There was little to make in the way of addition to his former preparations. The same bag that he had brought home was taken away swelled to plumpness by indispensable articles, while his extra coat was folded and tied to the seat, behind him, where it could not be blown away by any gale or flurry of wind. He did not think it worth while to ask for help in making a start, for the long sloping meadow was perfect for that purpose. He followed his old plan of setting the propeller revolving, when he dashed alongside the moving machine, slipped into his seat, grasped the levers and was off.
It seems incredible, even with the science of aviation so well advanced, that starting from northern New Jersey, the young aviator should reach the Adirondack region before nightfall, but such was the fact. His first stop was at Poughkeepsie where he renewed his gasoline and oil, stretched his legs, made another minute examination of his machine and answered a few of the hundreds of questions that were asked by the ever-increasing swarm of people that gathered around him. They were as friendly and good-natured as they had been to Glenn Curtiss, who made his memorable flight from Albany to New York a short time before. When Harvey soared aloft once more, he carried with him the best wishes of the cheering scores whose conduct was in pleasing contrast to that of the young farmers in eastern Pennsylvania who were bent on destroying the aeroplane and became angered enough to try to add the young aviator himself to the wreck and ruin.
CHAPTER V.
BY AERIAL EXPRESS.
NO more glorious panorama ever enthralled a human spectator than that upon which the eyes of Harvey Hamilton feasted while gliding northward on his way to the Adirondack region. There were towns, cities, forests, streams, and expanses of woodland in his own State of New Jersey and the white-capped Atlantic rolling to the eastward, with steamers and sailing craft dotting its surface all the way to the horizon, where the Atlantic’s convexity dipped and the eye could penetrate no farther. The second greatest city in the world spread out below him, with smaller ones continually rising and sinking from view as he coursed up the Hudson valley, sometimes to the right, then to the left and again straight over the picturesque stream whose crafts of all kinds were hieing away from or to the metropolis. Absorbed as was the young aviator in the mission on which he had started he could not help gazing below and drinking in the indescribable beauty of the ever-changing picture.
“How much those who went before us lost!” he sighed; “and what delight awaits those that are coming upon the stage of life! Aviation will bring the greatest revolution mankind has ever known. It is my happy fate to be one of the pioneers. I wonder what remains before me and others. At any rate none can feel more thankful than I for the goodness of Heaven in permitting me to see this day.”
As he progressed up the romantic valley after leaving Troy, his thoughts came back to the serious work before him. He had set out to save his colored friend from a dreadful fate, and to that he must bend all his energies until success or hopeless failure came.
Basing his action upon the theory that Professor Morgan had not yet started on his aerial voyage across the Atlantic, his pursuer aimed to return to the vicinity of his headquarters. It was important that he should go as near to them as he could without exposing himself to discovery. It would never do for the crazy inventor to learn that the youth’s withdrawal from the field was a trick. The moment such discovery was made, that moment the last vestige of hope would be snatched from the would-be rescuer.
Harvey therefore made a circuit around Troy and Albany, and when he turned in the direction of the little country town of Dawson, became more alert than before. The local geography of the section was so impressed upon his memory that he recognized the leading points as he swept over them. Besides directing his machine, he made frequent use of his field glass. He scanned the heavens in search of the Dragon of the Skies, that he might flee from it in time. If the Professor was abroad he would not be looking for the pursuer, who counted upon detecting him first and dodging out of his sight.