The Boy Aviators in Record Flight; Or, The Rival Aeroplane

A light breeze also sprang up, but instead of being cooling it was as hot as if it had blown from an oven door.

“We’re in for a storm,” remarked Frank, “or I’m very much mistaken.”

“What, a regular rain and wind storm?” asked Harry. “I thought they only had those in the hills in this part of the country.”

“They have a worse thing than that,” said Frank apprehensively, “a sand storm, and that’s what may be coming.”

“McArthur doesn’t seem to be worrying,” remarked Harry, glancing up at the dirigible, which was sailing slightly above them.

“No,” said Frank, “that’s a fact. Maybe I am mistaken, after all. Anyhow, we’ll keep on as long as he does.”

But half an hour later the boys wished they had alighted. The wind came in sharp, hot puffs from the north, and had it not been for the Joyce gyroscopic balancer they carried, the ship would have been in hard straits. As it was, when Frank wished to make a landing he dared not risk it. The air, too, grew so thick that he could not see the earth beneath them.

Stinging particles of sand drove into their eyes, blinding them and gritting between their teeth. The wind grew stronger, and as it did so the air grew black as night with the sand with which it was impregnated.

So dark was it, in fact, that when night came and found them still in the air, unable to make a landing, there did not seem to be any perceptible difference.

The aeroplane drove rigidly before the howling wind. Her speed was terrific. Neither boy spoke after their first expressions of alarm, but devoted their entire attentions to keeping the aeroplane from capsizing.

“Keep cool, Harry,” said Frank at length. “We may come out of it all right.”

“Where are we being driven?” asked the other lad.

“To the south at a terrific pace, too. If the gasolene holds out we may manage to live out the storm, but I don’t know where we will be driven to.”

“What lies to the south of us?” asked Harry, after another long pause, during which the storm-stressed aeroplane made several sickening lurches, always recovering herself in time, however, thanks to the gyroscope.

“Why, about as desolate a country as can be imagined. Nothing but arid wastes and cactus.”

“It will be a bad lookout, then, if we have to land there.”

“It certainly will,” was the laconic response.

On and on through the darkness drove the storm-tossed aeroplane, carrying her two young navigators into the unknown.

CHAPTER XXVII.

WINNING THE PRIZE. —Conclusion

It was at four o’clock in the morning by the auto clock affixed to the chassis that Frank noticed the wind begin to drop. At the same time the stinging of the sand decreased perceptibly. The storm was waning.

He awakened Harry, who had fallen into a troubled doze, and gave him the cheering news. But even if the storm had blown itself out with the coming of daylight there was not much else to cheer the boys’ hearts, for as it grew lighter and the air cleared and they found themselves able to make out what was beneath them, Harry uttered an exclamation of dismay:

“Look there!” he shouted, pointing downward.

The aeroplane was traveling over a gray waste which Frank at once realized was the sea. The question was: Was it the open ocean or the Gulf of California? It did not seem possible it could be the Pacific as, even at the terrific pace they had been carried along in the preceding twelve hours, it seemed hardly possible that they could have been blown across the long peninsula of Lower California.

On either hand, they could make out, as the light grew stronger, a thin, faint line of coast, and therefore Frank’s surmise was proven correct. The boys decided to make for the land on their left, as Frank had heard that the natives of the peninsula itself were little better than savages, and not overpleased to see strangers. The land to the left on the contrary must be Mexico, where they could probably find a railroad or at least the means of transportation to one.

It was afternoon when they drew near to the coast. Not far inland they could see among the barren hills, dotted here and there with cattle, a small village. It was a mere huddle of roofs, but at least it meant food and shelter, and the boys relied on being able to find a telegraph station from which they could send out a message to relieve the anxiety of the friends they knew must be extremely concerned for their safety by this time.

Suddenly as the outlines of the melancholy-looking hills grew plainer and plainer the engine, which had been working badly, gave symptoms of stopping altogether.

The boys exchanged worried looks. Beneath them was an expanse of water without a boat on its surface, and though both of them were strong swimmers, they could not dream of reaching the shore should their aeroplane plunge downward.

It was a serious situation.

Harry tinkered with the engine, and it began to run a little better for a short time, but soon began to gasp and cough, as if in mortal distress.

“What can be the matter with it?” puzzled Harry. “Everything, ignition, lubrication and all seems to be all right.”

“I have it,” suddenly cried Frank.

“What is it?”

“The gasolene is running out!”

Sure enough there was hardly more than a few spoonfuls of the fuel left.

“There’s some alcohol in the locker. We had it for the stove. Let’s try that,” suggested Harry.

The alcohol was dumped into the tank and gave them a little more fuel, but the shore still looked far away.

Lower and lower sagged the aeroplane under her decreased speed, till as they reached the shore it seemed that she was hardly skimming the waves, but she bravely struggled on, and as the engine gave a final gasp and came to an abrupt stop, the Golden Eagle settled down on a sandy beach.

“Well, here we are,” said Frank, “and none too soon.”

“Now, let’s go and see what sort of folks they are in that village,” said Harry. “I’m famished, and my mouth is as parched as a bit of dried orange peel.”

“Same here,” said Frank, as the boys set out for the interior which was hidden from them by sand dunes, topped with a sort of sharp bladed grass that cut like a knife.

The village they found to be a mere collection of shacks, with pigs roaming about its streets, and skinny cattle poking their noses into the house doors. They were received hospitably enough, however, and although they could not talk Spanish, managed to make their wants understood, more especially when they showed some gold.

The wonder of the villagers knew no bounds when, after they had refreshed themselves, the boys showed them the aeroplane and pointed to the sky. The Mexicans were too polite to say so, but it was clear that they thought the boys were fabricators, though how they imagined they had landed in their village was a matter of speculation.

That night they managed to secure a cart and, having packed the Golden Eagle, set out for the railroad, which the Mexicans assured them was “far, far away,” as a matter of fact, it was not more than sixty miles, and the next day, late in the evening, two very dusty, very ragged, very tired boys got out of the plodding ox cart at Torres, a small town on the Sonora Railroad, and almost frightened the native operator to death by their vehement demands to file messages.

“To-morrow, to-morrow,” he kept saying, but the talisman of a good, big tip kept him at work.

In the meantime the auto had gone as far adrift in the sand storm as the boys, very nearly, and the state of mind of its occupants can be imagined when they found after the storm had cleared that they had traveled miles in the wrong direction and were near to Gila Bend on the Southern Pacific Railway, with no more idea as to what had become of their young companions than they had of the direction in which the aeroplane had been blown.

Telegrams were sent out broadcast by Billy and Lathrop, but no news was had of the Golden Eagle. Lathrop suggested sending word east of the boys’ plight, but Billy overruled this.

“They may turn up all right,” he said, “and if they do, we shall have alarmed their parents for nothing.”

The next day, however, while Frank and Harry were plodding across Mexico in their ox cart, Billy became so anxious that he sent word to the Planet, asking them to notify him at once if word was heard of the boys, as he knew that they would wire the paper as soon as they landed anywhere. No word had been received by the paper, however, and it was a gloomy party that sat on the porch of the little hotel at Gila Bend that afternoon and evening. After a troubled sleep Billy emerged onto the street in the early morning and was met by a ragged station agent.

“Be your name Barnes?” he asked.