CHAPTER XX
RESCUED
The native uttered a low, warning sound, and touched the arm of theyoung aviator. Dave was absorbed in studying the singular being on theroof of the structure, but at a glance he saw a street guardapproaching. He knew that the movements of his companion urged him notto arouse any suspicion. He followed him as he turned away.
Our hero took a final view of the pillar-like building and itssurroundings. He tried to fill his mind with landmarks so he couldlocate it again. Not, however, by the land route. Dave Dashaway realizedthat the biplane must play a part in his plans if he hoped to succeed inthe rescue of young Deane.
“What does it mean—the strange situation of my friend?” was Dave’s firstquestion, after he and his guide had returned to the trading post.
Adasse spoke for a long time in his native tongue to Dave’s guide. Thenhe explained:
“Your friend is a perpetual prisoner on the roof where you saw him.”
“But for what purpose?” inquired our hero.
“A true devotee must not touch an evil bird; it is contagious, theythink, nor a sacred bird either,” continued the Russian; “it issacrilege. The duty of your friend is to keep the unclean birds awayfrom the sacred pillar in the daytime. At night he feeds the sacredbirds with honeyed dates. They know the food is awaiting them and comenightly.”
“He is there alone, then?” asked Dave.
“He lives always on duty on that roof,” replied Adasse. “There, Isuppose, he has a shelter of some kind, probably a tent. There is agrating in the roof. Through this his food is probably passed to him.Beyond it and around the pillar are constantly armed guards.”
“You have done a great deal for me,” said Dave gratefully. “I must leaveyou now.”
“I shall forget all you have told me,” observed the Russian,significantly; “except that it has been pleasant to entertain a friendof my partner. There is nothing I may do for you?”
“There is this,” replied the young aviator—“Mr. Adrianoffski has givenme the address of an agent fifty miles west of here. I wish you wouldexplicitly direct me to him.”
After receiving and memorizing his information, Dave proceeded at onceto rejoin his friends. The native insisted on going with him as far asthe hill. When they parted he handed Dave a basket bag. Then throughsigns and grimaces he tried to indicate the gratitude he felt towardsthe restorer of his precious prayer mill.
It must have been after midnight when Dave reached the summit of thehill. He found Hiram seated near the _Comet_, armed with one of therifles the machine carried. Elmer lay asleep on the ground.
“All safe and sound, eh?” commended the young airman, in a pleased tone.
“Yes, we haven’t been discovered or visited,” reported his loyalassistant. “We began to wonder what kept you away so long, though.”
“Wake up, Elmer, and I’ll tell you both all about it,” announced Dave.
His two friends listened with the intensest interest to his narrative.Hiram glanced curiously at the basket bag as Dave spoke of it.
“Wonder what’s in it?” questioned Elmer.
“I’ll find out,” suggested Hiram.
It proved to contain over a dozen packages. These were wicker coveredporcelain jars. Removing their covers, Hiram smacked his lips withsatisfaction as he sampled their contents.
“Say,” he gloated, “just sample these dainties! Why, it beats homemademolasses candy all hollow!”
All hands did some “sampling.” They found preserved ginger, honeyeddates, some melon rind finely flavored—in fact a series of nativeconfections as toothsome as they were rich and novel.
“What’s the programme now, Dave?” inquired Hiram, the spell of feastingconcluded.
“Morris Deane, of course,” responded the young airman, promptly.
“To-night; right away?” asked Elmer.
“We must lose no time getting on our route,” replied our hero. “It seemsto me that we have been most fortunate in meeting the people who haveassisted us so grandly in locating the man we are after. I feel positiveI can find the structure where I saw Deane. Its roof is large enough fora safe descent. Get ready, fellows.”
“Say, it will be a great feather in your cap if you get this Mr. Deanesafely away from there; won’t it, Dave?” spoke Hiram.
“I hope to do just that,” replied the pilot of the _Comet_, confidently.“You can imagine what joy his friends will feel to have him restored tothem.”
“Especially that pretty little miss who drove up to the hangar nearWashington in that automobile, Dave,” suggested Elmer, mischievously.
The _Comet_ was in starting trim, and the young aviators took theirplaces. The air and the breeze showed ideal conditions for an easyflight.
There was clear moonlight, but Dave counted on the city being asleep. Ashe neared it, however, the bright lamps on the top of towers and templescaused him to take to a high area to avoid being discovered.
Circle after circle he described in a narrowing course, at last makingsure that he had located the structure he had visited with the native.He indicated this to his comrades. All of them were infused withsuspense and expectation.
The expert young aviator hovered over the structure. He estimated time,distance and risks. The _Comet_ made a superb dip. It skimmed theparapet of the pillar and landed silently on the roof. In doing so,however, one of its wings tipped over one of the many ornate lampslining the sides of the enclosure.
Dave sprang from the machine, his eye fixed on a small skin tent at onecorner of the roof. Glancing within it, he saw lying upon a mat the manthe native had pointed out to him six hours previous. Our hero seizedhis arm and shook him.
“Quick Mr. Deane!” he called out. “We are friends—friends from yourpeople.”
Startled and confused at the suddenness of the waking up, the pillarsentinel sprang to his feet. He seemed about to rush towards the gratingin the roof to sound an alarm.
