CHAPTER III.
BY THE OLD QUARRY.
Traveling by night in the Hawk was not a new experience for Motor Mattand his chums. When they had crossed the lake from Grand Haven, afterthe capture of Hector Brady, they had come by night. At that time theyhad had the moon to light their course, but on this trip to the oldquarry the moon was new and they had to depend upon the stars.
As the night advanced, the stars grew brighter and they were able todistinguish the different features of the landscape below them. All wasin shadow, more or less, but groves of trees were darker than the openstretches, and the highways were whitish lines dividing the country insquares. A cluster of lights marked the situation of a village, andstray gleams from below showed where the farm houses were located.
"I'd radder travel mit a air ship," remarked Carl, "dan any odder vayvat I know. It vas fine, und dot's all aboudt it."
"Right-o, matey," answered Ferral. "I used to think there was nothinglike a good ship and a skipper's breeze to make a fellow in love withlife, but strike me lucky if there's anything on the seas to comparewith this. We can not only shift our course by putting the helm down orup, but we can dive through the air like a porpoise in the water, andthen we can climb up like a blooming whale that wants to spout. I'm anair sailor from this on, as long as the Hawk's afloat. Sell her? Notfor Joseph! not if some lubber was to offer us four times what we paidfor her. Eh, Matt?"
"It's all right to hang onto the craft until we get at all the ins andouts of this air-ship business," replied the king of the motor boysfrom his place among the levers, "but if we can't make some money outof the Hawk after that, I'll have to unload my interest in her, Dick,and get busy with something more profitable. Carl and I, you know,haven't any rich uncles to stand behind us. We have to work like SamHill for all we get."
"Dot's right," agreed Carl. "I haf vorked all my life like Sam Hill,but I don'd got sooch a derriple sighdt now. Oof I shday hooked oop mitMatt, dough, I bed you someding for nodding I come oudt on der dop."
"Aye, aye," cried Ferral heartily, "Motor Matt's the boy to win. ButI'm not going to let my rich uncle do everything for me. When we getthrough with the Hawk I'm going to Quebec and get back in the King'sservice. Nothing like the navy. My uncle wants to see me amount tosomething in the service, and he stands ready to give me a boost, but Itold him to let me alone and watch me work my way up. I was captain ofthe after gun crew on the old _Billy Ruffian_, and----"
Ferral broke off suddenly, leaned over the rail and peered downward.
"I'm a Fiji, Matt," he went on, "if I don't think we're close to thecanal. Cock your eye over the side, Carl, and take a look."
"Vell," said Carl, after a careful survey, "it vas a mighdy shtraightrifer oof it vasn't der canal."
"Put your helm over, Matt," went on Ferral, "for here's where we take afresh tack."
Matt took a look for himself, then shifted the steering rudder so as toturn the Hawk to the left, and at right angles with the course she hadbeen following.
"Now then, fellows," said he, "keep your eyes skinned for the oldquarry. They're all limestone quarries, in this part of the country,and the one we're looking for ought to show as white as a strip ofmacadam road."
For half an hour they whirred along, a moving blot against the stars.It was Carl who first discovered the quarry.
"I t'ink I haf seen der blace, Verral," said he. "Look, vonce, off deron der righdt."
Ferral stared in the direction indicated.
"You've hit it, mate," averred Ferral. "There's the old quarry, Matt,and it lies to the right of the canal. There's a railroad track inbetween."
"Well, we'll get down by the canal, opposite the quarry," said Matt."If the detective, Glennie, is anywhere around, he'll be on the lookoutfor us and won't be slow reaching the place where we land."
"I can see a couple of trees close to the bank of the canal, Matt,"announced Ferral, "and if we could drop in between them it would be agood berth, and give us a fine place in which to moor the Hawk."
"Guide me to the place," returned Matt, "and be sure you don't land usin the top of one of the trees."
"Turn her about two points to port," went on Ferral, keeping his keeneyes below as he gave the direction. "There you are--steady as she is.Now tilt her--gently, gently!"
Matt depressed the steering rudder, keeping the vertical planes rigidas they were. When the Hawk had attained the proper slant to bringher to an even keel between the two trees, Ferral gave the word. Mattslowed the propeller and they glided easily downward.
"Now then," called Ferral, "straighten her out."
The nose of the air ship immediately swung upward, and she glided inbetween the trees. Matt cut off the power, and Carl jumped out on oneside and Ferral on the other, each with a rope.
The trees stood about forty feet apart, with cleared ground in between,and the propeller had hardly come to a standstill before Carl andFerral had the mooring ropes securely fastened to the tree trunks.
Matt leaped over the rail and began looking about him through thesemi-gloom.
"There's some one bearing this way from the direction of the railroadtrack," said Ferral, in a low tone. "He's coming in a hurry, too."
Matt turned his eyes in the direction of Ferral's pointing finger. Adark figure could be seen rapidly approaching. As the man drew nearer,the starlight struck a vague flash from buttons on the front of hiscoat.
"Looks like a man in uniform," remarked Matt, stepping out from underthe shadow of the trees. "Hello!" he cried. "Is that you, Glennie?"
"That's who it is, King," came a husky answer. "Glad you got thatletter in time to get here to-night. If you hadn't come beforeto-morrow night it might have been too late."
"Sink me!" muttered Ferral. "Seems like I'd heard that voice before."
"Me, too," seconded Carl; "dere vas some familiar rings mit it."
Matt likewise had a vague notion that he had heard the voice before,although he could not tell where. The man came steadily onward and,when he halted within a few feet of the boys, they could see that hewas in uniform, and wore a cap with gold braid. There was lettering onthe cap, but it was too dark to read it. The collar of the man's coatwas turned up about his ears, and the cap was pulled down over hisforehead.
"You're Dave Glennie, are you?" queried Matt.
"Sure," was the answer, but there was a shifty undernote in the voicewhich still further aroused Matt's suspicions. "Who did you think Iwas? I've been watching by this old quarry for two or three days, andwhen I sent that letter to you I had to get a boy to post it in LaGrange. Didn't dare to leave here myself. If you--Thunder! What's thematter with you?"
Matt, with a quick move, had leaped at the man and jerked off his cap.
"Brady!" he shouted. "Help here, boys!"
He grabbed Brady by the shoulders, and both of them fell to the ground.
"Prady!" gasped Carl. "Vell, vat do you t'ink oof dot! Prady! Und vet'ought all der time he vas a tedectif! Ach, plazes, vat a surbrise!"
Ferral, appreciating the necessity of quick action, did not stop tosay anything. Running to Matt, he helped him hold Brady on the ground.Presently, Carl came, and the three boys soon had the escaped convicthelpless.
Brady's fall had caused his coat to come open. Under it Matt saw alighter suit of prison stripes.
"Brady put the uniform on over the prison clothes," panted Matt.
"He's clever as ever," returned Ferral, "but what's his dodge?"
"Look a leedle oudt for some oof der odder members oof der gang!"fluttered Carl. "Meppy dis is anoder drap."
"Trap nothing!" protested Brady. "Get off of me, you fellows, and giveme a chance to talk. I've got something to say that will open youreyes. If you want to help my girl, now's your chance--but I've got togo with you."