As the young inventor had suggested, the robbers were not particular to maintain a guard. The two friends watched the fellows cooking their evening meal and rather envied them as the odor of a savory stew came to their noses, for all Tom, Ned and Koku had were cold victuals.
Finally the camp of the robbers grew quiet, though for a time an occasional figure could be seen moving about the tent. At last even this did not occur, and Tom guessed that all were asleep.
“I’m going to slip over there and fix things so they can’t get away,” Tom whispered to Ned. “Once we make sure they can’t move the aeroplane and my chest, we can go back and get the police to round them up. You and Koku stay here.”
“What you do, Master?” inquired the giant, in as low a voice as possible, when he saw Tom stealing out of the bushes where they were hiding.
“I’m going to put them on the blink, Koku,” was the answer.
“You kill ’um while ’um sleep?” the giant asked, not understanding Tom’s slang. “Let Koku kill! ’Um tie Koku up—now Koku kill!”
The giant was eager to wreak vengeance on those who had so mistreated him. But Tom said:
“Hold yourself in, you blood-thirsty man-mountain! There’s going to be no killing! Anyway, I want to catch those fellows. Mr. Newton’s vindication may depend on getting them alive.”
Losing interest when he found he could not attack the men with his fists, Koku sank back beside Ned while Tom, as cautious as an Indian, made his way toward the camp of the scoundrels. His object was to disable the aeroplane, rendering it incapable of rising in case the men tried to make a sudden flight.
Knowing all about aircraft as he did, it was an easy matter for the young inventor to remove a small portion of the mechanism—one that would probably be the last thing to be missed by the robbers in case they looked for a reason for their machine not taking off.