Boy Aviators in Africa; Or, an Aerial Ivory Trail

  CHAPTER II

  THE STOLEN IVORY

  "Will you please send this card up to Mr. Beasley's rooms and tellhim that the visitors he was expecting are here?"

  It was Frank Chester who spoke early the next day, as the boys, inresponse to Lathrop's letter, stood at the Waldorf desk. The clerklooked at them a little disdainfully. Frank and Harry Chester werenot the sort of boys who devoted much time to thinking about clothesand while they both wore dark neat-fitting suits they certainly didlook a little out of place among the pasty-faced, cigarette-smokingyouths in loud-looking garments who constituted most of the youngmen with whom the clerk was in the habit of coming in contact.

  "I don't think that Mr. Beasley can see you now, call later," hebegan, superciliously turning round to the letter-rack and sortingout the mail and putting each guest's letters in the proper box.

  For a second an angry flush rose to Frank's face. The man's mannerwas enough to irritate any high spirited boy. But Frank Chester wasnot given to what Bill Barnes called "flying off the handle." Hecalmly took another card from his pocket and in a rather sharpvoice, though his tones were even enough said:

  "Are you going to send that card up at once or shall I call the roomon the telephone?"

  The clerk faced quickly about. The two youths he had looked upon asrather awkward country bumpkins, judging as he did from their tannedfaces and broad shoulders, were evidently not to be trifled with. Heglanced at the card as he rolled it up and handed it to a boy to beplaced in a pneumatic tube and shot up to the fourth floor, on whichMr. Beasley and his party had taken rooms.

  "Oh, you are the Chester boys?" he exclaimed with a strong accent onthe "the" and in markedly more respectful tones.

  "We are," said Frank with a smile which was reflected on hisbrother's face.

  "I beg your pardon for keeping you waiting, I'm sure," said theclerk with an apologetic leer, meant to be an engaging smile.

  "That's all right," said Frank shortly, turning away from the desk.

  "Well, having your name in the paper does do you some good afterall," remarked Harry with a laugh. "That fellow certainly turned aflip-flop, when he found out who we were."

  Five minutes later the boys were ushered into the Beasley rooms andwere busily engaged shaking hands and exchanging all sorts of boyishexclamations of welcome with Lathrop Beasley, a tall, rather slenderyouth who had been their companion in Florida. Like the boys,Lathrop was an accomplished aviator and wireless operator, althoughhe had not the initiative or the sturdy pluck to perform the featsthat they had. He was, however, a boy of considerable brain andskill and among the boy-aviators of the country held an enviableposition.

  "About your letter," began Frank when the first greetings were over.

  "In a minute," replied Lathrop, "here's father now."

  As he spoke, the portieres parted and a stout, fresh complexionedgentleman, ruddy from his bath and shaving, appeared. He had thepompous manner of the successful man of business and seemed to theChester boys to be the least bit patronizing in his manner.

  "Mr. Barr will be here in a minute," he said, after introductionshad been made by Lathrop, "he will explain to you his idea. I ammerely a partner in the enterprise. You will, of course, be glad toaccept any restrictions he may impose?"

  "We hardly care to discuss that yet," said Frank, rather nettled byMr. Beasley's pompous manner, "until we know what he requires." Heexchanged glances with Harry.

  "In fact," he went on, "we were planning to take a complete rest andfollow in Mr. Roosevelt's foot-steps, by taking a hunting trip inAfrica, only," he added with a smile, "we meant to hunt by aeroplane."

  "Wonderful," said Mr. Beasley, evidently much impressed by Frank'sready manner, "when I was a boy, if a lad had a "bone-shaker"bicycle he thought he was doing something fine, and as for flying--why,we never thought of it."

  "Perhaps the boys of to-day are further sighted," said Frank withquiet note of sarcasm in his tone that was quite lost on thewell-meaning old merchant. Indeed at that moment Mr. Beasley roseheavily from his chair and stepped forward to greet a new arrivalwho appeared from another room of the suite.

  "This is Mr. Luther Barr, the famous ivory importer," he said, withfar more respect in his tones than he had used to the boys; whomindeed, he looked upon as talented chaps, but still boys--which tomen of his caliber is an infallible sign that anything such youthfulpersons may attempt is extremely likely to go wrong. How erroneoussuch an opinion is, those of our readers who have followed theadventures of the Chester boys know.

