The Flying Boys to the Rescue

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

“He hasn’t been here for several days and when he does come he has powerful little to say.”

Harvey did not show that he knew this reply was a falsehood. The inventor had been in the house the night before and learned of the presence of the young aviator without his machine. It remained for the latter to make him think his attempt at deception was successful. What surer method could there be than the one Harvey was following?

His next inquiry was as to the trains from the railway station at Beelsburg, a dozen miles away. The stage did not leave until early in the afternoon and generally an hour’s wait was necessary before a passenger could start southward. Harvey proposed to hire a conveyance, which if it made fair progress could intercept a train that passed at noon. When the landlord named the charge for the services of such a team, the guest accepted off-hand and hurried to his room to bring down his traveling bag. He encountered daughter Ann in the hall, to whom he told his purpose. It was safer not to enlighten her as to his real intention, since nothing could be gained by doing so and she would be likely to drop some remark to her “paw” that would disclose Harvey’s scheme. So with a friendly good-bye, he added to his former tip and scurried down stairs, where he had to wait only a few minutes when the open carriage drawn by a gaunt, bony horse drew up and he climbed in. The driver was a youth of about his own age, and a sort of hostler and man of all work. Harvey never met a more grouchy person. It was hard to make him say yes or no to a question, and the passenger gave it up, after letting him know he was on his way to his own home a good many miles distant.

None the less, the fellow knew his business and landed his charge at the station half an hour ahead of train time. Harvey slipped a silver half dollar into his hand and he did not so much as speak or nod, but circled around, struck his rangy animal a whack with his splintered whip and faded from sight in a cloud of dust.

Most of Harvey’s time on his way home was spent in studying an elaborate map of the Adirondack region, northern New York, and the lower portion of the Dominion of Canada. His interest in this work and his retentive memory caused him to absorb knowledge rapidly and soon he began to feel more familiar with the region than he had believed possible without months of exploration.

“If I ever get through with this job I think I’ll hire out as a guide for hunters in the Adirondacks. I’m told some of them are paid big wages. It’s odd that Dick should be somewhere up there and it will be a good deal more odd if he and I should meet. I forget what part of the country he dated his letters from and it isn’t likely he stays long in one place. Won’t he be astonished if I drop down on him some fine day from the sky?”

It was on the following afternoon that Harvey Hamilton appeared again at his home near the village of Mootsport. A disappointment met him. He expected as a matter of course that his father would be in New York, but he learned that his mother and sister had accompanied him thither that morning. Harvey went to the house of Mr. Hartley, but he too was absent for the day. The caller explained everything to the wife of the farmer and she promised to transfer the information to the others that evening. To make sure on this point Harvey wrote a letter to his parents in which he told all that had occurred with him since his previous departure. He laid this missive on his fathers table in the library, said a few parting words to the servants, and then hurried out to the hangar to bring his aeroplane into service.

“I expect big things of you,” he said as he carefully examined wires, ribs, engine, ailerons, propeller, rudders and every part down to the minutest detail. “It won’t do to have any defect, which reminds me.”

He ran to the house again and furnished himself with an outfit of the most modern fishing tackle.

“There’s no saying when I may need it. If I should be lost in the Adirondack wilderness, I might have to depend upon what I can take from the lakes and streams. It won’t do any harm too to add to my stock of safety matches.”