They neared him as he passed a row of temporary buildings. Dave had a mind to stop at one of these until his pursuers, if such they were, had made themselves scarce. Then, however, as he glanced around, he caught no sight of them.
“Pshaw!” said Dave, “what am I afraid of? Perhaps I’m making a mystery out of nothing. If those fellows intended to do me any harm, they’d have got at me long since. They’ve had plenty of chances. I’ll make a bee line for home and forget all about them.”
Dave put across an unoccupied space. At its edge were three temporary buildings. Two he knew held airships. One was quite famous. It belonged to a wealthy man named Marvin, who made aeronautics a fad. His machine was a splendid military monoplane of the latest model, and was listed to do some heavy air work in the next day’s programme.
All the buildings were dark. Nobody seemed in their vicinity until Dave neared the larger one of the three where the military machine was housed. Then suddenly around one corner of the canvas house two men came into view.
“We’ve run him home, I guess,” spoke the quick voice of one of them.
“Yes, there he goes, making for the tent,” was the retort given in a breath.
Dave recognized the men as the fellows who had been so persistently following him. They had run ahead, it seemed, and waited for his coming. As they made a move towards him, showing that they intended to reach and seize him, Dave started running around the other side of the building. At this the men separated. One circled the building and headed him off. Dave ran back ten feet out of sight. Then, hearing the other fellow running on from the opposite direction, Dave crowded through a half open sliding door.
“He’s gone,” sounded on the outside, a minute later.
“No, he’s slipped into that shed. I tell you we’ve run him home, and if nobody else is around we can soon finish up our business neat and quick.”
Dave did not know what that “business” was. He stood still in the darkness and listened. His hand had touched the bamboo edge of a machine wing. He was thinking of seeking a hiding place, or some other door or window outlet from the shed, when a sudden flash blinded and confused him.