! good-by! good-by! good-by!” cried Plumbo Boggs as the ropes that held the Sea Eagle to the wharf were cast off and, amidst a loud cheer from the crowd, the engine was started.
It was a fine summer morning with a glassy sea and a sky that was cloudless, except in the east, where a great mass of castellated white clouds were piled up.
“You’d best hug the shore,” were Captain Carney’s parting words of advice. “To my mind we’ll have a storm of some sort before the day’s out.”
But in the noise and excitement of the departure his words were unheard and the Sea Eagle started off down the coast with the warning unheeded. Dr. Perkins ran the craft over the water till the mouth of the harbor was reached, easily outdistancing some fast launches that tried to keep up with them. When they got “outside,” the Sea Eagle was driven ahead at top speed, and with her rising planes set at a sharp angle she was driven upward till a height of some five hundred and fifty feet had been obtained. Her course was due south.
They were flying over a small island not far from the shore when Frank, who was looking over the side, noticed a dory ashore on the beach. He had hardly noticed this before three figures came running down to the beach and pointed upward. One of them jerked a rifle up to his shoulder, and a minute later a puff of smoke came from the barrel. Simultaneously a bullet sang through the rigging of the Sea Eagle, boring a small hole in one of the upper planes, but, fortunately, not striking any vital part of the craft or doing injury to her passengers.
“That’s those rascals now!” exclaimed Frank indignantly. “They must have rowed down to that island and are waiting there for a chance to get ashore quietly. Shall we go down and attack them?”
Dr. Perkins shook his head.
“Nothing much would be gained by it,” he said, “and it would only delay our trip.”
The Sea Eagle was flying fast, and the rascals on the island, who, as Frank had rightly guessed, were the two Daniels and Duval, had no chance to try a second shot. At noon, after a steady flight all the morning, the voyagers found themselves off Martha’s Vineyard. A hasty lunch was eaten in midair, with the Sea Eagle still winging her way like a grayhound of the sky.
The shore swam by below them like a panorama, but they only viewed it indistinctly, as the course was kept about five miles off shore. In the afternoon they saw, off to the right, a stretch of mammoth hotels and amusement resorts.
“Atlantic City!” cried Frank. “I’ll bet there are hundreds of glasses leveled at us from the boardwalk right now.”
“I guess so,” rejoined Harry. “We must look funny way out here at sea.”
It was half an hour later that Frank’s attention was attracted to the sky by the sudden blotting out of the sun, which had been shining brightly. He gave a cry of alarm as he looked upward. A vast bank of black clouds had come rolling up, like a sable curtain, blotting out the blue sky. The sea below was leaden and angry in hue, and its surface was flecked with white caps.
“We’re in for some bad weather, I’m afraid,” declared Dr. Perkins, when Frank called his attention to it.
Hardly had he spoken before, from the cloud bank, a red, jagged flash of lightning blazed. It was followed almost instantly by a sharp clap of thunder, and some heavy rain drops began to patter on the broad upper planes of the Sea Eagle.
“I’ll make for shore,” declared Dr. Perkins; “we must be about off Cape May now. We can lie there in shelter till this blows itself out.”
“That will be the best idea,” said Frank. “This is going to be a hummer. Wow! Look at that!”
A flash of lightning, that seemed as if the whole curtain of clouds had been split from top to bottom, had caused his exclamation. So brilliant was the glare that it caused them all to blink involuntarily.
“Put on full speed, Frank!” shouted Dr. Perkins above the deafening peal of thunder that followed.
Frank needed no second bidding. He opened both gasolene and spark levers to their full capacity. Dr. Perkins had already headed the Sea Eagle for the distant low-lying shore. This caused the craft to plunge almost as much as if she were “bucking” into a heavy sea. For the wind was off shore, and the thunder storm, as such storms frequently do, was coming up against it.
Suddenly, in the midst of the fight with the wind, Frank noticed an ominous sound from the motor. It gave a sort of spluttering, coughing exhaust and slowed down perceptibly.
“What’s wrong now?” he exclaimed anxiously. “Gracious, if the motor should go out of business now!”
He did not say this aloud, but bent over the laboring machine to try and ascertain what was the matter with it.
“More speed!” cried Dr. Perkins from the forward part of the air ship; “we can’t fight this wind at this pace.”
“There’s something the matter with the motor,” shouted Frank above the now almost continuous rolling of the thunder. “I can’t make out what – ”
A sudden loud report, like a pistol shot, came from the engine – a back-fire, as it is called – and the next instant the motor stopped dead.
The Sea Eagle was at that moment some 750 feet above the angry sea, with the storm raging about her furiously. Before Dr. Perkins could realize what had happened, the big craft began to drop downward with sickening velocity, while her occupants clung on to whatever was handy, with the desperate clutch of drowning men.
Frank had just time to shout:
“The life preservers! Quick, quick! for heaven’s sake!”
But there was no time to obey the order before the Sea Eagle struck the waves, hurling spray and wind-driven foam in a great cloud all about her wings and substructure.
