AN AEROPLANE CHASE

"Here it is, and everything seems all right!" remarked Andy as they reached the field, and found the hydro-aeroplane just where they had left it.

"Yes, no one has disturbed a thing, which I think is lucky for us," Frank went on to say, as he proceeded to put back the small part he had taken away with him, and thus place the machine in perfect condition for business.

Andy moved about, looking to see that all obstacles threatening to interfere with a successful launching were removed from in front of the waiting aeroplane.

So minutes passed, until at least ten had crept by since their coming. Frank had everything tuned up, and knew of not the least chance where he could improve the conditions of planes or motor, for all seemed to be as nearly perfect as they could be made.

Both boys cast frequent glances aloft, and as a rule toward that particular quarter where they presently expected to see something moving. They were keyed up to a pretty lively pitch of excitement, though Frank did not show it half as much as his younger cousin, who was always affected this way.

Then suddenly Andy called out:

"There she rises, Frank! Oh! look at them boring up, will you, in that corkscrew spiral way! Tell me that Casper Blue doesn't know his business; Perc will never get as much out of his biplane as that old and experienced aviator means to. Are we going to follow suit, Frank?"

"Get aboard!" came the prompt answer; and it was almost laughable to see how nimbly Andy obeyed this order.

Frank lost no time in starting, and they went away with a rush, passing over the abandoned field that was now given up pretty much to thistles and burdocks, with a sprinkling of iron-weeds.

It was rather rough sledding, to be sure, and as the bicycle wheels pounded over the turf the boys had to hold on to keep their seats.

But when sufficient momentum had been acquired, Frank elevated the fore plane, and immediately there was the greatest relief felt; for they began to rise in the air, and all that terrible bumping stopped for good. The change was wonderful, and it felt as though they were gliding on velvet.

"We're off!" exclaimed Andy, exultantly.

Frank said nothing. He did not possess quite the same sanguine nature that his cousin had. Andy seldom allowed thoughts of possible disaster to annoy him, but on the other hand Frank was always trying to head off trouble.

He realized that with this launching of their new hydro-aeroplane they would be entering upon an extra hazardous game, the outcome of which no one could foresee. The two men whom they expected to follow must be desperate fellows, who would resort to almost any hazard rather than allow themselves to be caught.

And it was not an amateur aviator like Percy Carberry who was opposed to them now, but one who had had long experience in the art of harnessing a flying machine to do his bidding.

Once they left the ground behind them, Frank started to spiral upward much in the same way the others had done. One thing he was glad of, and this was the presence of Andy alongside. Casper Blue might be a daring air pilot, but with his companion a perfect greenhorn in all that pertained to the art, he would be more or less handicapped. A sudden incautious movement on the part of the novice might prove the undoing of the precious pair.

Once they had risen to a certain height, and the aeroplane was turned so as to follow the other air craft, which was speeding away, headed directly into the north. Of course, those aboard must know that they were being chased. They could not have failed to see the hydroplane, (as it is generally called, though the true word to cover it would be hydro-aeroplane) even before it left the field, once they started to ascend.

"Well, we're off at last!" commented Andy, in a satisfied tone, when the course had been taken, and they were following directly after the fugitive air craft.

"And let's hope we'll come out of this adventure as luckily as we have on other occasions," remarked sober Frank.

"Wonder if Perc happens to be looking this way right now," Andy went on to say. "Chances are, that he's got his old field glass leveled, and is searching the heavens right along, in hopes of locating his lost machine. And say, if he does glimpse this fine parade right now, can't you see him turning green with envy to think of another glorious chance coming to the hated Bird boys. Oh! my, oh! me! but it would be gall and wormwood to Perc. Just as like as not he'd take a fit!"

But Frank was not giving any time to such thoughts as these. More serious affairs engaged his attention. When once he left the firm footing of the solid earth, and invaded the upper currents where up to lately man had never traveled, save in a drifting balloon, he always put levity aside, and paid strict attention to business.

The panorama below them was constantly changing, and the boys could not but admire the pictures thus presented to their gaze. No matter how often one may go up a thousand feet or more above the earth, it is next to impossible to weary of the wonderful scenes that keep passing constantly in review as the buzzing motor keeps carrying the aeroplane along over plain, valley, hills, forests, rivers, and villages or towns that chance to lie in the route.

To Andy it was all somewhat in the nature of a grand picnic, for his nature was not one to contemplate peril at a distance. Had he and Frank just come out for an hour's spin he could not have shown more delight, as they went whirling through space, with that rival flier a mile or two ahead.

