CHAPTER IV
AT THE TELEPHONE
Tom and Sam spent the balance of the day in looking for the missingbiplane, walking down to the river, and even visiting Humpback Falls,where the youngest Rover had once had such a thrilling adventure.
"Don't seem to be in sight," remarked Tom, after they had trampedthrough the woods and over the rocks until they were tired.
"Looks to me as if the _Dartaway_ had gone further than we supposedpossible," replied Sam. "Maybe she's a hundred miles from here."
"Oh, she may have gone clean over to the ocean and dropped in," saidTom. "But I don't see how she could--with nobody to steer. How longwould an auto keep to the road without somebody steering?"
"Do you know what I think we ought to do? Go back home and telephone tothe villages and towns in the direction the biplane took. Somebody musthave seen the craft,--if she kept in the air."
"By Jove, Sam, that's the idea! Why didn't you think of that before? Itwould have saved us quite a tramp."
The two boys turned back, and reached home a little after the supperhour. The meal had been held back for them.
"Any luck?" asked Dick, who sat in an easy chair on the front piazza.His cuts had been plastered up and he felt quite like himself again.
"No luck; but Sam has an idea," answered Tom, and mentioned what it was.
"You must have supper first," said Mrs. Rover. "Then you can do all thetelephoning you please." And so it was agreed.
During the past few months the telephone service in the neighborhood ofDexter's Corners had been greatly improved and the lines could beconnected with nearly all of the villages and towns roundabout.
"I'll try Carwood first," said Sam. "I'll call up Tom Bender. He's awideawake fellow and would know if an airship had been seen."
Carwood was soon had on the wire and Sam presently was talking to theboy he had mentioned--a lad who worked in the general store with hisfather.
"See an airship?" cried Tom Bender. "We sure did--scooting over thisburgh like a streak, too! Was it your machine? Who was running it? Itried to make out but couldn't."
"Nobody was running it," answered Sam. "It ran away on its own account,from back of our barn. Where did it go to?"
"Ran away! Suffering toadstools, Sam, you don't mean it! I don't knowwhere it went, it went so fast."
"Which way was it headed? Try to tell me as nearly as you can."
"It was headed over Bear Hill, near the Spring. That would about take itover Rayville."
"Thank you, Tom; then I'll call up somebody in Rayville. Good-bye."
"Oh, say, Sam, hold on a minute. You say the machine broke away. How wasthat?" Tom Bender was all curiosity.
"We were trying the engine and propellers, that's all. I'll tell you therest when I see you," answered the youngest Rover, and rang off. "Tomwould keep me answering questions for a year if I let him," he added, tohis brothers.
He next tried the Rayville general store, but could get no informationconcerning the missing biplane. Then he tried several farmers who wereutter strangers to him but whose names were in the telephone directory.
"Airship, eh?" queried one farmer, a man named Peter Marley. "Well, wesure did see an airship, fer it came nigh onto rippin' off the roof o'the barn. Ef I had the feller here as was runin' it I'd give him a doseo' buckshot! He nigh scart my wife into a fit, he did!"
"Which way did the airship go, Mr. Marley?"
"Went right over into Rocker's Woods,--over where the old saw mill usedto be."
"Did the airship come down, do you think?"
"I guess so--leas'wise she looks like she was goin' to come down. Butwho was the crazy loon as was runnin' her?"
"Nobody was running the craft--she ran away on her own hook."
"By gum! Ye don't tell me! No wonder she acted so blamed crazy like! Anyreward fer her?" And the farmer's voice betrayed a sudden interest.
"I don't know--I'll find out," answered Sam, and then consulted hastilywith his brothers.
"Tell him the biplane is ours and if he will help locate it and get itto a safe place we will pay him well for his services," said Dick.
"When can we go to Rayville?"
"First thing in the morning. There's a good road, and we can make thesixteen miles in the auto in no time."
"All right," said Sam, and told Peter Marley of what had been said. Thefarmer agreed to remain around his house until they arrived and then doall in his power to help locate the _Dartaway_.
"Dick, do you think you'll be able to take that trip?" questionedRandolph Rover. "Hadn't you better remain behind? I can go with Tom andSam if necessary."
"Oh, I'll be all right in the morning," was the reply.
"But you've got to let me and Sam run the machine," put in Tom. "No useof your doing that."
"All right," answered the eldest Rover boy.
That night, when the others had gone to bed, the three Rover boysgathered in Dick's room to discuss further the news regarding JosiahCrabtree and Tad Sobber.
"Do you suppose it is possible that Sobber thinks to come here and blowthe house up?" queried Tom.
"He might be equal to it," answered Dick, soberly. "We'll have to keepour eyes peeled, and, when we go back to Brill, we'll have to warn dadand Uncle Randolph."
"Do you know, dad looked worried when he went away," put in Sam.
"I noticed it, Sam. Did he say anything to you about business?"
"Not a word. Why, do you think it's that?"
"There is some trouble out west--has been ever since there was a strikeat that Golden Horseshoe mine in which dad invested so heavily lastsummer. They had a strike, and now one crowd is trying to get thecontrol from another crowd. I don't know the particulars, but I guessdad is worried."
