<h2 id='chap11'>CHAPTER XI</h2>
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<div>A STRANGE RACE</div>
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<p class='c011'>Dave, busying himself about the <i>Ariel</i> inside the
hangar, had caught an echo of the shot outside the
fence and the shouts accompanying it. There
was generally considerable commotion about the
grounds, however, and he paid no particular attention
to these demonstrations.</p>
<p>Even the sound of the exhaust of the <i>Scout</i> did
not suggest anything out of the ordinary. It was
only when a loud cry sounded directly beyond the
open doors of the hangar, that the young airman
was aroused.</p>
<p>“Oh, Mr. Dashaway!” gasped out a startling
voice—“come here! come, quick!”</p>
<p>Dave looked up to discern Rohan, his newly employed
watchman. The latter was limping towards
the hangar. The light from the inside shone on his
face, showing excitement, and a sort of terror.</p>
<p>“Why, Dennis, what is the matter?” inquired
Dave, anxiously.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='86' id='Page_86'></span>“Your partner, Dobbs—the <i>Scout</i>!” stammered
the watchman, so excited that he could scarcely
speak. “Hear it? See it? And here are the
police!”</p>
<p>Dave hurried out. His first swift glance showed
that the <i>Scout</i> was nowhere near. The gathering
lake haze formed its usual veil between the ground
lights and the upper clear area. A look in that
direction told nothing.</p>
<p>A crackling, tearing sound next directed Dave’s
glance. It proceeded from the fence. There the
uniformed figure of a man was to be seen. He
came through a two-foot gap in the barrier. A
companion on the outside was just tearing loose a
third board. He was pulling it from the bottom,
and did not release the top nails. He sprang
through after his mate.</p>
<p>“Where is he?” demanded the latter of Dave,
and just then Rohan came limping up to the spot.</p>
<p>“Tall man, wearing a buttoned-up frock coat?”
he announced in jerks.</p>
<p>“With a fortune in it, yes!” responded the police
officer, quickly. “Where is he?” followed the
sharp challenge.</p>
<p>“Up there,” answered the watchman promptly,
and he pointed aloft.</p>
<p>“Eh, what? Trying to guy us!”</p>
<p>“No, sir,” answered Dennis. “He’s gone, and
he’s gone in the little airship. I saw him!”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='87' id='Page_87'></span>“Well, I’m flabbergasted!” puffed the officer.
“Mate, he’s slipped us. I wish we’d got another
shot at him. You mean the fellow has sailed away
in one of these balloons around here?”</p>
<p>“I saw him,” continued the watchman rapidly,
with a glow of excitement in his eyes. “He
dropped to the ground. Mr. Dashaway’s partner
here had just got into his machine. The fellow
you’re after ran for it. He gave it a shove, jumped
onto a side plane, crawled right up to young Dobbs,
and put a pistol to his head!”</p>
<p>Dave started. The thought of his chum in peril
set his wits at work in an instant.</p>
<p>“The man made some threat to Dobbs,” went
on Dennis. “Anyhow, up went the biplane. Then,
as the fellow dropped into the cockpit, I heard him
yell, ‘West—straight west.’”</p>
<p>“You did?” spoke Dave, questioningly. “That’s
a point,” and he made a dash for the hangar. The
officers were, indeed, “flabbergasted.” They stood
like dummies, dismayed and at a loss as to further
action. Dave ran the <i>Ariel</i> out into the field.</p>
<p>“Officer,” he called to the policeman who seemed
most to direct affairs, “that man—who is he?”</p>
<p>“Reddy Marsh, the slickest diamond thief in
America,” came the response.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='88' id='Page_88'></span>“And he’s got a load of the sparklers in his coat
right now,” added the other officer. “Padded
brick, smashed a lighted show-window in a jewelry
store and off he was with a case, with stones in it
worth fifty thousand dollars. We thought we’d
run him down when he made for the fence.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” put in the other policeman, who was staring
overhead in a lost, puzzled way, “and it won’t
be a question of hundreds, but of thousands to the
person who gets him and his booty.”</p>
<p>“I’m not thinking of that,” said Dave in an
anxious way, “but of my friend. He’s clear grit,
but the man is armed. Officer, I’m going aloft. If
the <i>Scout</i> hasn’t got too far away, I may catch sight
of it. I may need protection; assistance. One of
you come with me.”</p>
<p>“Hey!” exclaimed the head officer—“you mean
in that airship?”</p>
<p>“It’s the only way, isn’t it?” propounded Dave.</p>
<p>“I’ll go,” spoke up the other officer. “This lad
must know his business or he wouldn’t be here. It’s
in my line of duty—besides, there may be glory in
it, and a reward. Go ahead!”</p>
<p>“Quick, then!” directed the young aviator.
