CHAPTER XII
A DESPERATE PASSENGER
“Due west—and no tricks!” the man had ordered who had insisted uponbeing a free passenger aboard the _Scout_.
Hiram Dobbs was not frightened. He was simply startled. Most boys wouldhave been unnerved at the leveled weapon of a man who looked so verydangerous. Momentarily taken off his balance, the young airman obeyedthe menacing mandate given.
“In case you should think of cutting up any capers,” was spoken nextinto his ear, “let me tell you I am a desperate man.”
It was humiliating to Hiram, now he had got his second breath, tosubmit to the dictation of a stranger, and he an intruder, too. Hiram’snatural disposition urged him instantly to drive the machine back toearth. Then common sense assured him that it would be at a risk. Hereally believed his passenger would shoot. Hiram was a quick thinker.He summed up the situation this way: the fellow aboard the _Scout_ wasa criminal, a fugitive pursued by the police. His only way of evadingthem was by the air route. A spice of reckless love of excitement cameinto the thoughts of Hiram. His passenger was watching him closely.
“All right, I’ll see the end of the adventure,” resolved Hiram, and thenext minute the land mist shut out all further view of theInternational grounds.
“Those officers will never take me alive again,” spoke his passenger.“If they get the two of us it will be two dead ones, mind you, that.”
“My! but you’re a wicked one, aren’t you now?” observed Hiram in a toneof raillery.
“Don’t you talk too bold, youngster—it mightn’t be healthy for you,”growled the other. “You obey my orders and you shan’t want a reward.”
“I don’t want money for helping a criminal to escape,” retorted Hiramspicily—“which I take you to be.”
“We all have our special business to attend to,” coolly announced theman. “Yours is running an airship. Mine is picking up what carelesspeople don’t watch close enough. We’ll both be in the papers to-morrow.It will make a good story, on your part. That will help, you see?”
Hiram, as he later explained it to his chum, was “mad all over,” but hesaw no safe way out of the dilemma. He preserved a stubborn silence,but thought steadily.
“If I know anything about Dave’s ways,” he soliloquized, “he won’t letany grass grow under his feet. He’ll think and act. A man ran up asthis fellow aboard here pushed up the machine. I think it was Dennis,the watchman. The police broke in through the fence, too. Oh, yes, Davewill soon be aloft, and looking for me.”
So convinced of this was Hiram, that he immediately put in operation aplan suddenly suggested to his mind. He reached out one hand and beganloosening the screws that held in place the plate covering thevibrator. His passenger was alive to every move he made and waswatching him intently.
“Hey, what you up to?” he snarled and then, as if through accident,Hiram shifted the plate so that it went whirling down through space,leaving the mechanism of the vibrator entirely exposed.
“I guess I’ve got to see if the cylinders are sparking right; haven’tI?” snapped Hiram.
“I don’t like that game!” growled the man behind him.
“Say,” jeered Hiram impatiently, “if you don’t take to my way ofrunning this machine, suppose we change places?”
“Oh, of course, I’m no sky pilot”—began the other.
“Then allow me to run this biplane in my own fashion. You’ll have to, Iguess,” added Hiram, “or drop. You may be desperate, but I’m in no verygood humor myself, drifting around to suit your fancy, and you’ll leaveme alone, if you’re wise.”
The passenger relapsed into silence now. Probably a realization of thefact that he might unnerve the pilot, or actually drive him to somerash action, caused him to assume a less forceful attitude. They musthave gone fully thirty miles before Hiram spoke again.
“See here,” he demanded sharply, “how long is this flight going to keepup?”
“The further the better,” was the indefinite response. “You know whatI’m after—to get us far and fast as possible from the people I don’twant to see. Hey—what’s that?”
Hiram uttered a quick cry of joy. Of a sudden a swaying flash of lightmoved over and beyond them. A radiant, searching pencil of brilliancywavered and dilated.
