Chapter 24
The Raid
"Look for a good place to land!" cried Mr. Sharp to Tom. "Any small,level place will do. Turn on the gas full power as soon as you feel thefirst contact, and then shut it off so as to hold her down. Then jumpout and take a hand in the fight!"
"That's right," cried the sheriff. "Fight's the word! They're breakingfrom cover now," he added, as he looked over the side of the cabin,from one of the windows. "The rascals have taken the alarm!"
The airship was descending toward a little glade in the woodssurrounding the old picnic ground. Men, mostly of the tramp sort, couldbe seen running to and fro.
"I hope my deputies close in promptly," murmured the sheriff. "There'sa bigger bunch there than I counted on."
From the appearance of the gang rushing about it seemed as if therewere at least fifty of them. Some of the fellows caught sight of theairship, and, with yells, pointed upward.
Nearer and nearer to the earth settled the Red Cloud. The criminals inthe camp were running wildly about. Several squads of them dartedthrough the woods, only to come hurriedly back, where they called totheir companions.
"Ha! My men are evidently on the job!" exclaimed the sheriff. "They areturning the rascals back!"
Some of the gang were so alarmed at the sight of the great airshipsettling down on their camp, that they could only stand and stare atit. Others were gathering sticks and stones, as if for resistance, andsome could be seen to have weapons. Off to one side was a small hut,rather better than the rest of the tumbledown shacks in which thetramps lived. Tom noticed this, and saw several men gathered about it.One seemed familiar to the lad. He called the attention of Mr. Damon tothe fellow.
"Do you know him?" asked Tom eagerly.
"Bless my very existence! If it isn't Anson Morse! One of the gang!"cried the eccentric man.
"That's what I thought," agreed Tom. "The bank robbers are here," headded, to the sheriff.
"If we only recover the money we'll be doing well," remarked Mr. Sharp.
Suddenly there came a shout from the fringe of woods surrounding thecamp, and an instant later there burst from the bushes a number of men.
"My posse!" cried the sheriff. "We ought to be down now!"
The airship was a hundred feet above the ground, but Tom, opening widerthe gas outlet, sent the craft more quickly down. Then, just as ittouched the earth, he forced a mass of vapor into the container, makingthe ship buoyant so as to reduce the shock.
An instant later the ship was stationary.
Out leaped the sheriff.
"Give it to 'em, men!" he shouted.
With a yell his men responded, and fired a volley in the air.
"Come on, Tom!" called Mr. Sharp. "We'll make for the hut where you sawMorse."
"I'll come too! I'll come too!" cried Mr. Damon, rushing along as fastas he could, a seltzer bottle in either hand.
Tom's chief interest was to reach the men he suspected were the bankrobbers. The lad dashed through the woods toward the hut near which hehad seen Morse. He and Mr. Sharp reached it about the same time. Asthey came in front of it out dashed Happy Harry, the tramp. He wasfollowed by Morse and the man named Featherton. The latter carried ablack valise.
"Hey! Drop that!" shouted Mr. Sharp.
"Drop nothing!" yelled the man.
"Go on! Go on!" urged Morse. "Take to the woods! We'll deal with thesefellows!"
"Oh, you will, eh?" shouted Tom, and remembering his football days hemade a dive between Morse and Happy Harry for the man with the bag,which he guessed contained the stolen money. The lad made a goodtackle, and grabbed Featherton about the legs. He went down in a heap,with Tom on top. Our hero was feeling about for the valise, when hefelt a stunning blow on the back of his head. He turned over quickly tosee Morse in the act of delivering a second kick. Tom grew faint, anddimly saw the leader of the gang reach down for the valise.
This gave our hero sudden energy. He was not going to lose everything,when it was just within his grasp. Conquering, by a strong effort, hisfeeling of dizziness, he scrambled to his feet, and made a grab forMorse. The latter fended him off, but Tom came savagely back at him,all his fighting blood up. The effects of the cowardly blow werepassing off.
The lad managed to get one hand on the handle of the bag.