  Mr. Luther Barr deserves a new paragraph. Long, lean and hollowcheeked, the term "gangling" fits him better than any other. Mr.Luther Barr's black suit hung on him as baggily as the garments of acornfield scarecrow and Mr. Luther Barr's sharp features were notimproved by a small growth of gray hair; of the kind known as a"goatee" that sprouted from his lower rip. For the rest of the boysnoticed that Mr. Barr was gifted with a singularly gimlet-like pairof steely blue eyes that seemed to bore through you.

  "As sharp a man as ever drove up the price of ivory," added Mr.Beasley as he introduced the boys to this singular figure, "he canscent an ivory bargain--"

  "From here to Africa," struck in Mr. Barr in a sharp nasal tone thatgrated unpleasantly, "and you and I are going to be Kings of WallStreet if these boys put this deal through for us," he added withwhat was meant to be an amiable smile, but which, as a matter offact, distorted his face till it looked uncommonly like an oldJapanese war mask. Indeed the boys, who had seen the collection inthe Metropolitan Museum, could not help smiling to themselves, asthe same thought struck each of them.

  "Well, Beasley," exclaimed Barr suddenly, "I'm as sharp set as aLong Island fox. Let's have a bite of breakfast and then we can getdown to business."

  From Mr. Barr's manner of dispatching his breakfast and theremarkable skill with which he wielded his knife, in conveyingvarious morsels to his mouth, it was evident that he had spent somuch time piling up money that his social education had been sadlyneglected. Once or twice the boys caught Lathrop's eye and they sawthat the lad was blushing with shame at the uncouth manners of hisfather's friend. For this reason the boys refrained from paying anyapparent attention to Mr. Barr's actions, although--as, theyremarked afterwards--he was as well worth watching as the "swordswallower in a circus side show."

  "Yes, boys," said Mr. Barr with his mouth full of buttered toast andham and eggs, "I guess I know more about Africa than any man alive."

  "You have crossed that continent?" asked Frank..

  "No, sir," replied the old ivory merchant with some contempt. "Iwouldn't waste my time where there ain't no ain't no money. What Imean is, I know more about the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast and theSlave Coast than any man in this or any other country and have gotmore good solid coin out of them."

  Mr. Beasley looked up admiringly from his plate. Here was evidentlya man after his own heart.

  "The Slave Coast?" echoed Harry inquiringly, "I thought--"

  "Thought there wasn't no more slaves, eh?" inquired Mr. Barramiably, swallowing his coffee with a noise like water running outof a bath tub, "wall, that's because yer young. When yer git olderyou'll larn that there's money in everything here's a demand for,and there's just as big a demand for slaves on some rubberplantations I could tell yer of as there ever was in the old days ofthe South--and more money in 'em on account of its being moredangerouser."

  "Do you mean to say that there is slave-running now?" asked Mr.Beasley, while both Frank and Harry wondered and Lathrop lookeduncomfortable.

  "Sure I do," chirped Mr. Barr, "but no more for me. There's toomany British gunboats and 'Merican gunboats and Dutch gunboats andwhat not about now to make it comfortable or healthy. No, I'veretired from that business--but there's money in it," he concludedwith a regretful sigh.

  Immediately Mr. Barr had concluded his breakfast--and with hisapparently slim accommodations it was a wonder to the boys where heput it all--he snapped, with a flinty g
lint of his small pig-likeeyes:

  "Now, let's git down to business. You boys want ter make a bit ofmoney?"

  "'To be sure we do," replied Frank, "but we don't want to make anythat isn't honest money."

  "We'll, there's no accounting for boys nowadays," sighed Mr. Barr,"however, you needn't worry about this money--there'll be plenty ofit and it'll all be good honest coin."

  "What do you wish us to do?" demanded Frank.

  "Just this: Mr. Beasley here and me is in on a deal in ivory. Thatis, we were, but the big cache we had hoarded up in the KuroworoMountains in the Bambara country has been stolen by a rival trader,an Arab named Muley-Hassan. We know where he's hidden it and weknow, too, that he won't dare to bring it out till he thinks that wearen't watching him. Now the time is ripe for a big deal in Ivory.There is a shortage in the market. Prices will go up sky high. Ifwe get it out in time we'll make a barrel of coin, but if we don'twe stand to lose heavily."

  Mr. Beasley gave a groan; to the boys' amazement he seemed to beabout to collapse. Lathrop too looked ill and anxious. Old Barrpaid no attention, however, but went on.

  "Now, I heard about you boys and your air-ship, and I heard, too,that you was planning a little trip to Africa and thought you mightlike to combine business and pleasure."

  He drew from his pocket a much-thumbed, crudely drawn map and spreadit out on the table. How he obtained it, the boys never learnedexactly, but they heard later that a treacherous attendant of theivory dealer had sold it to him for a good round sum.

