by E. J. Craine
VI
A CAPTURE
They stood in rather close formation, Bob and the Mounty facing eachother, Jim so that he could observe anything approaching by either oftwo other points of the compass, and Bradshaw scowling fiercely andthumbing young Caldwell's book.
"You've got to explain this," he thundered.
"It's nothing but school reports, tests and names of classmates. Youneedn't go cribbing it," Bob growled angrily.
"What you American kids doing here anyway? Got a permit a fly intoCanada?" Bradshaw demanded, but his eyes were narrowed as he focusedthem on the surrounding brush, his gun in hand. Suddenly he whipped itup almost to Bob's ear, and snapped:
"Come out of that you fellow."
Then followed a snarling curse, a smashing through underbrush, and thesharp crack of the automatic. Like a panther Bradshaw leaped forward andin an instant he dragged forth one of the pair who had come to head himoff, but galloping hoofs and wild oaths proclaimed the departure of theother three. A moment later there wasn't a sound of them. The Mountysnapped handcuffs on his captive, trussed his feet, and shoved him alongout of earshot.
"Pat," he called and the big horse trotted to his side. "Don't let himmove." Pat promptly stepped over the man, who howled in terror, andlightly planted one hoof on his coat, pinning him securely.
"Some horse," Bob whispered with admiration.
"Now, you fellows give an account of yourselves. How did you happen tocome down right here just as those lads were getting funny?" He spoke sosharply that the younger boy was sure the man believed they were a partyto the hold-up, but Jim merely scowled back.
"Aw you ground hog. Our motor stalled up there and I couldn't get itgoing until we almost smashed. Can you understand that?"
"It's clear enough. What are you smuggling in that car?" He gave alittle nod and strode with a determined tread to Her Highness.
"Not a blamed thing that doesn't belong to us," Jim shouted as hefollowed close.
"No?" Bradshaw leaned over as if to make a thorough inspection. "What'sin the basket. A book of bed-time stories?"
"Grub," Jim answered sharply, then added. "And some apples for Pat."
"Thanks," the Mounty grinned. "Now, tell me, is that ravine the one thatcomes along like a letter S, deep and steep on both sides almost all theway. It ends in a rock cliff about a half mile below here?"
"That's it," Bob whispered and he sighed with relief as he realized thatthe officer had been playing the game.
"Great guns, we've had that under inspection, but we'll take anotherlook into it. Do you know that out-post right on the line?"
"Sure. Has the two flags."
"That's it. My head chief is there now. I wish you'd fly over it anddrop him a message--"
"We can give it to him," Jim offered.
"Don't want you to come down. We've been bluffing that I don't know youand it may help. Anyway it won't get you into trouble if any of the gangshould see you again. I'll have to get this fellow locked up and make areport. I'm no end obliged to you. If you hadn't been on the look-out Imight have had a nasty fight all by my lonesome. Wish you'd get away assoon as you can and drop this to my chief. You did me a mighty good turnand the department will appreciate your further service. Weight it downwith these rocks, if you haven't anything better. I picked them up whenI was cuffing our friend over there."
"Glad to. We'll keep a look-out from the air and you watch us. If we seeany more surprise parties coming your way, we'll do a tail spin," Jimsaid softly.
"Thanks, but I fancy those fellows are willing to call it a day. Don'tknow why I've been picked out to bump off, but they may be planning topull something in my territory during this beat. I'll be moving." Heraised his voice and handed the note to Jim, then began in a loudertone. "Sure, I suppose your father is the President of the UnitedStates, but you beat it back over your own line and if you don't you'llwish he had the power of triplets."
"Aw," growled Jim.
"Smoke bomb," Bob added with relish as the throttle was opened and HerHighness got under way.
Further pleasantries were cut off by the thundering of the motors butthe younger boy leaned over ostensibly to make faces at the officer,while his eyes searched the vicinity. He saw Pat still penning thecaptive to the earth, but not a glimpse did he get of another humanbeing in the neighborhood. The plane zoomed a thousand feet, leveled offand headed for the Post the boys had seen a few days before. Jim had thestones, which he wrapped with the paper in his handkerchief, and then heknotted the note inside.
"All quiet on the front?" he asked his step-brother.
