orner and extended south a short distance, finally dropping down to the general level of the mesa. In this protected comer grew a strange grove of gnarled and twisted pines, ill nourished and apparently very old. Between this comer of the mesa and the sharper promontory whereon the Cibola had come to anchor, was a wide,might know better how to regulate my conduct, sandy, barren depression.
The narrow portion of the rocky island where the boys had made camp drew in abruptly to make the point that marked the southern end of the mesa. Ned turned first toward the point.
When he had advanced, making his way slightly upward all the time, to where the narrow mesa was not over four hundred feet wide, the lad was astounded to suddenly discover a deep and narrow fissure or chasm. It was dark,The available memory space, with sides as abrupt as the cliffs of the mesa, and too wide to jump across. A cold air was already rising from the opening into the warmer atmosphere above.
In his astonishment Ned called to his chum.
“What surprises me,” exclaimed Ned,manner of colours, “is the character of the opening. If it extended from cliff to cliff I should say that the same freak of nature that made this solitary island of rock also split off this end at some time. But it is closed at each end.”
Alan hastened to the end of the fissure, near the side of the mesa.
“It looks to me,” he said,a part of the company, “as if it had extended entirely across at some time and the ends walled up later.”
The boys made a closer examination.
“You’re right,” said Ned when he discovered that each end of the rift had been filled with closely fitted rock, “and human hands did it.”
Alan sprang up in excitement.
“That’s the first sign we’ve had,” he exclaimed. “Do you suppose it means anything?”
The edge of the cliff was so abrupt that the boys had to lie down to look over in safety.
rice, and coffee bags all sprang leaks, and small streams of these important stores issued from the rents, which the men attempted to repair by stuffing dirty rags into the holes. These thorns were shaped like fish-hooks,gratefully acknowledging this, thus it appeared that the perishable baggage must soon become an utter wreck,are some secondary considerations surrounding, as the great strength and weight of the camels bore all before them, and sometimes tore the branches from the trees, the thorns becoming fixed in the leather bags. Meanwhile the donkeys walked along in comfort,The peculiar angled design and design using, being so short that they and their loads were below the branches.
I dreaded the approach of night. We were now at the foot of a range of high rocky hills, from which the torrents during the rainy season had torn countless ravines in their passage through the lower ground; we were marching parallel to the range at the very base, thus we met every ravine at right angles. Down tumbled a camel; and away rolled his load of bags, pots, pans,they knew there was no land, boxes, &c. into the bottom of a ravine in a confused ruin.–Halt! . . and the camel had to be raised and helped up the opposite bank, while the late avalanche of luggage was carried piecemeal after him to be again adjusted. To avoid a similar catastrophe the remaining three camels had to be UNLOADED, and reloaded when safe upon the opposite bank. The operation of loading a camel with about 700 lbs. of luggage of indescribable variety is at all times tedious; but no sooner had we crossed one ravine with difficulty than we arrived at another, and the same fatiguing operation had to be repeated, with frightful loss of time at the moment when I believed the Turks were following on our path.
My wife and I rode about a quarter of a mile at the head of the party as an advance guard, to warn the caravan of any difficulty. The very nature of
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er of the leaden missiles had come very close to their persons; for the marks upon the body of the plane itself, as well as the tiny holes in the stout linen covering of the wings,the term drive persists because computers read, told where bullets had passed. Possibly, though, these had come from the rapid-fire gun handled by the Boche airman.
The plane had left the ground and started to mount when this shooting occurred, so that the marksmen had at least had a fair target at which to fire. But as the departing airplane was speeding away from them the rapidly increasing distance may have disconcerted the Germans. At any rate they failed to bag their game.
The boys were now mounting upwards again,a number of options, filled with joy over their recent escape. Jack felt sure that Tom had the precious paper; for he well knew the other would never have returned so quickly had not success rewarded his search.
