He held the offender in a close grip until the corporal he summoned arrived; then turned him over, with an injunction that he be held in close confinement, and permitted to speak to no one, or send out any word, until his own return.
Presently the weakened cords were replaced with new ones, under his instructions, and everything was again in readiness for the flight.
It may seem strange that Grail did not immediately follow up so serious an affair; but, as a matter of fact, he was so perturbed and puzzled by the dastardly attempt on his life that he wanted a little time for reflection. Was it merely the crazy freak of a simple-minded “rookie,” or did the incident hold a deeper and more sinister significance? Could it be a further development of the plot which had already resulted in the colonel’s disappearance, and was Simmons merely a tool in the hands of the secret conspirators?
Revolving these questions and many others in his mind, he gave the word to cut loose, and a moment later he was hovering high up in the air above the grassy parade ground. He turned the nose of his craft due east, and, with his propeller whirring, flew away toward the river’s long, crescentlike curve around the town.
The dirigible from Fort Denton was not an unusual sight aloft, and consequently attracted but little attention from the people of the city; but out at the post Grail’s flight was watched with curious interest. Officers and men alike, although pretending indifference, laid aside their duties to follow, with eager gaze, the evolutions of the airship. They gained but little for their pains, however. Out over the line of smoky chimneys marking the water front they saw him go; then sail in a straight line across the river, where he turned to the south, and, having executed a couple of wide circles over the wildernesslike bottoms below the town, headed back for home. But as to his purpose they gathered not the slightest intimation.
At that distance they could not discern that as he swept above the weed-grown, bush-covered lowlands so frequently subject to overflow, he leaned over in the car, and studied with the eye of the skilled topographer every feature of the country beneath him.
Upon a tumble-down shack in a clump of stunted willows his gaze lingered longest, and as he estimated its distance from the river, as well as from the few other habitations which dotted the waste acres, his eye showed a glint of satisfaction. Unwilling, however, to reveal by his movements the nature of the survey he was making to any possible watcher, he did not hang long over the spot, or descend for a closer view, but contented himself with two rounds, at high altitude, as already described, and beat back westward toward the fort.
With the wind against him, his return trip consumed more time than the outgoing one, and it was well after noon when he finally effected a skillful descent to the parade ground. He had been absent from the post altogether a little over two hours.
“Has Sergeant Cato returned yet?” was the first question he asked as he sprang from the car; but, receiving a sullen negative for answer, bent his steps, as soon as he had seen the dirigible safely put away, toward the guardhouse.
There he found himself confronted by Lieutenant Hemingway, who happened to be acting as officer of the day. The younger man’s eyes fell, and he showed his embarrassment by blushing painfully; but Grail was cool and steady as a statue.