The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune

“What, in that sky schooner of yours?” Dr. Perkins nodded.

“Yes, we must get him on deck without further loss of time. Then we’ll rush him to a hospital.”

“The good Lord who sent you here bless you!” exclaimed the rugged old fisherman, affected almost to tears. “I never thought when I seen you away up thar in ther sky that you’d bother to notice the poor Star of Gloucester; but you did. You come down from the clouds like so many angels.”

“Funny-looking angels,” remarked Frank to Harry, in an undertone. But Captain Zebedee’s gratitude was so heartfelt and earnest that neither of the boys could find it in them to smile at his odd phrases.

Captain Zebedee summoned some of his crew from the deck and as tenderly as possible the injured man was conveyed from the cabin. This done, he was lowered into the Sea Eagle and laid on a pile of blankets already prepared for his reception.

“Better make for Bayhaven,” counseled Captain Zebedee; “there’s a good hospital there, and it lies right on the coast about in a straight line from here.”

Dr. Perkins nodded, and then, having seen that the injured man was in a position to endure the ride comfortably, the flight to the shore was begun; but not till a substantial amount of provisions and some fresh water had been supplied to the fishing smack. As the Sea Eagle took to the air the Star of Gloucester was set before the wind, and staggered off on her slow course once more. The last the boys saw of the clumsy fisherman, the stout figure of Captain Zebedee was leaning on the stern bulwarks waving to them as they winged shoreward.

The coast was a rocky one, with gaunt cliffs and few habitations. But as they reached it and flew low above a small house on the summit of the cliffs, they spied a man at work in a small garden. Of him Frank inquired the way to Bayhaven. The man was too much astonished to answer at first, and stood looking stupidly up at the winged monster above him.

But finally he collected his wits and pointed to the south. The Sea Eagle was thereupon headed round, and, not long after, her passengers came in sight of a tiny town huddled in a cove almost at the water’s edge. Heading out seaward once more, Dr. Perkins dropped to the water in the harbor, and then at reduced speed ran the Sea Eagle up to the long wharf which jutted out at the foot of the little city’s main street.

By the time they arrived alongside of the jetty half the population of the town was on hand to greet them. Their approach through the air had been seen when they were still some distance off, and as the Sea Eagle was the first air ship ever seen in Bayhaven it may be imagined what a sensation Dr. Perkins’ craft created.

But all eager questioners were waved aside while Dr. Perkins and his young friends called for volunteers to help lift the injured man out of the Sea Eagle. A dozen willing hands responded, and before long the mate of the Star of Gloucester was on his way to the hospital in a wagon which had been hastily converted into an ambulance. It may be said here that, thanks to the prompt manner in which aid had been secured for him, the man recovered after a long illness, and was able to resume his work on Captain Zebedee’s ship, where he never tires of telling of how he was saved by an aërial ambulance.

Dr. Perkins accompanied his patient to the hospital, where he saw him comfortably settled. In the meantime Frank and Harry had been left on guard with the Sea Eagle, for the crowd had grown so large, and so curious, that it would not have been wise to have left the ship to the mercies of the inquisitive. The boys answered a perfect hailstorm of questions as good-naturedly as possible, but once or twice they had to use physical means to keep the younger element of the population of Bayhaven off the decks.

By the time Dr. Perkins returned they were heartily tired of their job, and hailed his proposal that they should go up to town and purchase a fresh supply of provisions, with much delight. Leaving Dr. Perkins to cope with the throng, the two boys, arm in arm, made their way through the press and set off for the main street, which sloped up from the wharf. One or two of the crowd followed them, gaping curiously at the youthful aërial voyagers. But the boys were too used to the curiosity of crowds to mind this, and before long their followers dropped back to gape at the great flying machine.

They found the town a small, uninteresting place. There were several shops, a hotel, with the usual group of loungers hanging about the porch, and further back a canning factory, which gave employment, in one way or another, to most of the inhabitants of Bayhaven. Beyond the hotel was a big “general store.” Entering it, the boys made a variety of purchases, and arranged that the goods should be shipped to the Sea Eagle as soon as possible.

They were just leaving the place when out of the dusk – for by this time it was getting late – there came a figure that caused both boys to come to a dead stop in petrified astonishment. As for the man who had caused their sudden stoppage he, for his part, appeared to be nonplussed for a second. But the next moment he turned and fairly ran out of the store.

“After him!” cried Frank; “it’s that rascal Duval!”

“That’s what!” cried Harry, no less excited.

Both boys, to the utter amazement of the storekeeper, who thought they had gone suddenly crazy, dashed out of the door of the emporium, and taking the steps outside in one jump they made off in the direction in which Duval, for there was no doubt it was he, had vanished. But as ill luck would have it, the cannery whistle had just blown for the cessation of the day’s work, and round the corner there streamed a big crowd of the employees.

It took the boys some time to work their way through the throng, for some of the men were inclined to tease them by stepping in their way and otherwise annoying them so that by the time they got through the crowd all hope of catching, or even sighting, Duval was gone.

Greatly disappointed, and almost as much mystified by their sudden encounter with the rascally Frenchman, the boys decided to turn back and go down to the Sea Eagle. On their way they discussed Duval’s sudden reappearance with interest.

“What can he be doing here?” wondered Harry.

