That finished the panicky condition of Jules and his confederate. They knew now that it was indeed an officer of the law who had happened, so fortunately for the owners of the aeroplane, to be passing when the alarm was given. Doubtless, in their excited imagination, they could picture a dozen similar guardians of the peace surrounding the field; and they may even have believed that they had walked into a trap, of which the wonderful little airship was the bait.
Everything was forgotten but the fact of their peril. Jules shouted in a voice as shrill as a siren that his comrade was to take to his heels, and run for all he was worth. And so they made off, running like a pair of foxes with a pack of hounds in full cry.
As if by some prearranged system they separated in making their flight. Doubtless this was done to confuse pursuit; and they could meet again, if lucky enough to get clean away, at some appointed rendezvous.
Frank stopped shouting. There was quite enough racket already, he thought, and the one aim of their combined chorus had been attained, since the thieves were in full flight. Besides, he was rather short of breath.
“Shucks! they’ve got away!” declared Andy, visibly chagrined; as if he had begun to cherish a hope that the pair of precious rascals might be captured through a combination of all forces, some of the glory falling to the Bird boys.
“Yes, but the police will be hot on the track after this exposure,” said Frank. “You see, they will know now just where to take up the trail. If they had a pair of good dogs they could easily run those fellows down now.”
“What’s all this racket mean?” asked the man on the motorcycle, as he jumped out of his saddle, and leaned forward to stare at the two boys, who must have presented rather a strange picture just then, seeing that they were clad only in their striped pajamas, and barefooted.
“It was those two robbers who cleaned out Leffingwell’s place!” replied Andy, with his usual impetuosity. “They wanted to steal our new aeroplane in order to escape. One of them is Jules, the French aviator, who knows all about airships, and can tell a good one when he sees it.”
By this time other men were beginning to come panting to the spot. They were neighbors of Colonel Josiah’s, hastily clad, and bearing all manner of arms, from an old double-barrel shotgun to an up-to-date Marlin repeating rifle. A stableman even carried a two-pronged hay fork, with which he was making wicked lunges in the air, as in imagination he speared desperate foes.
“Don’t you know us, Joe Green?” asked Frank, recognizing the officer.