CHAPTER XX
THE STOWAWAY
The young aviator took a long, earnest stare at the mysterious personwho had just stated that he was a stowaway. In a flash Dave seemed toget hold of one end of a long chain of circumstances and mysteries.
“A stowaway?” repeated Professor Leblance, incredulously. “You meanaboard the _Albatross_?”
“Yes, sir.”
“From the time when she first started?”
“And before.”
“You amaze me!”
“I am amazed at myself,” came the words, in rather a depressed way. Thespeaker dropped his head, and both of his interlocutors looked troubledand more puzzled than ever. “I’ll tell you, gentlemen, I’d rather notsay much till I am sure your airship is out of the country. You know youpromised I should stay aboard if I wanted to,” he added to Mr. King.
“I surely did,” assented the airman, heartily.
Dave had been studying the profile of the stowaway. He had noticed thathis ebony hue was due entirely to soot or greased lampblack smeared overface and hands. Further, the keen glance of the young aviator hadscanned closely the clothing, even down to the necktie of the stranger,and then—he was a stranger no longer to Dave.
“Mr. King, may I speak to you for a moment,” said Dave, moving out ofthe cabin into a passageway. In some surprise the airman followed himthere.
“What is it, Dashaway?” he asked.
“The stowaway. I know him, Mr. King,” declared Dave, hurriedly. “Thereis a certain mystery about him he dares not explain just now, and youare embarrassing him dreadfully. Don’t ask him any more questions. Tellhim to come to my stateroom. Later, I will explain everything to youabout him.”
“Well, well,” commented the airman; “you seem to have the faculty forpreparing surprises for your friends, I must say. I’ll do what yousuggest, but I’m curious to understand what it all means.”
“You shall soon know,” promised the young aviator, and he went to thelittle partitioned-off space where he and Hiram slept. He sat down onone of the berths, placing a stool in the middle of the room for hisexpected guest.
“You will find a friend in there,” reached Dave’s ear, a little later,in the tones of the airman.
“Did—did you want to speak to me?” rather falteringly asked thestowaway, entering the stateroom. Mr. King retired and closed the doorafter him.
“Why, yes,” replied Dave pleasantly. “Say,” and he grasped the hand ofhis guest in a hearty way, “I am glad to see you, and doubly gladbecause you have made good, just as I knew you would. I once told afriend you were of the right kind. You’ve proved it, Elmer Brackett, andI’m proud of you.”
“Yes, I see you know me. Made good! Proud of me?” repeated the boy in adazed, half-stunned way.
“Why, you saved the _Albatross_, didn’t you?” cried the young aviator,in a spirited tone, bound to rouse and buoy up his guest. “The lives,too, probably, of every person aboard. What are you crying for—joy?”
Sure enough, young Brackett was crying. He acted like a boy in such atangle of circumstances that he was fairly crushed. Finally he blurtedout:
“Joy? None of that for me, ever again, I guess.”
“Why not?” challenged Dave.
“Oh, you don’t know, you don’t know!” cried the young man. “It seems asI sit here, in the strangest position a fellow ever was in, I reckon,that I’m in some terrific dream. There’s only one clear idea I can clingto—to get out of the country, away—away——”
“Away from that villain, Vernon? Am I right?” spoke Dave, quickly.
“Yes, that’s it,” assented Brackett, in a lost tone of voice.
“I thought so. Now then, see here, you are among the best friends anyfellow ever had. You have just been the best kind of a hero ever was.Forget everything else for the present. Make up your mind that whateveryour troubles may be, there’s a combination aboard the _Albatross_strong enough to help you fight your way clear out of the last one ofthem, and—tell me all about it.”
There followed the most interesting hour of Dave Dashaway’s life. Thefriend of everybody, he had been the confidant and helper of many a ladin difficulties. As bit by bit the strange history of Elmer Brackettcame out, however, Dave conceded that it was the most remarkable case hehad ever handled.
Briefly, the reckless, impetuous son of the big man in the InterstateAero Company had become the helpless victim of the schemes of Vernon.Young Brackett did not tell Dave everything. He hinted that while in amuddled condition he had been induced by Vernon to forge a number ofnotes.
Once completely in the power of the schemer, the latter showed no mercy.He appalled Brackett by claiming that he could send him to thepenitentiary, disgrace his family, and almost ruin his father’sbusiness. These claims were, in a measure, exaggerations.
Elmer Brackett then lost his head completely. His one thought was toescape from Vernon. He disguised himself, after sending a letter to hisfather, warning him against the forgeries, and saying he was going toseek some foreign country where he could lose himself and be forgotten.
“I had no money, I dared not appeal to friends, for Vernon was seekingfor me everywhere to tighten the chains of his power around me,” relatedthe youth, bitterly. “I thought of you, and while tracing down the_Albatross_ I ran across Davidson and young Dawson and their _Dictator_.Maybe it was a wild idea, but I thought how it would just suit me to getaway from this country by airship, for Vernon had claimed that if I lefthim he would have the detectives looking out for me everywhere. Well, Ihung around Senca. Then, as I didn’t think much of the way the_Dictator_ showed up, I went to Croydon.”
“It was you, then, who asked my friend, Hiram Dobbs, about me, and worea false mustache?”
“Yes, I was disguised,” admitted Brackett.
“And you were, too, the ghost who scared the watchman at the _Albatross_aerodrome nearly into fits!”
“That was me, too,” admitted Brackett. “The night before you started Isneaked aboard the airship. I stowed myself away behind the big boxes ofprovisions near the cabin here. I heard and saw what was going on. Thenthat crowd of outlaws came, I got the magazine gun from the arsenal,and—here I am.”
“And here you wish to stay till we get across the Atlantic?” said theyoung aviator. “Good! Now, then, take my advice; forget all thiswretched fear and trouble that is part of your past. Help us win thegreat prize, and when this trip is over trust to it that Mr. King andMr. Dale will find time and money to squelch this miserable Vernon,straighten out your affairs, and start you on a new career.”
Elmer Brackett, minus the lampblack and encouraged by Dave, was soonquite another person in appearance and spirits to the refugee stowaway.Dave imparted to his friends only as much of Brackett’s story as wasnecessary.
The following morning the boys awoke to find the _Albatross_ out of allsight of land, fairly started on the great trip across the broadAtlantic.