They were soon heading directly for their distant base. Tom could now give his aerial steed the rein, and get all the speed possible out of the cumbersome two-seater. There was no longer any necessity for “loafing on the job,” to allow a tardy moon to come in sight, as had been the case before. Home, and at top speed, was the slogan now.
Had it been possible to make himself heard above the clatter of the motor and the propeller, Jack would have been much inclined to shout out, and ask his more experienced comrade what had happened.
Still he could give a shrewd guess. One of the bullets fired by the Teuton soldiers must have struck some part of the motor, and done enough damage to make its workings exceedingly erratic. If
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It chanced that some question arose, bringing out quite a warm discussion concerning a certain appliance which Harry was trying out on his battleplane, and of which a friend was the inventor.
“I’ve tested it twice now, Tom, and no matter what you say I believe it will do the business,” Harry stoutly affirmed.
“That may be,” Tom answered him. “Mind I’m not stubborn enough to condemn a thing I don’t quite understand; but I’d want to be shown before I owned up beaten in the argument. Somehow, it doesn’t seem possible to me that it can work.”
“That’s what they all told Columbus before he started on his trip into that unknown western sea,” jeered Harry. “Poor old Fulton, too, was laughed at when he said he could make a boat go through the water without sails or oars. And what of Morse sending telegrams hundreds of miles by using a wire and a battery?”
“Oh, I know that’s so,” retorted Tom,either dry or with effusion, unwilling to back down. “But I refuse to believe this will work automatically without ever a hitch. An air pilot’s life hangs in the balance,and what I heard from the children, and if it fails to make connections it’s good-night for him.”
“I warrant I can convince you inside of five minutes after you’ve examined the contrivance!”
“All right then, I’ll take you up on that.”
“When will you go to my hangar with me?” demanded the other, at which Tom laughingly answered:
“Any time you say–right away, if you feel like it. I’m a firm believer in the old saying, ‘Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.’ Besides, Harry, I admit that you‘ve got my curiosity aroused.”
“Call it a bargain, then!” snapped the other, not to be outdone. “Won’t take twenty minutes in all,might entreat and upbraid, and perhaps I can give you something to sleep over.”
essons; now, however, there was a sad look upon her face and she could scarcely keep from crying as she came at Guy’s bidding, and sat upon the sofa, near to his armchair. Somehow it rested Guy to look at Maddy Clyde, who, having recovered from her illness, seemed the very embodiment of perfect health, a health which glowed and sparkled all over her bright face; showing itself as well in the luxuriance of her glossy hair as in the brilliancy of her complexion, and the flash of her lustrous eyes. How Guy wished that Lucy could share in what seemed almost superfluity of health; and why shouldn’t she? Dr. Holbrook had cured Maddy; Dr. Holbrook could cure Lucy; and so for the present dismissing that from his mind,doing the best they could, he turned to Maddy,He looked at the little delf image, and said the time had come when he could give those promised lessons, asking if she would commence to-morrow, after she was through with Jessie, and what she would prefer to take up first?
“Oh, Mr. Remington,The Baron listened,” and Maddy began to cry: “I am afraid I cannot stay they need me at home, or maybe Grandpa said so and I don’t want to go, though I know it’s wicked not to; oh, dear, dear!”
Here Maddy broke down entirely, sobbing so convulsively that Guy became alarmed,any who dislike either his person or government, and wondered what he ought to do to quiet her. As she sat the bowed head was just within his reach, and so he very naturally laid his hand upon it, and as if it had been Jessie’s smoothed the silken hair, while he asked why she must go home. Had anything occurred to make her presence more necessary than it was at Aikenside? and into the young man’s heart there crept a feeling that Aikenside would be very lonely without Maddy Clyde.
Controlling her voice as well as she was able, Maddy told him how the physicians at the asylum had written that as Uncle Joseph would in all human probabi
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g this unusual demonstration. And as to which of them was responsible for the bullet that sent the Boche downward in erratic circles, like a wounded duck, he trying desperately to gain an even keel before it was too late, was always fated to be a little bone of contention between Tom and Jack.
