CHAPTER XXIII
BROUGHT TO BOOK--CONCLUSION
"What time is it, Frank?" asked Andy, who w as breathing very hard afterhis recent exertions in helping both men to get a footing on thehydroplane.
"I think pretty close to four o'clock," replied the other, though hemade no attempt to take out the little nickel watch, he always carriednowadays.
The fact of the matter was that Frank did not dare trust Casper Blue. Hecould see that the little man was a desperate character, and that he didnot view the prospect of being made a prisoner, and taken back toBloomsbury with any great show of enthusiasm. In fact, it was a mostunpleasant proposition for the bank thief to contemplate at all.
And so Frank was watching him closely. He had, before starting on thisdangerous air flight that had ended so far from home, and under suchsingular conditions placed a little pistol in his pocket, though hardlyunder the belief that he would have any occasion to make use of it.
But he was now determined not to let this man get the upper hand. Hecould see that various desperate plans must be forming in that schemingbrain of the one-time aviator, and now yeggman; and Frank was constantlyon the watch so that he might not be caught napping.
"Four o'clock!" repeated Andy; "that would mean at least two more hoursbefore the sun set, wouldn't it; and even after that it might stay lightenough another hour for them to see us if they steamed along?"
"You mean the people aboard that tug, don't you?" asked Casper Blue,sneeringly.
"Yes, they seemed to be chasing after us, and I only hope they do keepmoving," replied Andy, "because they must have seen the accident, thatis if they had any sort of a marine glass aboard, which I reckon theydid."
"And I suppose, now, you think there might be officers aboard that sametug?" the other went on to say.
"Oh! we don't know anything about that," Andy remarked, carelessly. "Butif they came along after a while it'd save us from a lot of worrying.Just think, if the night set in, and the four of us weighing this poorold hydroplane down like we are what a time we'd have before anothermorning came around."
"It would like as not rise, if there was only two aboard, wouldn't it?"Casper asked quickly, and before Andy could understand what his questionmeant he had replied to it.
"Sure thing, Frank and myself have left the water many a time in a lesspowerful hydroplane than this, haven't we, Frank?"
"Well, turn about is only fair," said Casper, fiercely.
"Why, I don't understand what you mean by that," complained Andy.
"Two's company, four a crowd; so please skip out of this, both of youboys. My pal and me can run this shebang, and just take my word for it,we mean to do the same. Get that straight, both of you? Now, jump, Itell you, and lively, or I might be tempted to let her go; and thatwould be a shame after the way you rescued the two of us. Overboard withyou!"
Andy gaped when he saw that the man had actually drawn out a revolver,and was aiming the same directly at him.
"Here, quit that, will you?" he demanded, feeling a flush of alarm, foreven a seasoned veteran of many battles does not fancy having such athreatening weapon thrust under his nose.
"Jump, then, d'ye hear, consarn you?" shouted the man, menacingly wavinghis pistol; "take a header, and over you go, both of you! I'm adesperate man, and not to be fooled with. P'raps you c'n keep afloat onthat wreckage long enough for the tug to come up, and pull you in. Butno matter, over you go, one way or the other!"
"Just wait a bit, Casper," said a quiet voice, and turning his head theman saw that Frank had him covered very neatly, "you must know that yourweapon has been soaked, and wouldn't go off, the chances are. Besides, Idon't believe there's a single cartridge in the chambers. Throw itoverboard, do you hear, Casper, or I may be tempted to cripple thatother arm of yours!"
No doubt Frank was speaking the exact truth when he declared his beliefthat the revolver had not been charged since the time when Casperemptied it at the pursuing airship, in the hope of either frighteningthe boy aviators; or else doing some sort of damage.
He stared hard at Frank for half a minute; then with some mutteredwords, as if he realized the folly of butting up against fate, threwthe useless weapon far out on the heaving surface of the lake.
After that a dense silence fell upon them. The men were too down-heartedto want to talk; and there was little that the boys had to communicate,because they were now in a position where they could do absolutelynothing to help themselves; and must depend entirely upon the coming ofthe tug.
An hour passed, and it seemed very long. All of them were more or lesswet because of the splashing waves; but as the air was balmy, they caredlittle for such a thing as that, if only the tug would show up.
Innumerable times did Andy stretch his neck, and look toward the quarterin which it must appear, if it came at all; but the hour began to extendfar into a second one, and as yet there was nothing seen that broughtwith it a ray of hope.
Worse still the sea was gradually getting more and more tempestuous, itseemed to Andy, though the sky remained absolutely clear, and, there wasnot a sign of a storm.
If that had been a fog in the far distance which Frank had sighted, thebreeze must have long ago dissipated it entirely.
Lower sank the sun, until it was now not more than half an hour abovethe horizon, if its stay could be measured in the way of minutes andseconds. Oh! if only the friendly tug would come in sight amidst thefoam-crested waves! It was really getting to be too much of a goodthing, trying to keep the hydroplane from keeling over, with those wavesbreaking against the frail planes. If this kept up much longer, Frankwas very much afraid that Percy Carberry would not be the only boy inBloomsbury to mourn the loss of an airship.
