CHAPTER XI--SPYING ON THE ENEMY
"There is that man again, Mr. Parks."
"Duske? Yes."
"Shall I follow him?"
"I'd like to know just what he is about."
"I would like to try and find out," declared Andy, with more eagernessthan his employer suspected.
"All right, Andy; look him up a bit. Watch out for trouble, though, forhe is a dangerous man."
It was late in the afternoon of the day succeeding Andy's sensationalperformance, and Parks and his young assistant were again on theaviation field.
Andy had made out the man whom Parks had called Duske carrying two cansof gasoline past a tent. He did not seem to have observed Parks, andAndy did not believe that he knew him. Andy left the side of hisemployer, and, circulating around kept Duske in sight from a distance.
The boy had not said anything to Mr. Morse about Duske. He felt certainthat Duske was one of the enemies the inventor had described. Just atpresent, however, Andy considered it would be unwise to disturb Morse.The latter had almost completed the new airship. His mind was absorbedin his task, and he was working day and night.
Duske passed the last tent on the field, and then struck off beyond someold railroad sheds to the side of an abandoned switchyard. Scatteredhere and there over this space were several tents. They were occupied byaero contestants who had not been able to get a favorable location onthe big field, or by those who had sought this seclusion because theywished to be isolated with some fancied new invention, the details ofwhich they did not wish their contestants to learn.
Finally Duske seemed to arrive at his destination. It was where stoutcanvas had been stretched about fifty feet out from the blank side of anold frame shed. These strips of canvas and the shed cut out completely aview of what was beyond. The front of this enclosure was guarded by aroof set up on posts, this leading into the entrance tent of the mainenclosure.
A man about as sinister looking as Duske himself was cooking somethingon a stove, and two others were lounging on a bench near by. Duskecarried the gasoline cans out of sight. Andy got around to the side ofthe enclosure, way back near its shed end.
It was getting well on toward nightfall, and he felt that he was securein making some bold, prompt investigations. There was no doubt that thelarge tent enclosed the airship which Duske and his crowd intended toenter for the race. Andy attempted to lift the canvas at one or twopoints, but found it securely pegged to the ground.
"Humph!" he soliloquized, "everything nailed down tight. Must make theirtrial flights at midnight. They must think they have got a treasure inthere. I've got to see it."
Finally Andy came to a laced section of the canvas, which he was able topress apart a foot or more by tight tugging. He squeezed through, andstood inside the enclosure.
There was light enough to show outlines, and with a good deal ofcuriosity Andy walked around and inspected an aeroplane propped up on aplatform in the center of the enclosure. He came to a halt at one end ofthe machine. Two long hollow tubes extended beyond the folding planes.
"Why," breathed Andy, "it's the idea they stole from Mr. Morse. Here'sthe suction apparatus, and all!"
"Hi, there! who are you?"
The challenge came so sharp and sudden that Andy was taken completelyoff his guard. Two men had come from the front tent, their footstepsbeing noiseless on the soft earth floor. One of them was the man Duske.
"Just looking around," replied Andy, edging away and pulling his capdown over his eyes.
"How did you get in here?"
"Slit in the canvas."
"Don't let him go--grab him," ordered Duske's companion quickly, and Andybegan to back towards the canvas.
Duske reached out and made a grab at Andy. The latter dodged, butDuske's hand landed on his cap. His glance falling to the inside peak,he could not help reading there the words: "_Eagle_--Andy Nelson."
Nearly everything worn by Parks and Andy, as all the parts of the_Eagle_, were marked, so that in case of an accident identificationwould be easy.
"_'Eagle'!_" cried Duske, bristling up. "Do you belong to the _Eagle_crowd?"
"He's a spy--head him off!" shouted the other man.
"_'Eagle'_--'Andy Nelson'," continued Duske. "That's your name, is it?Now then, what are you snooping around here for?"
"What's that, what's that?" challenged the other man quickly. "'AndyNelson?' Say, Duske, that sounds familiar. I just read that namesomewhere--I have it--in a newspaper----"
"Thunder! he's slipped us," exclaimed Duske.
Both men had started for Andy. The latter let them come on, ducked down,dove straight between them, ran to the slitted canvas, squeezed through,and sprinted away from the spot on feet of fleetness.
"I don't know how much I have mixed up affairs," he reflected, as hemade for the home camp. "Those fellows know my name and that I am withMr. Parks. What bothers me most, is what the man said about seeing myname in a newspaper. Some one here--in an automobile."
As Andy reached home he observed an automobile in front of the livingquarters. A man came out as Andy stood wondering who the visitor couldbe. Andy noticed that he carried a small black case.
"A doctor," he decided hastily. "Can any one be sick? What hashappened?" he asked, as Scipio came out.
"Hahd luck, chile, hahd luck!" replied the cook very seriously. "Yobettah see Mistah Parks right away."
Andy hurried to the sitting room. Lying covered up on a couch, his rightarm in splints, and looking pale and distressed, was the aeronaut.
"Oh, Mr. Parks! what is the matter?" asked Andy in alarm.
"Everything off, lad," replied his employer, with a wince and a groan."I've had a bad fall, arm broken in two places, and we can't make theairship race."