“Blessed if I know,” was the rejoinder, “but I’ll bet he’s up to some mischief or other. My! How he ran when he saw us.”

“He had good reason to,” declared Harry; “I guess we’d have had him arrested if we’d ever caught him.”

“Not much doubt of that,” declared Frank; “we could have charged him with the theft of that boat, anyhow, and that would have held him in the custody of the authorities till we could have obtained further evidence.”

“Well, I don’t imagine we’ll see him again,” decided Harry, as they turned into the Main Street.

“No such luck,” declared Frank.

But, after all, the boys were to see Duval again, and sooner than they expected, too.

CHAPTER XIX. – PLUMBO FOUND WANTING

They were still talking in this vein when they reached the wharf. The crowd had, by this time, thinned out somewhat, and they made their way to the Sea Eagle without difficulty. They found Dr. Perkins talking with a most peculiar looking individual. He was long and lanky as a bean pole, and his thatch of bright red hair was crowned by a hat that a scarecrow might have disowned.

“Wonder who our new-found friend can be?” laughed Harry, as they clambered down a rough ladder to the Sea Eagle’s deck.

They soon found out. Dr. Perkins, it appeared, had decided to spend the night at Bayhaven, and had engaged quarters at the hotel which the boys had passed. The man with whom he was talking rejoiced in the name of Plumbo Boggs, and was a village character. However, he was honest, though not overmuch endowed with brains, and had been recommended to the inventor as a reliable man to leave in charge of the Sea Eagle.

Immediately Dr. Perkins had introduced this strange character, Plumbo broke out into rhymed speech which was a peculiarity of his. Some odd twist in his brain made it impossible for him to express himself in prose.

“I’m Plumbo Boggs of old Bayhaven; from harm your air ship I’ll be savin’,” quoth he, striking an attitude.

“Do you always talk that way?” inquired Frank.

“Yes; I’m a poet, though you didn’t know it,” was the response.

“Well, I don’t know that that will keep you from being a good watchman,” smiled Dr. Perkins.

“I’ll watch by day or I’ll watch by night; you’ll soon find that I’m all right,” was the quick response, while Plumbo’s blue, rather watery eyes, flashed feebly.

“That’s satisfactory. Mind, you are to let no one on board, under any pretext whatever.”

“Pretext is a word that I don’t understand; but I’ll keep them off though they come in a band,” rejoined Plumbo.

“How much will you do the job for?” asked Dr. Perkins.

“Two dollars will be my price to stay here; pay it and then no trouble you’ll fear.”

“I’ll agree to that,” said Dr. Perkins, “we are going uptown now. I’ll have your supper sent down to you and you are to remain here till you are relieved by us early to-morrow.”

“I’ll stay right here, watchful and steady; you’ll find me here when to go you’re ready,” declared Plumbo.

“And now that everything is well I guess we’ll start for the hotel,” said Frank, and not until both Dr. Perkins and Harry burst into a roar of laughter did he realize that he had caught the rhyming “infection” from the poetical Plumbo.

“Be sure and don’t forget my supper; I like pork and beans and bread and butter,” called Plumbo after them as they left the wharf, and he took up his vigil.

“An eccentric sort of character, but I guess he’ll take good care of the Sea Eagle while we’re gone,” said Dr. Perkins.

It was on the tip of Frank’s tongue to tell about their encounter with Duval; but the next instant he decided not to speak of it. Dr. Perkins had several important matters on his mind, and after all, the boy argued, Duval could not do them any harm now. After supper the editor of the local paper called round at the hotel to elicit from the aërial voyagers the story of their trip as far as it had gone. He was also correspondent for the Associated Press, he informed them. Dr. Perkins granted him a careful interview, in which he described part of their adventures, but was cautious not to reveal any of the details of the Sea Eagle’s construction. Shortly after the newspaperman had taken his departure the party retired, having left an early call for the morning, for it had been determined to get under way as soon as possible the next day.

Bayhaven retired early to its rest, and the streets were deserted when, soon after midnight, three men walked down the main street, taking care to keep in the shadows of the buildings as they proceeded. One of the men was Duval, and the others were the Daniels, father and son. Their presence in Bayhaven is soon explained.

As we know, the elder Daniels had offered to get money to finance the trip to the Black Bayou, and it was from relatives in Bayhaven that he calculated on getting it. The trio had arrived in the town the day before, and Daniels had promptly obtained the money as a loan, he having represented that the treasure was undoubtedly to be found in the long-forgotten wreck.

They had been on the streets the day before when the approach of the Sea Eagle was announced, and Duval instantly guessed that the oncoming air ship was the same that had rescued him and his employers from the illfated Wanderer. Neither the Daniels nor Duval himself knew anything of the destination of the Sea Eagle, nor did they guess for an instant that Harry Chester carried with him an exact duplicate of Duval’s stolen plan. But their evil natures prompted them to do all the harm they could to the party, and it was with this end in view that they were making their way down the badly lighted and deserted streets of Bayhaven at such an hour. Duval’s dislike of the boys had been roused to fever heat by their chase of him in the afternoon, and he was burning to do them some injury. From one of the elder Daniels’ relatives the rascals had learned that Dr. Perkins and his two young friends were registered at the hotel, leaving the Sea Eagle in charge of Plumbo. At once they had decided to visit the air ship and see what harm they could do it.