"I suppose," said Matt, scathingly, "that your campaign is one of robbery, and that you're going to make a pirate ship out of the Hawk?"
"That's where you put your finger on the right button!" declared Brady. "I'm going to be a freebooter, and take my toll wherever I can find it. It's easy to swoop down on a lot of spoil, pick it up and make off with it. And what can the law do?" He laughed mockingly. "Policemen will have to have wings to get anywhere near me."
"And that's what you wanted me for, is it?" cried Matt, indignantly; "to drive the Hawk around through the air and help out your villainous plans! I would let you kill me first."
"Rot! I'm going to stick to my original intentions, but there's got to be something of a change in my immediate plans. We've all got to pull out of here and to take what plunder we've got cached in the swamp. The Hawk will have to make three or four trips, and they must be made before Jerrold and his air-ship can interfere with us. If Jerrold fixes up his air-ship and comes back, we'll just tell him what will happen to you if he lingers in the vicinity of the swamp. I'm banking on that to send him packing again, and to keep him out of sight until I can make a change of base. You'll go away on the Hawk's first trip, and it will probably be only half an hour before you can start."
Brady started for the door, but halted before he reached it and faced around.
"Either one of two things happened to put that Dutchman and Jerrold on my track," said he. "Either Harper has been caught, and has told what he knows, or else a letter I gave Needham to deliver to Whipple, here in the swamp, has fallen into the hands of the police. It don't make much difference, though, how Jerrold got next to our hang-out. The main thing is that he knows where we are, and that you will be put in a mighty tight corner if he keeps on trying to make trouble for me. That's about all, King. I want you to understand what you're up against and be ready for whatever happens. I'm not going to have my plans knocked galley-west just as I'm on the point of launching them."
With another black scowl, expressive of his savage determination, Hector Brady strode out of the hut.
Matt was beginning to understand why Helen preferred to see her father in prison rather than free to carry out his campaign of lawlessness. Possessing a practical air-ship like the Hawk, Brady could commit untold depredations and snap his fingers in open defiance of the law.
The young motorist shuddered to think of the scoundrel's comprehensive plans, and of the part he had intended to make his prisoner play in them.
Helen's reasoning was logical, and the expedient she had suggested was as simple as it was effective. By taking the Hawk away from Brady she would make it impossible for him to follow out his nefarious schemes. The beautiful simplicity of the countercheck aroused Matt's admiration.