“Look, look,” continued Dave, rapidly, producing the picture of EdnaDeane. “It is your sister! She sent this as a token! Quick, now!”
“Dave, make haste!” called out Hiram, sharply. “There’s somethingwrong!”
The young airman almost dragged the bewildered captive across the roof.He acted in a great hurry, for something had emphasized Hiram’s warningcry. A series of yells rang through the grating in the roof. Beyond it aman was dancing up and down in frantic state of excitement.
The pilot of the _Comet_ at once decided that this must be some watchmanor sentinel. He had discovered the arrival of the airship. Now he wasshouting out the news of his discovery, probably to others within thestructure.
Another cause of alarm was an incipient blaze directly on the roof. Thelamp that the wing of the biplane had overturned had spilled itscontents. The oil had ignited, some rugs had taken fire, and the blazehad caught a canopy near by. The _Comet_ itself was menaced by therising blaze. Dave reached the machine and gave rapid orders to hisassistants.
“Get in, quick!” he directed his companion, but the rescued captive wastoo overcome to act for himself. Hiram helped pull him over into his ownseat, vacating this and getting into the storage space behind it.
Dave got to the pilot post at once, and glanced back. Elmer was flappingback the encroaching flames with a robe. Just then the grating in theroof was unlocked. Up through it came a dozen native guards.
But for the fact that these men were so startled at the unusual scenepresented to them, the _Comet_ and its passengers might never have leftthe mystic city of Lhassa. Thrown off their mental balance by a sight ofthe unfamiliar machine, the guards stood staring helplessly about andthen rushed forward to extinguish the fire on the roof.
“That was a tight squeeze,” gasped Hiram Dobbs.
“We’re safe—grand!” cried the relieved Elmer.
The man they had rescued shrank back as the _Comet_ arose like somegreat bird. Just then the loud
brazen notes of an alarm bell soundedout. Then some shouts followed the speeding biplane. Leaving a vastturmoil behind them, the airship boys glided off into space, over thecity, past its outer walls, making straight west for the haven of safetyDave had in view.
The young airmen did not attempt to converse with the rescued Deane. Thelatter, thin, pale and weak, was overcome with the excitement of thepast few minutes. He sat like one in a daze, staring in marvellingwonder at the receding landscape. He made no move when Elmer belted himinto the seat. He could not yet realize his removal from the wretchedpost of servitude which he had lately filled.
It was a lucky thing for our hero that Ben Mahanond Adasse had given himexplicit directions as to the trading post fifty miles away from Lhassa,where Adrianoffski had another partner. It saved time and enabled adirect route, and two hours later the _Comet_ descended to the ground inan open space behind a warehouse on the edge of a native settlement.
“Look after our friend and keep a sharp lookout,” Dave directed hisassistants, and left the machine and walked around to the front of thebuilding nearby.
There were no lights or signs of habitation about the place. The youngaviator seized a weighted cord suspended from a hook near the entranceto the building. He swung this time and again against the door.
A gleam of light soon showed, and the door was unbarred. A man wearing afez appeared, a suspicious blink in his sleepy eyes. He staredchallengingly at the disturber.
“You are Talzk Prevola?” inquired our hero, at once.
“An English!” exclaimed the man. “I am he whom you bespeak. But what ofyou?”
Dave produced the signet ring. As before along the journey its magicaleffect was immediate.
“It is from Adrianoffski,” said the trader. “You are welcome. Enter, myson. The place is yours.”
Dave was sure that the man was Prevola, and he was just as certain thathe could be trusted implicitly. He briefly spoke of his acquaintancewith Mr. Adrianoffski and the claim he held upon his confidence andgratitude.
“I have a friend,” explained our hero, “who must be conveyed quickly andsafely to the nearest railroad point in Russia. He must be taken out ofThibet speedily and secretly.”
“The order of my friend’s friend is law with me,” declared Prevola,gravely. “You but speak, I obey.”
“I will shortly return,” said Dave, and he went out to the biplane andapproached it.
“I wish to have a talk with you,” he said to Morris Deane. “Help himout, Elmer.”
The rescued young man was assisted from the machine. Our hero linked hisarm in Deane’s in a friendly, reassuring way. He led him to where a pileof wood lay and made him sit down beside him.
“Mr. Deane,” he said, gently, “you understand that we are friends sentto rescue, to save you?”
“I am just trying to comprehend it all,” was the reply, in a waveringtone of voice. “It seems incredible, astounding,” and the speaker passedhis hand over his face in a vague manner.
“Try and realize it all,” urged the young airman, “for time isprecious.” And then our hero told all that there was to tell.
Each succeeding moment Morris Deane seemed to take in more clearly theextraordinary disclosures the young pilot had to make.
“I never dared dream of escape, of a rescue,” spoke Deane. “And you andyour friends have done this noble act! Can I ever show my gratitude?Think of it, that hopeless life at Lhassa, and now freedom—freedom!”
The speaker threw up his hands in an ecstatic way. He looked at hisrescuer with tears in his eyes.
“Yes,” replied the young airman, “it is freedom—your anxious father—yourdevoted sister—a fortune awaiting you and—home!”