"Dick, don't you think you ought to help him in these affairs?" camesuddenly from Sam. "Uncle Randolph is too absorbed in his books and inscientific farming to pay any attention, and--well, dad isn't as youngas he used to be--and we are growing older."
"I've been thinking of that, Sam. I wish I was through college, I'd jumpright into the game and try to take the load from his shoulders."
"Are you going to take the full course?"
"No, I talked it over with dad last week and I'm going to take theshorter course. He said you two could take the long course if you wantedto."
"Not much! The short course for yours truly!" cried Tom.
"Ditto here!" came from Sam.
"I want to settle down and get into business," went on Tom.
"He thinks Nellie won't wait much longer," remarked Sam, with a wink atDick.
"Huh! I guess, you think Grace won't wait!" snorted Tom. "Didn't I seeyou looking over that furniture and picture catalogue the other day? Ha!I caught you, Sammy, my boy!"
"Rats!" cried Sam, growing suddenly red in the face. "I was thinking ofbuying a new chair and maybe a picture or two for our quarters at Brill.The old ones are pretty punk, if you'll remember. Besides, we've got towait until Dick and Dora step off, you know," went on the youngestRover.
"That's so--so we have," added Tom, with more of a grin than ever. "Bythe way, Dick, how much longer are you going to linger before you scrapeup money enough to pay the minister's fee?"
"Just long enough to hammer some common-sense into the heads of twobrothers of mine!" cried Dick, and threw a book at Tom and a pillow atSam. "Now go to bed and don't forget to wake up early, for we want to bein Rayville by eight o'clock, so we can have all day, if necessary, tolocate the biplane." And then he chased Tom and Sam out of the bedroomand locked the door on them.
Left to himself, Dick walked slowly across the room to where the bureaustood. On the top was a small, framed picture of Dora Stanhope, that hadbeen taken only a few months before. Dick could not help but take up theportrait and gaze at it long and earnestly.
"Dear, dear Dora!" he murmured fondly. "The best girl in all this wideworld! Some day you are going to be Mrs. Dick Rover, and that day can'tcome any too soon for me. Oh, I hope those r
ascals don't do anythingmore to harm you!"
Dick was still holding the picture when there came a soft knock on thedoor.
"Who is it? What do you want?" he asked, as he put the picture down.
"Dick, my child," came in a whisper from the fun-loving Tom. "Be carefuland don't kiss all the glaze off that photo. She's a sweet girl,warranted all silk and a yard wide, but the glaze may be poisonous,and----"
"Tom, if you don't get to bed I'll--I'll throw a pitcher of water overyou!" cried Dick, and started to unlock the door. With a merry laugh Tomran off; and that was the last seen or heard of him that night.
Before retiring Dick gave his wounded head another application ofliniment, and in the morning he was gratified to find that much of thesoreness was gone. The cuts, of course, remained, and he bound these upwith extra strips of adhesive plaster. The three lads had an earlybreakfast, and by half-past seven o'clock were in the touring car, boundfor Rayville.
"How are you going to get the biplane back here, even if you do findit?" questioned their uncle, before they started off.
"I don't know," answered Dick. "It will depend on what condition the_Dartaway_ is in. She may be so broken up as to be unfit for anything,and then it wouldn't pay to move her."
"Well, better not attempt to fly in the craft," cautioned RandolphRover.
"Hardly," said Tom. "Maybe we'll telephone for Captain Colby to come andget her."
Tom was at the wheel of the touring car and, once the farm was leftbehind, and they were on a fairly good country road, he advanced thespark and the gasoline control until they were running at twenty-fiveand then thirty miles an hour.
"Now, don't get gay, Tom!" warned Dick. "This road wasn't built forracing."
"Pooh, what's thirty miles an hour!" declared the fun-loving Rover, whojust then felt like "letting out." "You know this machine can make fiftyand better, Dick."
"I know it, but you've got to have a safer road than this, Tom."
"Beware of the turn!" cried Sam, who sat on the front seat with Tom,while Dick was alone in the tonneau. "It's a bad one!"
"I know it, but I'll make it," answered Tom, and then the touring carreached a bend in the road, and went whizzing around it with a suddenlurch that made Sam cling desperately to the seat and sent Dick flyingfrom one side of the tonneau to the other.
"Tom, be careful!" cried Sam. "Do you want to pitch me out on my head?"
"Do that again, and I'll make you let Sam drive," came from Dick.
"It was the brake--it didn't act just right," answered Tom, just alittle frightened. "I think it's loose."
"Better stop and look at it," answered Dick, promptly.
"Oh, I guess it's all right," said Tom. The touring car continued tomove along, up a winding hill. Then came a level stretch for half amile, and then a sharp descent, leading into Carwood.
"Now be careful----" commenced Dick. And then stopped short, for asudden snapping sound reached his ears.
"What's that?" cried Sam, in alarm.
"The brake--it's broken!" answered Tom. And then he set his teethgrimly, to try to guide the heavy touring car down the steep hillwithout disaster.
The Rover Boys in the Air; Or, From College Campus to the Clouds Page 5