"As a mid-summer night's dream," Bob replied, then added. "I see thepost, Buddy." Jim nodded for he too had picked it out and already HerHighness was gliding to a lower level. Down she rode swiftly, until shewas only five hundred feet in the air, then they noticed the man-on-postcome out, and level his glasses upon them. Jim raised his arm, and atthe right moment he dropped the message over the side, and brought theplane about in a half circle, while they both watched the thing, thecorners of the handkerchief standing out like a pair of rabbit's ears asit tumbled to the earth.
"He's got it," Bob shouted gleefully. A second man had come out of thehut and the boys saw them inspecting the present they had received sounexpectedly. The first man waved his hand and ducked into the house,and the boys, quite satisfied with the morning's work, grinned at eachother.
"I'm empty, Buddy," Jim announced as they sailed off. The boys took aroute almost straight west, and in half an hour they were above a ruggedregion which the map informed them was in the State of New York. Theyselected a plateau with little timber and some kind of stream. Theyglided to the landing place, and presently Her Highness was standinglike a great wild bird, poised on the hill. The boys hopped out of thecockpit, looked about to make sure that there were no warnings posted tokeep off the premises, then out came the basket.
"Want to build a fire and toast some of these marshmallows?" Bobproposed as he glanced at the food.
"Sure thing," Jim agreed readily. He got busy and cleared a rock whileBob gathered some bits of wood. In a few minutes they had the blazecrackling cheerily, and then they prepared to enjoy themselvesthoroughly. Mrs. Fenton had put in almost a loaf of home made bread andbutter sandwiches, a glass of plum jelly, six deviled eggs, slices ofroast ham, olives, pickles, ginger cookies, milk, chocolate cake andcandy.
"If we eat all this Her Highness will never be able to take us up," Bobgrinned broadly as the things were set forth on the huge napkin.
"Intend to eat sparingly?" Jim inquired.
"Not so that you could notice it," Bob assured him. "When I come tothink of it, I don't know where you're going to get any. I am hollow inboth legs."
"I know what I'm going to do," Jim retorted promptly. "Pitch right inand if you get more than a toe full, you'll be lucky." With that threat,they fell to and ate with keen appetites, and when Bob finally stretchedhimself out on the rock with a huge sigh of contentment, the food wasalmost all gone.
"Gosh, I feel great."
"I'm right with you, Buddy," Jim answered. He lay on his tummy and for afew minutes they watched the tiny coil of smoke that rose in a waveringline from the fire, which was burning low. Austin did manage to throw ona few more sticks, that caught quickly, and crackled at a lively rate.
"Wonder what Bradshaw and his gang have been doing while we tanked up,"Bob remarked. "Wish we could have been in on the scrap."
"Wish we could, but we might have been in the way. If we had hung aroundthat ravine waiting for the fireworks, the chaps who were parked theremight have been warned and that would have spoiled the show," Jimreplied.
"Oh sure. By the noise they made, those chaps getting away may not haveheard our little play. Reckon, they beat it to their headquarters totell the other fellows. Seeing us again would have queered the party forthe Mounties," Bob agreed.
"Yes, a plane is sort of conspicuous. B
et that message told the Chief,whoever he is, to surround the ravine and get the outlaws while thegetting promised to be good."
"I saw one of those fellows pull out his gun. Gosh, they would have gotBradshaw if he had come riding right into their arms."
"It would have been some scrap, you bet. Bradshaw's no slouch."
"Not a bit. Wish he could come and see us at Cap Rock. Say, with Pat tohelp him, he's better off than if he were twins, or two policemen," Boblaughed as he thought of the efficient pony. "Some horse. Glad he's gota good master."
"You bet." They rested comfortably, and at last Jim broke the silenceagain. "Gosh, Buddy, remember that story of the brothers who watched thesmoke go up the chimney?"
"Surely. I was just thinking about them. The Montgolfier boys. They werewatching the fire and the smoke go up the chimney, and that set theirbrains to working and they wondered why the smoke went up. Queer isn'tit when you think that a little thing like that happening around onehundred and thirty years ago, should develop into air travel!" Bobglanced toward Her Highness affectionately.
