<h2 id='chap07'>CHAPTER VII</h2>
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<div>THE HIDDEN HAND</div>
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<p class='c011'>“Hurray!” cheered Hiram Dobbs enthusiastically—“we’re
off! Oh, Dave, this is life!”</p>
<p>“We are going to make this a record attempt,
Hiram,” the young aviator advised his excited assistant.
“Got the sealed barographs in place? All
right. If we should really do something quite stunning,
at the end of the flight we’ll submit results to
the contesting committee of the governing organization
at New York City.”</p>
<p>“A cross country flight as the crow flies!” cried
Hiram. “It must be over three hundred and fifty
miles. Dave, what do you expect?”</p>
<p>“If this cross wind doesn’t interfere, I calculate
about three hours and thirty minutes.”</p>
<p>“Why, that would beat the Western record,”
suggested Hiram, wonderingly.</p>
<p>“That’s what I am setting out to do,” answered
the young airman quietly. “We are tanked up
forty-six gallons, and enough oil to last us for a five
hour run.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='53' id='Page_53'></span>The <i>Ariel</i> made three trips around the Midlothian
grounds, and then struck her going level. The main
plates of the machine were so arranged above the
fuselage or framework, that pilot and observer had
an almost unlimited range of vision. Dave experienced
a sense of relief at leaving a spot where
trouble seemed to menace them. Hiram comfortably
belted in, had eyes open for everything. This
was his second trip in the <i>Ariel</i>, and the novelty of
the machine had not yet worn off for him.</p>
<p>There was a minor trial course outside the Midlothian
grounds, given over to amateurs and non-eligibles.
There both Dave and his chum noticed a
good many ambitious airmen trying out their machines.
Several of them set the <i>Ariel</i> a pace, but all
but two of them soon fell behind. One of these, a
full type Curtiss, held a fair follow-up at a distance.</p>
<p>“Looks as if it was headed for Chicago, too; that
particular machine,” observed Hiram. “Do we follow
the railroad, Dave?”</p>
<p>“It’s the clearest and best course, I think,” responded
the pilot of the <i>Ariel</i>. “Did you leave
word for our tramp friend, Borden?”</p>
<p>“Yes, with that accommodating fellow at the
next hangar to ours. I left a little note telling him
to wire us if he made any important discoveries.
Say, Dave, do you suppose that fraud lieutenant
will show up again?”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='54' id='Page_54'></span>“I think we must be careful all along the line,”
was the reply, delivered gravely. “That telegram
showed that our old-time enemy, Vernon, is after
us. The lieutenant, and undoubtedly the man
whose picture Borden drew, are certainly working
in the interest of Vernon.”</p>
<p>“But what can he be after?” persisted Hiram, in
a nettled way because he could not probe the mystery.</p>
<p>“That will develop later,” answered the young
air pilot. “To my way of thinking, and also that
of Mr. Brackett, our enemy has offered his services
to some contestant we do not yet know. Now we’ve
picked up the railway. That will be our guide to
our terminus.”</p>
<p>The biplane had been given a careful investigation
and adjustment. Dave had driven onward and
upward until they had attained an altitude of five
hundred feet. Hiram had been watching a receding
speck, the Curtiss machine, that seemed bent on
their own course, when, turning, he touched Dave
sharply on the shoulder, and called loudly above the
throb of the motor:</p>
<p>“There’s a heavy cloud-bank ahead.”</p>
<p>“I see that,” spoke the pilot of the <i>Ariel</i>.</p>
<p>“It ends in a mean fog, earthward.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='55' id='Page_55'></span>“Yes, I notice that, too. I tell you, Hiram, we
are safer up here, under the circumstances, than
trying to get down. We’ll nose up to a still higher
altitude and get above the clouds.”</p>
<p>“We’re nearly touching the seven thousand
mark,” reported Hiram, a few minutes later. “It’s
clear sailing ahead, though.”</p>
<p>Because of the maneuver just attempted, the
two young airmen became mixed as to their course.
For some time neither saw the earth again. Dave
tried to allow for the same drift as before, but could
only hope that he was steering in the right direction.</p>
<p>“There’s a change in the atmospheric conditions,”
announced Dave’s assistant, after a while.</p>
<p>“Yes,” responded Dave, “there’s a storm raging
below.”</p>
<p>“And ahead, too,” added Hiram.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to get above those newly formed
clouds,” declared Dave, and he shot the machine still
higher up.</p>
<p>“Dave!” cried his companion, “I never saw anything
so beautiful! Isn’t this grand!”</p>
<p>It was, indeed, an unusual sight. Dazzling white
clouds paved a seeming highway beneath them in
every direction. Overhead the sun was shining brilliantly.