When, therefore, Andy gave a sudden shout, and announced that hebelieved he had seen the smoke of the tug wreathing above the waves, allof them looked considerably relieved, even Casper himself; for on secondthoughts the yeggman must have decided that it was better to be aliveand in prison, than dead, and under the waters of Lake Ontario.
In five minutes they could all see the smokestack of the powerful tug,and for fear lest it should pass by and not do them any good theyshouted hoarsely in unison.
"They hear us!" exclaimed Andy, whose position, somehow, allowed him tosee better than any of the others, "yes, they've changed their course,and are heading this way now. It's all right, Frank; we've won out, Iguess!"
But Frank was keeping an eye on the two men. He did not mean to givethem even the slightest chance to play a trick in the eleventh hour.Frank Bird was a pretty hard fellow to catch napping, he usually had hiseyes open, and especially when he knew there was danger around.
The tug came booming on, and they could see that there were quite anumber of people aboard.
"What if some of them are from Bloomsbury?" suggested Andy. At which hiscousin laughed.
"You didn't stop to think twice before you made that break, Andy," heremarked. "Tell me, by what conveyance could they have got to the lakeahead of us, when we came through by lightning express at the rate ofnearly a hundred miles an hour at times? But I can see they areexpecting to take charge of our friends here, because there's an officeraboard. Just keep where you are, Casper; your goose is cooked, andthere's no need of making matters worse."
The man settled back again with a growl, and then burst out into areckless laugh.
"Small difference it makes, I guess, boys, how the thing's done, solong as we've got to go to the lock-up. You might just as well have thecredit for the job as anybody; and man to man, now I want to say thatI'm full of admiration for the fine way you handled that hydroplane ofyours. If so be you're the Bird boys I've been hearing so much about,you've got the making of crack-a-jack aviators in you. That's about allfrom me now."
The tug came alongside, and the two men were assisted aboard, where thepolice officer saw that they were promptly ironed.
"We got the word from Bloomsbury, and your father hired this tug rightaway, Andy Bird, to follow you ou
t on the lake, if so be you kept afterthe rascals," said a tall gentleman with a white mustache, who, theyafterwards learned, was the mayor of the city on the lake shore. "Nowwhat can we do for you?"
"Please stand by, and let's see if we can get away," answered Frank, "ifnot we'll have to go on board, and tow the hydroplane behind, but sincerelieved of so much extra weight the pontoons have risen again; and Iexpect she'll go."
And she did, with the very first effort, beginning to move over thesurface of the water in the lee of the tug; then, as Frank hastened toelevate the planes, the airship started to mount and when free from thelake a mighty cheer broke from the lips of those aboard the smallvessel, even Casper Blue joining in giving the brave lads their justdues.
Frank carefully started back toward the American side of the lake. Hedid not know whether the capture had been made on the Canadian side ornot, and as the question was never raised, even in the trail of the bankrobbers it was never wholly clear in his mind.
When they reached land it was early night; and save that the wind hadlulled considerably, they would not have been able to get in for a longtime after that. As there was no need of their hurrying homeward, Frankand Andy consented to stay over as the guests of the mayor, who was morethan pleased to have the famous Bird boys stop under his roof.
But first Frank made sure to send a message to each of their homes; aswell as to Chief Waller, who would have to come on and get the two boldmen who had broken into the Bloomsbury bank and about cleaned out thevault; and not content with one haul, were planning to rob the pay-carwhen it stopped in Bloomsbury to settle with a large number of employeescentering there.
Doubtless that must have been a season of considerable excitement inthe home town; and the names of Frank and Andy Bird were cheered to theecho by the crowds of town boys Larry and Elephant would lead around,burning red lights and firing off Roman candles purchased with moneysupplied by Dr. and Professor Bird, the happy fathers of the two youngheroes.
On the following day Chief Waller was on hand with one of his men toescort the prisoners back to the town where their latest crime had beencommitted. Frank had already sent the little camera box with itsvaluable contents, just as he had received it from Casper Blue, to thepresident of the bank by express, not caring to hold it any longer inhis hands than was absolutely necessary.
About noon, the conditions being favorable, the Bird boys sailed awayamidst the cheers of half the little city, and headed directly south ona bee line for home.
Fortunately enough no further adventures overtook them on their waythere, and as their coming had been announced they found the whole townin an uproar, and came near being mobbed, such was the desire of everyman, woman, boy and girl to have the honor of shaking hands with them.
Percy was on hand too, with a thousand questions concerning the fate ofhis precious biplane, and bemoaning the fact that he seemed to be themost unlucky fellow who had ever attempted to bring honors toBloomsbury. But there were precious few who sympathized with him; andeverybody knew that all he had to do was to demand that his motheradvance the ready cash to buy another flier, and it was sure to beforthcoming.
But there were other lively times in store for Frank and Andy Bird,although neither of them suspected it just then, and believed that aperiod of calm would likely follow their hydroplane round-up. What thenature of these exploits were the reader who has accompanied us in ourvoyage through the pages of this book, will learn when he purchases thenext story in this series, now on sale under the title of "The BirdBoys' Aeroplane Wonder or, Young Aviators On a Cattle Ranch."
The End.
Aeroplane Boys Flight Page 23