CHAPTER XXIV. – A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
The next moments were filled with anxiety. The sea was running high, and, although Dr. Perkins had brought his craft upon a level keel by skillful volplaning, before it struck the waves, the situation was extremely serious.
The hydroplane portion of the Sea Eagle was built lightly, and, although it was well strengthened with braces, the test was a severe one. Over the bow the crests of the waves broke constantly, showering the occupants with spray. The Sea Eagle was tossed about helplessly, a plaything of the waves, while her adventurers strove to collect their thoughts and decide what was to be done.
First they adopted Frank’s suggestion and donned the life jackets, so that if the worst came to the worst they would have a fighting chance for their lives. When this had been done, Frank, who had had some experience in motor boats, supervised the rigging of a “spray-hood” across the bow. This kept some of the spray out, and, although it was formed of sheets of spare canvas intended to be used as waterproof night coverings, it answered its purpose well enough.
“Do you think that there is a chance of our keeping afloat?” asked Harry when this had been done.
“Well, we appear to be making out all right so far,” rejoined Dr. Perkins; “the wing floats are working well, and if only we can get the engine going again we may be able to fly ashore yet.”
The wing floats referred to were nothing more nor less than the light cylindrical pontoons affixed to each lower wing tip. They acted precisely as “outriggers” would do in steadying the Sea Eagle. In fact, had it not been for this lateral support, the craft must have turned turtle under the terrific tossing she was receiving.
“I’m going right to work on the engine,” announced Frank.
With Harry to help him, the lad proceeded to carry out this purpose. But it was the hardest bit of “trouble finding” he had ever done. The motion of the Sea Eagle, as she was tossed on a wave crest and then hurled into the abyss beyond, made it hard to hold on, let alone investigating the complicated mechanism of a motor. But as time wore on and they still kept afloat, they began to have hopes that they would at least stay on the surface till the engine could be started once more.
One after another Frank made the different tests employed to ascertain the various troubles that may assail a gasolene motor. He tested the ignition, the spark, the gasolene supply and the bearings. Everything appeared to be all right, and he paused in a puzzled way before he went to work on the carburetor. That is a delicate piece of mechanism, even to an ingenious boy like Frank Chester; but he finally concluded that the trouble must lie there. His first task was to open the relief cock and drain the brass bowl of the mixing chamber.
He turned the valve, and the mystery of the stoppage of the engine was instantly explained.
Sand had been placed in the carburetor by persons whom Frank had little difficulty in mentally identifying.
“So that was what those rascals did!” he cried aloud. “No wonder we couldn’t find anything the trouble with the ship. They were too foxy for that, and could hardly have found a better way of injuring the Sea Eagle than to do that.”
“Is there any way of fixing the damage?” asked Dr. Perkins, who, with Harry, had hastened to Frank’s side as he cried out over his discovery.
“Yes. Thank goodness, we’ve got a spare carburetor on board, for it would take a week to clean out this. If no sand has got into the cylinders I think I can promise to get things going again before very long.”
Out of the locker in which the spare parts were kept Frank produced another carburetor. But unscrewing the feed pipe and taking off the old mixing chamber and adjusting the new one were tedious tasks, especially under the circumstances in which Frank was compelled to work. But at last it was done, and with a beating heart Frank adjusted the self-starter. A few seconds now would decide their fate.
Harry shivered in anticipation of failure as his brother, having got the engine going by the just mentioned appliance, turned on the gasolene and spark.
For a breathless instant their fate hung in the balance, and then there came the welcome sound of the exhaust. Bit by bit Frank allowed the speed to increase, till the engine was running at its full capacity of revolutions. But the propellers were not turning, as before testing the motor he had thrown the clutch out of gear.
“I think that we can try to rise now,” he said calmly, after the motor had run without a miss or a skip for ten minutes or so.
“I think so, too,” said Dr. Perkins, “and I want to tell you, Frank, that you have done what I would not have believed possible under the conditions.”
Another anxious moment followed when the clutch was thrown in and the full load of the propellers came upon the engine. But not a hitch occurred. The large-bladed driving fans of the Sea Eagle beat the air rapidly and surely, and the hydroplane-formed underbody began to glide over the tops of the waves, instead of rolling and pitching helplessly among them. To the westward, too, there showed a patch of lighter sky, heralding the passing of the storm.
But, as if unwilling to allow them to escape without again bringing their hearts into their mouths, the storm had one more buffeting to give them. As full power was applied, and the Sea Eagle rose above the tossing wave crests and headed slantingly skyward, there came a sudden puff of wind.
Skillful as Dr. Perkins was, it caught him momentarily unprepared. In the wink of an eye the Sea Eagle careened over, almost on her “beam ends.” It seemed as if the right hand wing tips actually touched the water. One inch more and there might have been an abrupt conclusion to this story, but Dr. Perkins’ hands seemed to be everywhere at once. They flashed among levers and wheels.
For the space of a breath the Sea Eagle hung almost vertically, and then the big craft suddenly righted and shot upward on an even keel once more. But the moment had been an awful one, and as they winged their way upward not one aboard was there but felt that they had been delivered from a dreadful fate by what might well be described as a miracle.
