“Who is that with you?”
“Bill Jones, from Squedunk; he hasn’t much sense and if you don’t look out he’ll take a shot at you with his revolver, and if he doesn’t I will!”
And Dick dropped his fishing line over the edge of the canoe, picked up his rifle and pointed it at the loony inventor.
“Get!” he commanded, “before I fire!”
The demonstration was unexpected, and scared Professor Morgan. Had it not been done at the psychological moment, it is likely he would have approached still closer and forced Harvey to disclose himself. The youth was in a tremor, but it was hard for him to restrain his merriment over the rank bluffing of his brother. The Professor yanked his levers and with his feet abruptly turned the rudder so that his machine shot off at a tangent at an amazing rate of speed. Instead of turning back over his course, he made for the wooded, rocky, mountainous country which had been his destination when he believed he was not under the eye of any one. As soon as he was beyond distinct vision, Harvey dropped his fishing line and brought his field glass into use.
“Keep an eye on him as long as he’s in sight,” warned Dick, who also laid his line aside and turned to watch the aviator. The latter held to a direct course for half a mile or more, by which time he was above the section where the brothers believed Bohunkus Johnson was kept in confinement.
“He seems to have stopped,” said Dick.
“He has; he is descending.”
Holding his machine in poise for a minute or two, Harvey saw it dropping down like a weight suspended at the end of a rope. It disappeared behind a mass of rocks and amid a group of large trees covered with exuberant foliage.
“It looks as if that is the spot for which we are hunting,” said Harvey lowering the glass.