“The guard had to stop a man who was trying to get away,” explained Timms. “I’ve been suspecting one of the motor mechanics for some time of sabotage and only ten minutes ago saw him sneak out of the control room door. A second later one of the doors started to open and I knew what he had been up to. I saw you coming to shut off the power and I took after this fellow. He knew he’d have to make a quick get-away and he tried to get past the guard line.”
“Did he refuse to stop?” asked Bert.
“Not only that,” replied the secret service chief, “but he attempted to shoot and the guard fired, but he wasn’t seriously wounded.”
“I can’t feel very sorry for him,” said Andy, “when I think of the half dozen men, on top of the door, he almost killed. If the door had run to the end of its track with the power still on it would have ripped away from its fastenings and perhaps have crushed an end of the hangar.”
“Which is exactly what this chap wanted,” added Timms. “I’ve got a little leather packet here in which he carried some secret papers. We’ll have a look at them.”
The name on the leather folder was that of Cliff Bolton, a common enough American name, but the secret service man and Andy and Bert were in for a surprise when they examined the contents. Documents there showed the true name of the spy to have been Boris Dubra, an agent of the dreaded Rubanian Gerka, whose reputation for unscrupulous methods was known even in Bellevue.
“This puts a new angle on the whole case,” said Timms gravely. “Of course you know that Alex Reikoff, dictator of Rubania, is determined that his air force shall be the most powerful in the world. Until just now we hadn’t discovered a single Rubanian agent trying to get through the lines but it certainly looks as though Reikoff is definitely interested in the Goliath, all of which means we will have to redouble our vigilance.”
“But why should Reikoff have designs against the Goliath?” asked Bert.
“It’s a long story,” replied the secret service chief, “but to boil it down it means that he plans to make Rubania a world power through the development of a great air force. When his planes and dirigibles are the peer of anything else in the world, he will strike out for world power.”
“Which would mean another war,” said Andy quietly.