CHAPTER XXIII
BOMBED BY ROCKS
Our friends had landed in the lowlands just to the north of Colombo,whose scattered buildings contained upwards of a hundred thousandinhabitants, most of whom were native Singhalese, descendants of thecolonists who came from the valley of the Ganges and settled the islandfive hundred years before the birth of Christ. To the southward arosethe rocky headlands of the coast, and to the westward could be seen thesomber peak of Pedrotallagalla, the highest mountain of the island.Numerous ships, some very crude and with queer sails, were in theharbor as the boys landed, and scores of natives in short skirts wereloading and unloading these. Undoubtedly the huge square boxes whichsome of them carried aboard so easily upon their heads contained tea,for which Ceylon is famous.
The person in charge of the landing-field here was a Mr. Young, anAmerican clergyman connected with the local Baptist mission. This tallgentleman came forward, accompanied by the British governor of theisland, within a few moments after the flyers struck the ground. Infact, they were still stretching their cramped legs and arms when hegreeted them and introduced the governor, Sir Henry Hurst.
"Young men, I am more than delighted to shake hands with you," said thegovernor. "It looks as if you and the other crew over yonder were uponan epoch-making tour, for you are not ten minutes behind your schedule,as we have it in the London papers and also in our own Colombiannewspaper. My only regret is that you do not represent England insteadof America." He laughed good-naturedly as he made the last remark.
"It was quite a task for the governor and myself to get up at thisearly hour to receive you, but the occasion is well worth the effort,"observed Mr. Young, smiling. "Here we usually sleep very late, oftenas late as nine o'clock. Even the Singhalese and Burghers are not yetgenerally up from their beds, though those who work at the wharves haveappeared. If you had arrived a few hours later there would bethousands of the population here to see you."
"We are well satisfied with the hour, then," said John. "The fewernatives we have around the Sky-Bird, the better we like it, both forworking and taking off. How long has that other crew been in, sir?"
"Not more than a half-hour. They are taking on their fuel now, beingassisted by a couple of Burghers. They advised us that they wouldprobably remain here until noon, being tired from their long flightfrom Aden. I don't know; why, but the slender man with the dark skinand mustache particularly requested me to see that you knew thisintention of theirs."
The flyers thought this was rather strange. Why should the _Clarion's_crew remain so long in Colombo, when their interests in the racedemanded as much time put into flying as possible? It was still moreincomprehensible what object they would have in wishing the Sky-Bird'sflyers to understand this intention, as by so doing our boys could maketheir plans to gain a heavy lead.
It was too much of a puzzle for them to work out, so Bob and Paul,aided by two Burghers (naturalized Europeans), went to work overhaulingthe machine and storing fuel, while John and Tom made their way intotown with Sir Henry Hurst to transact their business. When theyreturned they found the two younger members of their crew in a heateddiscussion with the _Clarion_ fellows.
"What's the matter here, anyhow?" demanded John, as he and Tom pushedtheir way through the little ring of natives who had gathered about theprincipals.
"It's just this way," said Pete Deveaux, with a grin meant to be verycool and indifferent, although his eyes roved uneasily; "We fellowswere working on our machine here, minding our own business, when thesetwo kids of yours came up and demanded to know why we had played youdirty at Freetown and Kuka. They accused us of purposely carrying offyour share of fuel at Freetown, and of stirring up the natives at Kukaso you couldn't make a safe landing."
"We simply couldn't stand keeping quiet any longer, John," put in Paulvery heatedly. "We thought it a good time to have it out with thesefellows for their crookedness."
"That's right; they're a bunch of snakes!" supported Bob, his cheeksred with excitement and anger, and his fists doubled menacingly.
John turned to the slouching figures of the rival crew. "Do youfellows deny these charges?" he asked quietly.
Crossman, Torrey, and Lane looked at their leader, merely shruggingtheir shoulders. Pete Deveaux took a quick glance in their direction,in turn. Then his face clouded a little darker, and he blurted out tohis men: "You confounded babies, why don't you deny it? You know wedidn't do anything on purpose to hold these guys back!"
"That's right; we sure didn't," said Sam Lane.
"Of course not," added Chuck Crossman.
"Wouldn't think of it," interjected Oliver Torrey.
Our boys were disgusted by the cringing attitude of Pete Deveaux'scronies. Two of them were larger than the Frenchman, yet they seemedto be afraid of him. John saw that nothing was to be gained at thistime by continuing the argument, so he pulled his comrades away withthis parting and significant warning to their rivals: "Well, Deveaux,we'll let this drop now; but we certainly hope that you will take painsto see that nothing more of so strongly a suspicious character occurson this trip!"
Pete Deveaux snarled back some answer which they could not make out.
Our friends returned to the Sky-Bird. In a few minutes Bob, who hadclimbed on top of the fuselage to test the helium valves, came down andsaid: "Something new is going on over in our neighbor's yard, fellows.When I was up there I could see right over the natives' heads, and Inoticed Chuck Crossman and Pete Deveaux hunting around the field tillthey found half-a-dozen rocks as big as a football, and they put thesein the cabin of the _Clarion_. Wonder what on earth they intend to dowith those?"