"She doesn't look much like the paper bags they made their firstexperiments with, does she?"
"I'll say she doesn't, nor the balloons that came a few years later.Gosh, I'm glad we don't live at a time when people were so ignorant thatthey thought everything new was a devil of some kind," Bob replied.
"We'd be in a nice fix if we got shot at or stabbed with pitch forksevery time we came down. But, even at that, Jim, there are places in theworld where the people are mighty savage. Dad says in some of the SouthAmerican provinces they've never been able to conquer all the tribes, orcivilize them. They are almost the same as they were when Columbuslanded, and will fill a chauffeur full of poison arrows if they see acar driving through their land."
"Great horns. I'd like to go sailing over some of those places sometime. Lindbergh must have seen some mighty interesting places when hewent cutting air-paths over Mexico."
"He sure did. And isn't he the grand lad for keeping his eyes open andhis wits about him?" Keen admiration for the Lone Eagle silenced themfor a while, then Bob reached out and took a triangle of chocolate cake.
"I'll divvy up."
"You needn't." Jim made himself another sandwich. "Don't know where mylunch is disappearing, but I find I have a little vacant space whichneeds fueling." At that they both sat up, made a second attack on thefood, but finally were compelled to stop.
"We may as well be soaring along," Jim proposed.
"Let's go over Canada and see if we can see any of the smoke from theravine," Bob suggested eagerly.
"All right. You want to drive?"
"You bet, and you watch for the scrap." They packed the remains of thefood in the basket, stored it into the cock-pit, poured water over theembers of their fire and cleaned the spot with a piece of dry pinebrush, then gave Her Highness an inspection.
"Great old bird," Bob chuckled when they were sure that all was well."She did a good job this morning." He took his place and Jim occupiedthe passenger seat prepared to be the observer.
A moment later Her Highness ran along the plateau, lifted her nose intothe air, then climbed for all she was worth while Jim examined the earthbeneath them. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the roar of theengine was a startling contrast to the calm forest they had just left.Caldwell watched his controls as they raced at three thousand footheight. Jim thoroughly enjoyed the inspection and occasionally made anote of something especially interesting, and often called his buddy'sattention to the rolling globe. In less than an hour they were over thepost where they had dropped the message, but if anyone was inside theshack, they did not come out to examine them. Then Bob turned sharplynorth, and soon they were about ten miles beyond the edge of the ravineand the place where they had stopped the Mounty.
"Slack up a bit and go south," Jim suggested through the speaking tube.
"All right," Bob agreed. He kicked the rudder, Her Highness circled,proceeded at a slower speed, and presently the spot in which they wereso keenly interested, jumped into the lenses. At first glance it was asdeserted as before, then Jim saw a coil of smoke rolling up into thewind. Concentrating with all his attention, he saw that some sort ofshack was on fire, and just below the burning building, was a blackenedspot that had been swept bare by the blaze. A couple of puffs snappedout from down the ravine, and a volley of answering shots spat viciouslyfrom the other end.
"The fight's still on, Buddy," Jim bellowed, and Bob looked over theside. They were getting close enough now so that they could see thebattle fairly clearly, and they watched with tense interest. At one endthey made out the Canadian policemen closing in on the desperadoes, whoseemed to be sliding back behind a screen of brush they had dug up, andjust a few feet from them the wall of the ravine rose sharply cuttingoff their escape.
"They'll have them in a minute," Bob exclaimed excitedly. "Suppose theycan climb up that wall?"
"It looks pretty jagged to me, like tiers of boulders, but, zowee--ifthey do get up, there's a line of blue-coats waiting for them," Jimannounced, and he would have danced up and down with joy, if he hadn'tbeen strapped securely to the seat. Bob paid strict attention to hisbusiness, then, as the attack was started, he decided it would be noharm to circle about and see the finish of the fight. He knew that hisbrother would be in accord with the plan, so he proceeded to carry itout. He zoomed higher, kicked the rudder, raced the engine and was soonpounding at three thousand feet, where he leveled off for the ring, andstarted to fly so they had a grand view of the drama below. Jim kept hisglasses fixed on the gully, and as the position of Her Highness waschanged, he had a superior view of both sides of the maneuvers. Suddenlythe wall that cut off the criminals was directly in front of his gazeand he began to wonder about it. It seemed strange that men who wereprobably accustomed to protecting themselves and taking everyprecaution, should select a place where they could be so easily trapped.
