CHAPTER XXII--"GO!"
"Andy!" shouted John Parks in a transport of amazement.
"It's me," panted Andy, running up to his employer and pointing atTyrrell. "Mr. Parks, stop that man. He's a traitor; he's a villain!"
Tyrrell had heard and seen Andy. He gave a great start. Then he made amove as if to hasten aboard the airship and get out of his way. Mr.Morse and the Japanese hastened forward. The men guiding the aeroplanestared hard at the newcomer.
"Andy, what do you mean?" demanded Mr. Parks, lost in wonderment.
"Just what I say. Don't let him get aboard."
"Hold on, Tyrrell," ordered the aeronaut.
"We'll lose the start," spoke Tyrrell hurriedly.
"Don't you get aboard."
"No, sah; yo' just obey Mistah Parks, suh," interposed Scipio, laying agreat hindering hand on the arm of Tyrrell.
"I have been a prisoner in the Duske camp since yesterday," explainedAndy, catching his breath. "This man Tyrrell came there last night. Heis in the employ of Duske."
"What!" shouted Parks, his face growing dark.
"It's true, Mr. Parks," asseverated Andy. "They are in a plot to burnthe _Racing Star_ and have you lose the prize."
"Do you hear what this boy says?" thundered the aeronaut, moving down onTyrrell with threatening mien.
"It's--it's not true," declared Tyrrell, but turning pale, shrinkingback, and looking about him for a chance to run.
"If you don't believe me," cried Andy, "search him."
Scipio held Tyrrell's arm in a viselike clasp. Parks ran his hand overhis clothing. He drew from his pocket a parcel done up in ahandkerchief. Mr. Morse took it, opened it, and revealed a bottle filledwith some substance like kerosene, a small box of matches and some lint.Quick as a flash the hand of the aeronaut shot out for the throat ofTyrrell.
"You treacherous scoundrel!" he shouted.
Boom!
"The third gun! They're off, Mr. Parks," cried Andy. "Oh, don't let the_Racing Star_ miss it."
"What can I do?"
"Send me. Men, get ready. Mr. Parks, I'll win this race!"
Andy was in no trim physically or in attire to attempt the race. At aglance the aeronaut saw this. But our hero was irresistible. He rantowards the machine, and with nimble movements he glided among theplanes and reached the operator's seat. Already the other airships weresailing skywards.
"Go!" shouted Andy.
Upon the operator's seat lay the skull cap and goggles, ready forTyrrell, and Andy hastily donned them. He heard the voice of Parks, nowas excited as himself, giving orders, a tacit consent to make the start.
There was a run of scarcely a hundred feet along the grass. Andy placeda firm hand on the wheel. Then came a series of curves and sweepingarcs, which kept the crowd of spectators turning first one way and thenthe other in entranced silence.
The young aviator followed the popping of the motors of the contestantmachines. One was fast becoming a mere speck in the sky.
"The _Moon Bird_, Duske's machine," murmured Andy.
It seemed poised in the air without motion, so direct was its course, sotrue its mechanism. Two of the other airships had already descended, oneof them wrecked and out of the race. The forty-foot mechanical bird, theDuske machine, however, had made the lead and kept it.
The climax came in Andy's preliminary ascent. Now the _Racing Star_,light and dainty as a lark, mounted with amazing speed. A glance atthree of the airships convinced Andy that they were too faulty to make arecord. The _Moon Bird_, however, was a marvel. From what he had heardMr. Parks say, Duske had been an expert balloonist, and he now showedamazing ability in the aviation line. He seemed to be putting the stolenairship idea to marked advantage.
Andy struck a level about fifteen hundred feet in the air. There was ahead wind, but it was not strong. Andy put on fine speed gradually. The_Racing Star_ passed two of the contestants, and, fully in action, hedrove keen on the trail of the _Moon Bird_.
The train that acted as a pilot with an American flag on its last car,Andy kept in view as a guide. When they came to Lake Clear, the _MoonBird_ did not follow the rounding land course, nor did Andy. Lake Clearwas a shallow body of water, but of considerable extent, and dotted hereand there with little islands.
Suddenly the _Moon Bird_, a machine of good utility, but, as Andy knew,of little lasting power, made a decided spurt, passed the _Racing Star_,and at a distance of half a mile got fairly abreast of the lake. It washere that Duske met his Waterloo. Hitherto he had maintained practicallya steady course. More than once Andy had got near enough to this rivalto hear the loud gasping of the tube exhausts drown out the sharpchug-chug of the motor. Suddenly Duske made a sharp turn.
An appalling climax followed. In consternation and suspense Andy watchedaerial evolutions that fairly dizzied him.
"He is lost!" breathed Andy, a-thrill.
In an instant he recalled what Mr. Morse had told him of the unfinishedmodel that Duske and his crowd had stolen from him. The inventor hadexplained to Andy that while the suction principle involved in therudder construction was unique and bound to increase speed, there shouldhave been added automatic caps to close the rear ends of the suctiontubes where a curve was attempted.
Of this Duske evidently knew nothing. The moment he turned the machine,however, there was a whirl. The aeroplane described a dive, then asomersault. Its lateral planes collapsed, and, tipping from side toside, it began to descend with frightful velocity.
Once it half righted, balanced, went over again, and, fifty feet fromthe ground, shot clear of a little islet, and went down in the water ofthe lake, a wreck, first spilling Duske out.
"He is killed or stunned!" exclaimed Andy.
The boy aviator saw the other airships forging ahead, indifferent to theaccident. Minutes counted in the sixty-mile race to Springfield and backto the starting point, but Andy was humane. He saw clearly that, ifalive, the half-submerged Duske would be suffocated in a few minutes'time.
"I can't leave him to die," murmured Andy, and sent the _Racing Star_ ona sharp slant, landing on the island.
Andy was soon out of the airship. He waded to the spot where Duske lay,and dragged him bodily up on dry land. As he turned him on his face,Andy knew from its purple hue, the lifeless limbs and choked gasps ofthe man, that another minute in the water would have been his last.
A boat put out from the mainland where a crowd of spectators waswatching the race. Four men jumped out as the island was reached.
"Take care of this man," ordered Andy.
"You're a pretty fair fellow to risk losing the race to save acompetitor," spoke one of the men heartily.
He and his companions followed Andy's instructions the best they couldin starting the _Racing Star_, and Andy shot skywards again, making upfor lost time.
Airship Andy; Or, The Luck of a Brave Boy Page 22