Casting glances full of malevolence at the boys, but still not daring to say anything, Barr and his companions climbed into their machines and silently made off. To their satisfaction the boys saw in the tonneau of the rear machine a lot of boxes which they knew must contain sections of the dismantled Slade aeroplane. The Despatch party therefore had not yet been able to effect repairs, which accounted for their desperate anxiety to detain the boys at any cost.
“However, did they come to lure you down here?” asked Billy as soon as the two autos with their rascally owners had departed.
“Why, we saw a signal waving from this opening in the woods, and thought it was you showing us where there was a good landing place. We soon found out our mistake, however,” answered Frank.
“Say, boys,” observed Bart suddenly, after he had earnestly scanned the sky for awhile, “we’d better be getting on. I believe we are going to have one of those storms that we get up in these hills every once in a while.”
“Are they very bad?” asked Billy.
“Bad!” echoed the miner, “why, boy, ef you’re wearing all your own hair arter one of ’em you’re lucky.”
“Well, we can’t fly any further to-day,” announced Frank.
“Why not?” demanded the others.
“One of our rudder wires got snapped as we came down here. It was a narrow place to land in at best.”
“How are we going to get the aeroplane up the trail?” demanded Bart.