The light reflected upon the cloud-mass
was so intense that it affected the eyes as snow
blindness would.</p>
<p>“It’s getting terribly cold!” Hiram remarked,
shivering.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='56' id='Page_56'></span>“Yes,” answered Dave, with a glance at the thermometer,
“two degrees above freezing point,” and
even through his leather suit he could feel the sharp
and piercing cold. The wind above the clouds came
straight from the north. Below it was blowing
from the northwest. It was a wonderful sight
about then, and it reminded the young aviator
strongly of past experiences in the polar regions,
while on his famous trip around the world. He did
his best to keep a due east course, but had no landmarks
to steer by, and he decided they must have
drifted far to the south.</p>
<p>At last there were rifts in the clouds, which began
breaking up, giving a sight of the ground.</p>
<p>“We’ve been up here nearly three hours,” announced
Hiram, “and the gasoline is giving out.”</p>
<p>A slow glide brought them directly over a large
farm. They made out great stacks of hay, and the
<i>Ariel</i> settled down like a tired-out bird in the center
of these fields.</p>
<p>“There’s a man—with a gun!” Hiram sharply
exclaimed.</p>
<p>Dave, alighting, saw a farmer, of middle age.
He, indeed, had a gun—but he set this, and a game
bag, alongside a haystack, and advanced towards
them with no indication of antagonism.</p>
<p>“That was a pretty slick landing,” he said. “No
fire about your machine, is there?”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='57' id='Page_57'></span>“None at all,” answered Dave. “I have shut off
everything.”</p>
<p>“I was thinking of the haystacks,” explained
the farmer. “You’ve got a fine machine there.
I’ve seen some, they’re getting so common they
often come out this way.”</p>
<p>“We have run out of gasoline,” said Dave.
“Do you happen to have a supply?”</p>
<p>“I don’t, for a fact,” was the reply, “but I
happen to know my nearest neighbor has. If you
want to come up to the house, and wait a bit, I’ll
send one of my men after it.”</p>
<p>“We need quite a quantity,” said Dave, “and will
be glad to pay a good price.”</p>
<p>“A bite of something to eat wouldn’t come in
amiss, either,” suggested Hiram.</p>
<p>“I reckon we can accommodate you in that particular,”
said the farmer. “Make things snug,
lads, and come up to the house.”</p>
<p>He led the way, chatting busily. Dave soon discovered
that he was up-to-date, readily pleased
with novelty, very inquisitive and hospitable in the
extreme. He learned of the extent of the needs
of his guests, and forthwith sent a hired man with
a wagon over to the neighbor’s for gasoline. Then,
as his visitors were comfortably seated on a screened
porch, with chairs and a table on it, he left them for
the kitchen of the house.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='58' id='Page_58'></span>“The girl will fetch some victuals in a few minutes,”
he advised the boys upon his return. “Sort
of enjoyable, eating here in the air. Big meet out
in Chicago, I understand?”</p>
<p>“Yes, we are going there,” said Dave, and from
then on he was kept busy answering the questions
“fired” at him rapidly by their curious host.</p>
<p>“I declare! that’s an interesting trade of yours,”
he said. “But here’s the victuals. Sort of out of
reg’lar meal-time order, but you’ll find it all right,
I hope.”</p>
<p>Hiram was very hungry, and ate the cold roast
beef, biscuits and fried potatoes served in plentitude,
with the keen appetite of a hungry boy. Dave, too,
enjoyed the palatable lunch.</p>
<p>“I suppose it’s a great bracer to get away up in
the air,” observed the farmer. “Through, youngsters?”</p>
<p>“No. I say!—Why, where is that?” suddenly
ejaculated Hiram.</p>
<p>He had leaped up unceremoniously from the table,
and advanced to the end of the porch.</p>
<p>“Hear that chugging, Dave?” he inquired, peering
up into the sky. “There’s a machine somewhere
aloft. Oh, here’s the screen door! I want to look.
There she is!” he shouted, once out in the yard, and
staring upwards. “Dave, it’s the Curtiss we
thought was taking up our course!”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='59' id='Page_59'></span>“Then they’ve made as good time as we have,”
called back Dave. “What now?” for Hiram had
uttered a new cry of excitement.</p>
<p>“Why, I say!” he shouted. “That’s strange!
It’s suddenly vanished!”</p>
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