"Let go!" cried Morse, and he dealt Tom a blow in the face. Itstaggered the youth, but he held on grimly, and raised his left handand arm as a guard. At the same time he endeavored to twist the valiseloose from Morse's hold. The man raised his foot to kick Tom, but atthat moment there was a curious hissing sound, and a stream of frothyliquid shot over the lad's head right into the face of the man,blinding him.
"Ha! Take that! And more of it!" shouted Mr. Damon, and a second streamof seltzer squirted into the face of Morse.
With a yell of rage he let go his hold of the satchel, and Tomstaggered back with it. The lad saw Mr. Damon rushing toward the nowdisabled leader, playing both bottles of seltzer on him. Then, when allthe liquid was gone the eccentric man began to beat Morse over the headand shoulders with the heavy bottles until the scoundrel begged formercy.
Tom was congratulating himself on his success in getting the bag whenHappy Harry, the tramp, rushed at him.
"I guess I'll take that!" he roared, and, wheeling Tom around, at thesame time striking him full in the face, the ugly man made a grab forthe valise.
His hand had hardly touched it before he went down like a log, thesound of a powerful blow causing Tom to look up. He saw Mr. Sharpstanding over the prostrate tramp, who had been cleanly knocked out.
"Are you all right, Tom?" asked the balloonist.
"Yes--trifle dizzy, that's all--I've got the money!"
"Are you sure?"
Tom opened the valise. A glance was enough to show that it was stuffedwith bills.
Happy Harry showed signs of coming to, and Mr. Sharp, with a few turnsof a rope he had brought along, soon secured him. Morse was tooexhausted to fight more, for the seltzer entering his mouth and nose,had deprived him of breath, and he fell an easy prisoner to Mr. Damon.
Morse was soon tied up. The other members of the Happy Harry gang hadescaped.
Meanwhile the sheriff and his men were having a fight with the crowd oftramps, but as the posse was determined and the criminals mostly of theclass known as "hobos," the battle was not a very severe one. Severalof the sheriff's men were slightly injured, however, and a few of thetramps escaped.
"A most successful raid," commented the sheriff, when quiet wasrestored, and a number of prisoners were lined up, all tied securely."Did you get the money?"
"Almost all of it," answered Tom, who, now that Morse and Happy Harrywere securely tied, had busied himself, with the aid of Mr. Sharp andMr. Damon, in counting the bills. "Only about two thousand dollars aremissing. I think the bank will be glad enough to charge that to profitand loss."
"I guess so," added the sheriff. "I'm certainly much obliged to you forthe use of your airship. Otherwise the raid wouldn't have been sosuccessful. Well, now we'll get the prisoners to jail."
It was necessary to hire rigs from nearby farmers to accomplish this.As for Morse and Happy Harry, they were placed in the airship, and,under guard of the sheriff and two deputies, were taken to the countyseat. The criminals were too dazed over the rough treatment they hadreceived, and over their sudden capture, to notice the fact of ridingthrough the air to jail.
"Now for home!" cried Tom, when the prisoners had been disposed of."Home to clear our names and take this money to the bank!"
"And receive the reward," added Mr. Sharp, with a smile. "Don't forgetthat!"
"Oh, yes, and I'll see that you get a share too, Mr. Durkin," went onTom. "Only for your aid we never would have gotten these men and themoney."
"Oh, I guess we're about even on that score," responded the official."I'm glad to break up that gang."
The next morning Tom and his friends started for home in the Red Cloud.
They took with
them evidence as to the guilt of the two men--Morse andHappy Harry. The men confessed that they and their pals had robbed thebank of Shopton, the night before Tom and his friends sailed on theirtrip. In fact that was the object for which the gang hung aroundShopton. After securing their booty they had gone to the camp of thetramps at Shagmon, where they hid, hoping they would not be traced.But the words Tom had overheard had been their undoing. The men whoarrived at the camp just before the raid were the same ones the younginventor heard talking in the office building. They had come to gettheir share of the loot, which Morse held, and with which he tried sodesperately to get away. Tom's injuries were not serious and did notbother him after being treated by a physician.