"The Mounties must have given them a special surprise," he remarked tohimself, but just the same, that did not seem entirely possible. Itseemed to the boy that there must be a gang who used the ravine as ahangout, a means of slipping into the United States or Canada wheneverthey wanted to, and they would need quite a force of men in order tokeep themselves well posted on the habits of the men who patrolled thelocation. Then it occurred to Jim that the outlaws might not have usedthe place long and had not had time to prepare hasty exits. But thatidea as it flashed through his brain did not seem at all plausible.
The boy remembered that Bradshaw had said the "gang" had beenparticularly successful in putting over every one of their schemes. Thatmeant they were taking no chances, and surely they would none of themlet themselves be backed against a high cliff where they were sure to bepicked off with the rifles of the Mounties if they tried to scale it,and run into the arms of other officers if they did manage to reach thetop. He studied the group of men firing furiously from behind the brushpile and rocks, then he wondered why the men on top did not fire down atthem. That was soon answered, for he saw that the edge was steep andsoft, and even as he watched, he saw a man slip. His companion grabbedhim by the arm and saved him from going over into the ravine. The slipdislodged a quantity of gravel and brush which slid down behind thedesperadoes. Two of them instantly whirled about ready to fire in casethey were attacked from the rear. There still remained a few rods to betraversed before they would reach the cliff, and another man glanced upat the plane and shook his fist.
"Shouldn't like to kill any of them, but I wish we had a few tear bombs,or some little thing like that to put them out of business," Jimlamented. He couldn't help feeling that although it looked as if theofficers would soon get their men, they must have some cards still uptheir sleeves.
"Say, Buddy," Bob bellowed, "There comes Pedro's covered wagon." Hepointed, and although Jim could not catch the words, he followed thedirection and had no difficulty in picking out the highly colored truckwhich was moving forward slowly along a road that looked as if it wasused
very little. It was about a mile from the ravine in an especiallyisolated section and Jim's eyes swept the vicinity as he thought thatthe huckster must be nearing his own home, but there wasn't a house formiles, and as near as the boy could make out, the road meandered alongand finally slowed down near a dilapidated old rail fence which mightmark an ancient boundary, or surround a pasture. Rocks and brush werepiled above it, and as the boy looked, he saw that the truck stopped.
"Perhaps the old guy has heard the shooting," he thought, but if Pedrodid, he gave no sign of either assisting or investigating. Instead hedismounted with agility, with some sort of huge bundle in his arms, andin a moment he was standing on the rim of the wagon bed. It took but amoment for Jim to realize that the man was throwing a canvas of darkgreen material over the brilliant truck.
"Bob, look," he bellowed. His step-brother, who had been giving hisattention to the plane, glanced over and ahead, and his lips pursed upin a long drawn out whistle. By this time, which was really only a fewminutes, Her Highness had passed over the end of the ravine, so Bobzoomed again, banked, and came about. He didn't propose to missanything. In that brief interval, the red and blue truck had been turnedinto a green one so like the forest surrounding it that it could hardlybe picked out. Jim saw Pedro take his seat again, then move forward away until he reached a wide spot where he turned around.
"That old boy isn't all he pretends to be," the boy muttered. He wouldhave liked to watch the "old boy" but he wanted to know what was goingon in the ravine. He saw that the bandits were stretched in rows, onlytwo men in the one nearest the blazing shack, while the Mounties weremaking their way forward cautiously. As Jim watched, he saw the rear rowof outlaws slide swiftly back, then one of them disappeared under arock. Another followed quickly, while the men in front continued to firerapidly, as if to cover the fact that there were fewer men at the guns.
"Great Caesar's ghost. They've got an outlet there and are going to getaway under the ground," Jim shouted, but he couldn't make Bob hear andhe didn't want to take his eyes off the event even for an instant.Quickly he swept the country-side for a cave entrance, and then, in amoment, he picked it up. A man emerged stealthily, raced through thewoods, and came out close to Pedro and his camouflaged truck.
"By gum and thunder," Jim exploded.