“It’s a biplane searchlight,” thought Hiram, holding his nerves assteady as he could, and not daring to look behind him. “It’s the_Ariel_—it’s Dave!”
“Say, what’s that now?” muttered his passenger, fidgeting about andstraining his neck.
“It’s an airship, like our own,” replied Hiram.
“They’re chasing us!” exclaimed the man.
“I can’t help that,” retorted Hiram, coolly.
“Well, aren’t they?” persisted the passenger. “See! they’ve got us intheir focus, and they’re keeping us there. You take a look and see ifthat isn’t so.”
Hiram ventured a glance backwards. It was swift and fleeting. Itpersuaded him that he was not wrong as to the identity of the biplane.
“There are so many craft around here,” he said, “that one might be atrailer, or setting a pace, or trying to dazzle and play with us, orhalf-a-dozen such things.”
“Oh, they’re after us—I feel it—I know it!” declared the passengeranxiously. “How far are they from us, do you think?”
“Perhaps a mile, perhaps two,” answered Hiram grudgingly.
He could catch low mutterings, as though the perturbed passenger werecommuning with himself. Then the latter poked him on the arm.
“They’re getting nearer, and they’re after us,” he spoke quickly, andwith a queer thrill of excitement in his voice. “See here, youngfellow, I’ve got no money with me, but I’ve got what is worth money.Give me your name, and I promise you, if you help me to get away fromwhoever may be after me, I’ll send you something, as soon as I realize,that will pretty nearly make you rich.”
“I wouldn’t take it,” declared the young pilot of the _Scout_. “Youmust be up to something bad, talking and acting as you do.”
“Land—land!” suddenly shouted the passenger. “Where you see that rise.Do it, don’t you delay, or I’ll knock you over, and risk running themachine myself!”
The urgency of the speaker was caused through the direct play of theheadlight of the _Ariel_ upon them. Dave had gained on the _Scout_materially within a very few minutes’ time. In truth, Hiram,understanding the situation, had been “playing” with the Scout,purposely deferring direct forward progress, bent on giving the _Ariel_an opportunity to come up with them. His passenger either discovered orsuspected this now.
“No fooling, youngster,” he spoke sternly, and Hiram felt against hisshoulder the pressure of the weapon with which the man had previouslythreatened him. He knew that his passenger was watching him as a catwould a mouse. He could think of no subterfuge to delay matters. Hiramchuckled, however, as he noticed the ever increasing nearness of the_Ariel_.
“Right over on that hill—where the grove of trees is,” directed hispassenger. “We can make it first. No delaying, now! I won’t stand it!”
The searchlight of the _Ariel_ was kept directly upon the Scout, exceptwhen a curve, or turn, made this impossible. As Hiram started a driftlandwards, he realized that the _Ariel_ was not far behind in the race.
His passenger had slipped loose the seat belt, and showed eagersuspense.
“Why don’t you land—why don’t you land! those fellows will be right onour heels in a minute,” he shouted.
“I can’t drop into the tree tops, can I?” challenged Hiram—“well!”
The rebound of the biplane told him that it had been lightened of aburden. His environment demanded his strictest attention to themachine. However, he shot one rapid look back and down. It was to seehis passenger risking a ten foot drop directly into a nest of treebranches. They bent with him like a rubbery surface. Hiram sent the_Scout_ in a rising circle so as to k
eep the man in view.
The headlight of the _Ariel_ had kept pace with his sensationalmovements. The man soon reached the ground, dropping recklessly frombranch to branch. The arrow of light revealed him running towards athick copse. Then it lost sight of him. A minute later, however, thedazzling glare took up the trail again. The fugitive had darted into athicket, out of it, into another, out of that one, and the last Hiramsaw of him he was dashing down the edge of a gully.
The _Ariel_, fast descending, kept its boring eye of radiance squarelyupon the man. Hiram fancied he could guess about where it would landand decided to join its company. Then something happened that thrilledHiram. The fugitive stumbled and went headlong over the edge of thegulch.
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