"It's too hard a nut for me to crack," answered John.
The others expressed equal inability to discern the purpose of theirrivals, and the incident was soon forgotten.
But twenty minutes later the familiar roar of a revolving airplanepropeller greeted their ears, and they were surprised to observe the_Clarion_ rising up over the field. They watched the machine until ithad disappeared in the cloud mists to the east. Then they awoke.
All saw the game of their rivals now. By making the Sky-Bird's crewbelieve they did not intend to leave until noon, the latecomers wouldbe inclined to take their time fitting up for the next hop, and thiswould give the _Clarion's_ party a chance to make a sudden exit andgain a good lead before the others could get under way.
There was no getting around it--Pete Deveaux was clever, if he were arascal. This our friends had to admit to themselves, despite theirdislike of the fellow. His methods of getting the best of them seemedto have no limit; and yet thus far they had been able to cling, by thehardest kind of work, right at his heels. This last trick was morehonest strategy than Deveaux had exhibited before, and they couldtherefore admire it in that sense. They hoped that from now on hismaneuvers might be as free from maliciousness.
But their rivals had not fooled them as badly as they thought. Ourflyers had lost no time upon landing in refitting, and when they sawthe _Clarion_ take off, they speeded up operations so fast that theywere able to depart only fifteen minutes later.
Almost straight eastward they headed, bearing just a little to thesouthward, so as to strike Singapore on a bee-line. They hoped toreach this stop some time before dark, which would give themapproximately twelve hours' flying time. Under ideal weatherconditions, they could make the journey in considerably less time, butit was the season for the well-known monsoons of the Indian Ocean, andit was quite unlikely that they would be able to wing their way acrossthe fourteen hundred odd miles of sea without encountering some ofthese deterrent trade-winds.
It took them just an hour to cross the island of Ceylon, and flying atabout fifteen hundred feet, they winged their way out over thewhitecaps of the ocean. To their unspeakable pleasure they found thewinds not at all bad, and made good speed. Bob was at the throttle,Paul was observing, and John and Tom were sleeping.
They had been flying thus for perhaps two hours,
when Paul saw that forwhich he had been keenly watching for some time. It was a faint blackspeck, like a tiny bird, against the blue of the heavens ahead of them.He continued to watch this silently, after calling his chum's attentionto it, until, under an increase of speed, the Sky-Bird had drawn closeenough for them to observe that it was what they suspected--an airplane.
In another hour they were near enough to recognize in it theunmistakable outlines of the _Clarion_. To all appearances theirrivals had also observed them, and were crowding on power, for now theygained much slower. Yet they still continued to narrow the breachbetween them, steadily, rod by rod, and minute by minute. They couldsee that the _Clarion_ was not well handled, for she wavered in herflight considerably.
"They'd be wise if they'd throw those rocks out which they tookaboard," commented Paul. "That might help them to fly steadier."
"They're flying all of a thousand feet higher than we are," said Bob."We're going to pass under them, I think, in the next half-hour."
That was the way matters looked. The | _Clarion_ was riding high, andwas so close by this time that the windows in her cabin could be madeout. Against those panels of glass our friends felt sure some of therival crew were even at that moment pressing anxious faces as theywatched the Sky-Bird steadily creeping up on them.
It was such an auspicious moment that Paul went and aroused John andTom, so that they could see the Sky-Bird overtake and pass heradversary. Those two worthies grumbled a whole lot for a few moments,being half asleep, but when they grasped the situation and saw the_Clarion_ just ahead, they were as much interested as anybody.
Slowly, surely the Sky-Bird overtook the rival machine. When it seemedher nose was almost up to the tail of the _Clarion_, they saw amovement in the bottom of the fuselage of the craft above them, whereher trapdoor of glass was situated in the floor of the cabin. Thensomething gray streaked down through the air. It went whizzing by justin front of the Sky-Bird, and a few moments later plunged into the seawith a great splash.
"Huckleberry pie!" ejaculated Tom Meeks, "one of their rocks has burstthrough their floor trap. Say, that was a close call for us!"
"Watch out! Here comes another!" cried Paul, as a second gray missilewent by them on the other side.
Barely had it struck the waters beneath, when a third rock came soclose that they could feel the rush of air as it passed downward. Itwas as if they were being bombarded by an enemy above, who used greatstones instead of explosives. Their faces paled when the truth struckthem like a thunderbolt. With calm deliberation, deadly intent, and askill born of dropping bombs on targets during the war, some of thefellows in the machine above were trying to wreck the Sky-Bird with therocks they had gathered in the field back in Ceylon!
"Quick, Bob!" cried John to their pilot. "Swerve out from under thesedevils as fast as you can! If another stone comes down here, it may--"
The words he intended to say never were uttered. At that very momentanother gray object streaked its way down through the heavens, whirlinguglily. They thought sure it would strike the cabin roof and crashthrough, and intuitively they cowered back in the corners forprotection.
But their speed carried the stone farther to the rear. There was atearing, rending sound.
Their faces blanched. And then Bob called out: "Hi, fellows,something's gone wrong! The Sky-Bird's bound to put her nose into thesea. The tail elevators don't work!"
Around the World in Ten Days Page 24