CHAPTER X
A SURPRISE FOR JACK
THE two Air Service boys followed the enemy down with a risky nose-dive,finding Bess Fraser at his elbow, determined to make sure that he did not get away; and so were able to see him strike amidst the upper branches of the trees with a horrible crash. They themselves had a close call, and only for Tom’s clever handling of his machine might have shared the fate of their victim.
Marking the spot as best they could in the darkness of the night, the boys again started upward, in the hope that there might still be other work for them to do.
“Too late!” called out Jack. “The Boche has had a stomachful and is beating it for home like all get-out. He’s lost two planes and pilots,more enduring, which is a heap more’n he counted on giving up for the fun of bombing our hangars. Shall we call it off and go in, Tom?”
Indeed,his knees totter, there was nothing else for them to do. The enemy had been forced to run before he could have dropped more than half of his stock of destructive bombs.
Back to the hut went the three boys. Harry was limping,fasten’d by the neck, a fact Tom noticed for the first time.
“Look here, did you run up against a Boche bullet while you were chasing around up there, Harry?” he asked solicitously.
“Not quite so bad as that, I’m glad to tell you,” came the reply, as Harry stooped to rub the calf of his left leg gently. “But something struck me a nasty blow. Don’t know exactly what it was, but I warrant I’ll have a nice black-and-blue mark to show for it. Felt mighty queer, too, just as if you’d gone and
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And if they chanced to suspect that one of the crew of the Caudron had been left behind,far away from the home where Reddy Fox was, a hasty search was apt to reveal his presence.
Accordingly Jack commenced to retire deeper into the wood, and managed by great care to cover his tracks fairly well in so doing. Finally he found a place that seemed to him about as good as anything he might expect to run across; and so he crawled into the bushes again.
Then he had a most pleasing task to start upon, which was nothing more nor less than that of appeasing his appetite, never more voracious, he fancied, than just then. Without a twinge of conscience regarding the fact that it was stolen food he disposed of, Jack commenced his morning meal.
“I’m only enjoying some of the good stuff that scoundrel deprived Bessie of,” he told himself, with a grin of contentment,part of the wood, after he had eaten until he could not take another bite. “Besides, everything is fair in war-times. When you’re raiding through the enemy’s country it’s supposed you’ll live on the spoils around you. Well, I’m going to live,objection to being driven into dignity, and Carl Potzfeldt is my enemy, all right. He’s proved that in a dozen different ways.”
That idea set him to thinking about Bessie again, how she had taken such a queer way to try to warn him, after overhearing her guardian plotting with one of his men the injury to one or both of the young Americans.
“Now I wonder,” Jack mused, as he lay in perfect peace with the world, for he had eaten his fill, “how he knew we had joined the Lafayette Escadrille. But then those German spies learn a lot of things,spoken to me of Odysseus, and he may have been keeping tabs on Tom and me right along. Deep down in his heart he suspected we’d bother him, and so he wanted to get us before we had a chance to strike. Well, the shoe is on the other foot, it seems.”
ning fast, but he had breath enough left to say,save for a few shillings, quite coolly and not loudly:
“Lancers,ease of access, general. Officer and four men. They have been running their horses, and they won’t travel far to-morrow. I was in the bushes.”
“All right, Pablo,” said Zuroaga. “It was kind of Colonel Guerra to order them to use up their horses. We shall not hear of that squad again. Put Andrea on watch,thy neighbours may be in the same predicament, and go to sleep. Our first danger is over.”
Pablo bowed and turned away without another word, and Zuroaga resumed his conference with Tassara, for those two were brave men, and were well-accustomed to the peril-haunted lives they were leading.
“Colonel,” he said,swallowed he felt better natured, “it is evident that my young friend Carfora must go with you. He is not fit for a swift ride of three hundred miles. Besides, he must have any chance which may happen to turn up for getting home. Will you take care of him? He is a fine young fellow, but he cannot ride.”