“Now then,” as he guided the unusual passenger
to the seat behind the pilot post, “buckle on the
straps, keep cool and quiet, and I’ll see what can be
done.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='89' id='Page_89'></span>He liked the obedient composure of his passenger.
If the latter felt that he was taking a risk, and experienced
a little natural dread, he masked it by
shouting to his comrade:</p>
<p>“Tell the sergeant I’m off on special duty—joined
the airship corps—ha! ha!”</p>
<p>His laugh ended, however, and Dave could catch
a series of quivers and sharp short gasps as the
watchman gave the ground gear an impetus and the
<i>Ariel</i> rose up majestically. The machine pierced the
blanket of haze and came up above the lower strata
of obscuring ground air. Dave described a slow
broad circle. His eye swept in all directions the
level they were on.</p>
<p>“If the moon were only up,” he murmured.
“Well, the only course is west. Hiram is shrewd
and intelligent. If he guesses for a moment that
I am after him, soon as he gets his thinking cap on
he will find some way to signal, or get the best of
his passenger.”</p>
<p>“Don’t see anything,” observed the officer, and,
big, brave fellow that he was, there was the tremor
of the novice in air evident in his voice.</p>
<p>“They’ve got a start, you must remember,” explained
Dave, “and a big field. We can only go
on, keeping a sharp lookout. If you should happen
to get sight of a black speck against the stars, tell
me.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='90' id='Page_90'></span>There was a spell of silence for some minutes
after that, Dave paying strict attention to directing
the machine, his passenger keeping as keen a lookout
as was possible for him under the unfamiliar
conditions. Suddenly the officer shouted out:</p>
<p>“There! See, a little way ahead? No, it’s gone.
Now, again! Pshaw!—fireflies.”</p>
<p>“Too high for that,” spoke Dave, “I see what
you mean. Thanks my friend, this is important!”</p>
<p>Ahead of them, and on a higher level, there was
now visible a series of swiftly-vibrating brilliant
sparks. They filled a mere tiny spot in space. To
the expert young airman they were guiding. Dave
set the machine on a swift drift then climbed up
several hundred feet. Now the sparks, intermittent
but perfectly distinct, were clearer and nearer the
faster they went.</p>
<p>“It’s a machine,” soliloquized Dave, “and it
must be the <i>Scout</i>. If it is—clever Hiram! He
doesn’t dare show the lights, for that man aboard
wouldn’t let him. I can guess what he has done—the
vibrator.”</p>
<p>Dave, with a perfect knowledge of all the parts
and possibilities of the natty little <i>Scout</i>, was at
home with every detail of the mechanism of the
machine, and guessed what was transpiring. Later
on his surmises were verified. The young aviation
expert decided that his chum counted on his searching
for him. He had loosed the top of the vibrator,
probably sending it adrift.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='91' id='Page_91'></span>If he awakened the suspicion of the passenger,
he could readily make a pretence of watching the
sparks jumping from one coil to the other, to see
that all the cylinders were working right. Correct
or not in his guess, those distant electric points of
light were now a direct guide to the eager pilot of
the <i>Ariel</i>.</p>
<p>“We’re getting nearer,” breathed the man behind
him. “You think it’s the airship we’re after?”</p>
<p>“I am pretty sure of it,” responded Dave. “It’s
a race, now, officer. This machine can overtake the
<i>Scout</i> and outdistance it within the next half hour.
Then the case is up to you.”</p>
<p>“Just get me in reach of Reddy Marsh,” spoke
the policeman, “and I’ll do the rest.”</p>
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