Both scouts hurried out to join Bud. They found him standing there with his head cocked on one side, apparently listening as hard as he could.
Indeed it did not require any especial gift of hearing to catch the strange noises spoken of by the ambitious inventor. They seemed to be close at hand and constantly growing louder all the time. Just as Bud had declared, the racket was undoubtedly caused by some sort of machinery.
Hugh immediately made an important discovery. It rather startled him, too, as well it might, for he had not been dreaming of anything so unusual.
"Why, it's in the air!" he exclaimed involuntarily.
"Sure it is," agreed the excited Bud; "in the air and everywhere else. Seems to me I might be listening to a dozen shuttles working with a rush."
"But I mean that it comes from above our heads!" Hugh quickly added; at which both the others gasped in wonder, though realizing that what the patrol leader had said was actually true.
"Whatever can it mean?" stammered Bud.
"Say, do you know it makes me think of something I heard over at
Bellville during county fair week!" burst out Ralph.
"Meaning an aeroplane?" declared Hugh.
"Just what it was, Hugh," returned Ralph. "But what would a flier be doing away up here, going around and around in the dark of night?"