  "This country down here," he said, indicating it with a black rimmedfinger nail, "is the Southern Soudan. Here's the Bambara country tothe north of Uasule. Now right at this point, in the Moon Mountainrange,"--he pointed to a red-marked trail zigzagging across the mapto the range and terminating in a red star--"right at that tharpoint, old Muley-Hassan, the Arab, has hidden our ivory cache. Yousee the latitude and longitude is marked and furthermore--and here'sthe most remarkable part of it--you will know the spot when you seeit by the fact that the mountains above the cache present an exactfacsimile of an upturned human face. In a direct line drawn fromthe nose of this face, where you see the red star, lies the ivory."

  The boys were deeply interested. Unpleasant as was the impressionold Barr had made on them, yet what he was disclosing wasimpressive; but as yet they did not show that they were anythingmore than casually struck by it.

  "Well, Mr. Barr?" said Frank, as the old matt paused impressively.

  "Well--" said Mr. Barr, "the scoundrel stole it and it's up to youto get it out of there, if you will undertake it."

  "How does it depend on us?" asked Frank.

  "In just this way. Muley-Hassan has his eye on us---we can donothing toward locating the ivory. You can pitch a camp there andscout about for it in your aeroplane or dirigible or whatever youcall it."

  "But even if we do find the Arab's hiding-place, what good does thatdo?" objected Frank.

  "We can arrange with the French government to send soldiers up intothe country and get the stuff out, if necessary," readily repliedthe wrinkled old ivory dealer, "but we can make no move till thecave is located. If they suspected we were after it, they wouldsoon move it to another hiding-place or even pack it cross-countryto the Nile and ship it out by the Mediterranean."

  Frank and Harry asked leave to hold a brief consultation at theconclusion of which, they announced that they would think the matterover, and see Mr. Barr at his office the next day. The old man wasfar too shrewd to insist on a decision then and there, and so heleft the hotel with the boys' promise to consider the mattercarefully. As for Frank and Harry, they had pretty well made uptheir minds not to have anything to do with Mr. Barr, but anunforeseen circumstance altered their determination. As Barr leftthe room with Mr. Beasley, Lathrop turned on them with troubledeyes.

  "Will you do it, Frank?" he asked anxiously. "Please say yes."

  "Why, Lathrop, whatever is the matter," asked Harry, noticing thealmost painful anxiety, with which the boy looked at Frank and hungon his decision.

  "It's just this," said the boy in a voice that shook, as he tried tosteady it, "if that ivory isn't found, we shall be ruined. Myfather will be beggared."

  "Beggared," exclaimed both the Boy Aviators who had regarded Mr.Beasley--as indeed did his friends in general--as one of the "bestfixed" business men in New York.

  "It's true,"' said Lathrop, despairingly. "He has been speculatingfoolishly and entered into an agreement with this man Barr to borrowmoney for still further stock deals. The only hope he has of payinghis debts is the realization of the profits he could have made onthe ivory. Its theft was a bitter blow to him, not so much for hisown sake, as for my mother and sisters. Myself I don't care, I canget out and work, but it would break my heart to see them reduced topoverty."

  The situation was a difficult one for the Chester Boys. They hadtaken a hearty dislike to the crafty old ivory merchant and had madeup their minds not to enter into any enterprise in which he wasinterested. Here, however, was a new complication.

  "Give us half-an-hour, Lathrop," said Frank at length, and the twoboys withdrew to another room to talk the matter over. It was tenminutes past the agreed time when they came back.

  In the meantime Lathrop had been joined by his father and the twohad waited in painful anticipation for the Boy Aviators' verdict.

  "Well--," began Lathrop eagerly as the two boys with grave facesreentered the room.

  "Well," said Frank, with a smile, "I guess we'll help you out,Lath."

  Tears stood in the eyes of both Mr. Beasley and his son, as in shakyvoices they endeavored to thank the Chester Boys.

  "That's all right, Lathrop," said Frank at length--"turn about'sfair play. You drove the aeroplane to Bellman's island you rememberand saved us--now, we'll save you and your father, if we can--howlong can you give us, Mr. Beasley?" he asked, briskly turning to thethoroughly humbled merchant.

  "Eight weeks--if I hear from you by cable in eight weeks I can keepthings going," was the reply.

  "Phew!" whistled Frank, "that's not an awful lot of time."

  "Can you do it, Frank?" asked Lathrop eagerly.

  "We'll try as hard as we know how," was the modest answer.

  "And--and you'll take me along?" faltered Lathrop.

  "Sure, you can come as your father's representative at large,"laughed Frank.