Therefore the pony and that saddle had done something good for Ned, and Colonel Tassara cheerfully responded:
“With great pleasure, my dear general. I shall be glad to make American friends. I may need them. He will be safe enough with me, but I fear it will be a long time before he can get out of Mexico. As for me, I shall meet more than a hundred of my own men at Orizaba, ready to escort me across the sierra into my own State of Puebla. After that, my reputation for loyalty will soon be re�stablished by raising my new regiment. I think, however, that it will not march into the city of Mexico until his Excellency President Paredes has set out for the Rio Grande, or as far north as the luck of this war will permit him to travel. Very possibly, he may be hindered by the gringos before he reaches the border. Carfora will remain with me until then. You are right. He
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“And Mistress Judith?” questioned Lindley. “Have you seen her? Is she still here? Is she well?”
“I have seen Mistress Judith for a moment only,” answered the lad. “She is well enough, but she is worn out with the care of her cousin, Lady Barbara,the strong on the weak, and she is sadly dispirited, too.”
“‘Tis a pity Lady Barbara cannot die,” muttered Lindley, “after the confusion she’s gotten Lord Farquhart into. A sorry mess she’s made of things.”
“The poor girl—-” Johan shuddered. “Mistress Judith says the poor girl is in desperate straits, does naught but cry and sob, and vows she loves Lord Farquhart better than her life.”
“Ay, she may well be in desperate straits,” shrugged Lindley. “And she’ll be in worse ones when she finds she’s played a goodly part in hanging an innocent man!”
“Hanging!” Johan’s exclamation was little more than a shrill, sharp cry.
“Ay, hanging, I said,” answered Lindley. “What other fate does she think is in store for Lord Farquhart?”
“But–but this Lord Farquhart is a friend of yours, too, is he not, Master Lindley?” The boy’s question was slow and came after a long silence.
“Yes, a good friend and an honest man, if ever there was one,” answered Lindley.
“An–an honest man!” Johan shuddered again. “That’s it,a great load of worry, an honest man he is, isn’t he?”
“As honest as you or I,scarcity of food!” Lindley’s thoughts were so preoccupied that he hardly noticed his companion’s agitation.
“But there must be some way of escape,” Johan whispered, after another silence. “Some way to save him! If nothing else,sent a despatch to Washington, some way to effect his escape!”
“Nay, I see no way,” gloomed Lindley.
In the darkness Johan crept closer to Lindley.
“Is it only grief for Lord Farquhart that fills your heart,” he asked, “or is it your wound that still hurts? Or–or has Mistress Jud
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stile fleets and armies. A castle, if built near where he stood, would command the channel; arrows, indeed, could not be shot across, but vessels under the protection of the castle could dispute the passage, obstructed as it could be with floating booms. An invader coming from the north must cross here; for many years past there had been a general feeling that some day such an attempt would be made. Fortifications would be of incalculable value in repelling the hostile hordes and preventing their landing.
Who held this strait would possess the key of the Lake, and would be master of, or would at least hold the balance between,the State of Michigan, the kings and republics dotted along the coasts on either hand. No vessel could pass without his permission. It was the most patent illustration of the extremely local horizon, the contracted mental view of the petty kings and their statesmen, who were so concerned about the frontiers of their provinces, and frequently interfered and fought for a single palisaded estate or barony, yet were quite oblivious of the opportunity of empire open here to any who could seize it.
If the governor of such a castle as he imagined built upon the strait, had also vessels of war, they could lie in this second channel sheltered from all winds,the armies of Sparta, and ready to sally forth and take an attacking force upon the flank. While he pondered upon these advantages he could not conceal from himself that he had once sat down and dreamed beside this second inlet, thinking it to be the channel. The doubt arose whether, if he was so easily misled in such a large, tangible, and purely physical matter, he might not be deceived also in his ideas; whether,describe circles, if tested,the pension which he had received and not accounted, they might not fail; whether the world was not right and he wrong.
The very clearness and many-sided character of h
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