"Do you think we're gaining on them?" asked Andy, after some time had elapsed, and the country below began to get unfamiliar, proving that they had now come beyond the range of any previous trip taken to the northward of Bloomsbury.

"I don't know for sure," replied his cousin. "Sometimes I think we are, and then again I'm a little in doubt. Suppose you get the glass out, and see what they're doing, Andy?"

"Well, I'm a great one, forgetting all about that bully marine glass." As he said this Andy hastened to feel for the article in question, which was always kept handy, because there never could be any telling when they might want to use it in a hurry.

"Go slow; no use rocking the boat," sang out the pilot, who was forever cautioning his companion with regard to quick motions when seated in such a delicately balanced contraption as a biplane. "It's a good thing that we've got that new fool-proof contrivance that Mr. Wright invented, on this machine right now, because only for that you'd be giving me more than a few scares when you swing from one side to the other so quickly."

A minute later, and Andy, who had been looking through the glasses, spoke again.

"It's a little hard to cover them steadily, because they keep rising and dipping just like we are; but I can see that little Casper Blue, and the man alongside of him is a much larger chap."

"Of course it's Casper who's piloting the biplane?" remarked Frank.

"Yes, and he knows the ropes, let me tell you. I don't believe there are many professional birdmen today who can go ahead of that man. I only wish you could take a squint through here, and watch how he manipulates the levers, in spite of that stiff arm of his. Only for that, and he'd still be in the harness, and doing stunts that'd have Beachy left far behind."

"Either that, or else he'd be buried," remarked Frank, drily.

"Oh! well, the less we have to say about that the better I'll feel, Frank. If you're going in for aviation at all you've just got to forget all about being in constant danger; though I hope I'll never get so I'll be reckless like Perc Carberry. But Frank, sure we seem to be picking up a little on that crowd. And from the way they keep looking back all the while, I guess they know it too."

"Perhaps we are," Frank went on to say, "but if I really thought so I'd cut down a peg or two in our speed."

At that Andy set up a howl; at least he voiced his objection.

"Well, that's a queer stunt for you to do, I must say, Frank. Here we are chasing after our game, and the very first time we believe we're gaining some, you inform me you mean to cut down our speed. Is that the way to win the game, tell me?"

"But we don't want to come up with them while we're booming along like this, you understand," ventured Frank, as he gently moved a lever just a trifle; "this sort of racing is a lot different from what you'd do on the ground down there. Suppose we did come abreast of that biplane right now, what good would that do us? Could we put out a hand and arrest the yeggmen? Wouldn't it be more likely that such desperate men as these must be, would try some sort of game looking to disable our craft, and sending us tumbling down to our death? No, excuse me from coming to close quarters up here with such hard cases. Honest now, Andy, if they began to circle around as if they meant to turn on us, I'd think it my duty to run!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Andy, "you mean you'd coax 'em to follow us back to Bloomsbury, and then give themselves up, is that it, Frank? Oh! but you're a cunning chap, sure you are. But on the level now, what is our game, if it doesn't mean we're going to overtake 'em?"

"I'll tell you, Andy. We ought to keep following after them as far as we can, and in that way learn where they drop. If we get a chance to send down an occasional message to be sent on to Bloomsbury so much the better. I've written several such out, and have the cord to tie them to weights. Given a chance, when we're passing over some town perhaps we can get one such message sent on home. Even that would tell them where we were, and what the chances are."

"Great game, Frank! Suppose you let me have those messages, and I'll be amusing myself getting the same ready to heave, when you say the word. We c'n play that this is a war game, and we've been sent out to drop bombs on the fortifications of the enemy. We've done it with rocks, and we can throw pretty straight; so it seems to me we ought to get some sort of fun out of it all around."

Frank told him where he could find the written messages in his outer pocket; and for some time Andy was quiet, busying himself in fastening some sort of anchor to each piece of paper, sufficient to carry it earthward, despite the breeze that at the time might be blowing.

All at once Andy noticed that they were going quite slowly in comparison with the pace they had lately been "hitting up."

"What's happening, Frank?" he exclaimed, almost alarmed lest some accident had befallen the reliable little motor, which up to now had never failed them, no matter how great the call upon its resources. "Why are we slowing up? Is there something gone wrong, and must we own up to being beaten?"

"Look ahead at the biplane!" was all that Frank replied.