The Girl Aviators and the Phantom Airship Part 17

"Confound that young Jackanapes of a Roy Prescott," he muttered, as he went; "he gets ahead of me every time. But I'll fix him. Pop needs that land, and if Roy wins this race the Prescotts can pay off that mortgage and be on the road to riches. Well, I guess I'll settle all that. But I'll have to act quickly."

"You seem to be sore on that Prescott boy," came a voice at his shoulder suddenly.

Fanning turned quickly to find himself confronted by the unprepossessing individual who had stood at his side during the start of the Golden b.u.t.terfly, which was by this time almost out of sight in the eastward.

"Why, what do you know about it?" he asked, sharply.

"Well," was the rejoinder, "being an observing sort of an individual I figured out that you were not best pleased at seeing what a fine aeroplane that kid has. Right, ain't I?"

He coolly took from his pocket a disgusting-looking cigar stump and proceeded to light it, leering impudently into Fanning's face the while.

"Well, may be you are and then again you may not be," was the Sandy Bay youngster's cautious reply; "but how does it interest you?"

"Because I haven't any more use for him than you have, and if you make it worth my while I'll give you a bit of information that will be of value to you."

"What do you mean?" inquired Fanning, beginning to listen with more attention than he had hitherto shown.

"Just this, that I'm Jukes Dade, who used to work for Mr. Prescott years ago, but he discharged me for--for--well for a little fault of drinking I had. Come now, don't you recognize me?"

"By George, I do," exclaimed Fanning; "but it was so many years ago you were with Mr. Prescott that I hardly knew you. You have changed greatly."

"I may have," was the reply in bitter tones. "I've been through enough.

But there's one thing I ain't never forgotten in all these years, and that is my resolve to get even on old man Prescott."

"But he is dead," put in Fanning, wondering at the baleful expression of hatred that had come into the man's face.

"All true enough. I heard that some time ago. But if I can injure the son in any way, I'd like to do it. I've got a wrong to avenge, and if you want to pay well to have Roy Prescott put out of the race to-morrow I'm your man."

"Hush, don't talk so loud. Some folks over there are looking at us."

"Oh, well, if you're afraid to----"

"No, no, that isn't it. I must prevent Roy winning that race to-morrow at all hazards. Come into my hangar and we can talk quietly."

"Ah, that's the talk," was the rejoinder, and Jukes Dade chuckled with grim delight. "You want a little job of work done to settle our friend's hash. Well, you've come to the right shop when you meet up with old Jukes Dade who has an axe of his own to grind."

CHAPTER XIV.

A GIRL AVIATOR'S ADVENTURE.

In the meantime, Peggy and Roy, the former at the steering wheel and controls, were skimming through the air above the charming country surrounding Acatonick. The exhilaration of flying, the thrill and zest of it, were strong upon them as they glided along, and they made an extended flight.

"She is working like a three-hundred-dollar watch," cried Roy joyously as the speedy monoplane flew onward.

"She's a darling," was Peggy's enthusiastic response. "I'm sure that if nothing happens you'll win that race to-morrow, Roy."

"I hope so, little sister," was the response, "for there's a whole lot depending on it."

"But just think. If you only do we shall be at the end of our troubles."

"Not quite, sis," Roy reminded her, "that affair of the missing jewels is still a mystery, and as long as it stays so some folks will always be suspicious of me."

"Oh, Roy, don't say such things. n.o.body but the horridest of the horrid would----"

"Unluckily," struck in the boy, "there are a lot of the horridest of the horrid in this world, and some of them are in Sandy Bay."

He laughed and then went on more seriously:

"It's a pretty nasty feeling, I can tell you, to know that you are unjustly suspected by several folks of--of--er--knowing more about an affair of that kind than you tell."

"What can have become of the jewels?"

"Ah, that's just it. Of course we have our suspicion, based really on nothing, that Fanning Harding knows something about them. But if he did why would he place that wallet on the porch of Jess's home?"

"It's beyond me."

"And beyond me, too. I'm quite sure that n.o.body was about the place when the accident happened, and I could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds. Now who could have stolen the wallet in that time?"

"It will all come out in time. I'm sure of it, Roy, dear," said Peggy, earnestly. "Perhaps it will turn out to be not such a mystery after all."

"I don't know," was Roy's rejoinder. "Mr. Bancroft has had some of the cleverest detectives in the country on the case, and a description of the jewels, some of which were heirlooms, has been wired everywhere broadcast. But up to date none of them have turned up at any p.a.w.nshops or other likely places."

For some moments more they talked in this strain, when Peggy suddenly gave a cry and pointed below. They were pa.s.sing over a tiny lake surrounded by steeply sloping banks, wooded with beautiful trees. It was an isolated spot, no human habitation being near at hand apparently.

"Oh, isn't that pretty?" cried Peggy delightedly. "It looks as if it might have come out of a picture book."

"And the sight of that water reminds me that I'm terribly thirsty," said Roy. "I bet there are some springs by that lake, or if there are not maybe the water is good to drink from the lake itself."

"Let's go down and see," said Peggy, with a bright smile, and setting over a lever and twisting a couple of valves she began to depress the aeroplane.

"There's a good landing place off there to the right of the end of the lake," cried Roy, indicating a bare spot where some land seemed to have been cleared at one time.

"All right, my brilliant brother," laughed Peggy merrily. "I saw it at least five minutes ago. Hold tight, I'm going to drop fast."

To any one less accustomed to aerial navigation than our two young friends, the downward plunge would have been alarming in its velocity.

But to them it was merely exciting. Within a few feet of the ground, just when it seemed they must dash against the surface of the earth with crus.h.i.+ng force, Peggy set the planes on a rising angle and the Golden Eagle settled to earth as gracefully as a tired bird.

"Well, here we are," exclaimed Roy, looking about him at the sylvan scene as they alighted; "and now what comes next?"

"A hunt for the spring, of course," cried Peggy, placing one hand on her brother's shoulder and nimbly leaping from the cha.s.sis to the soft, springy ground. And off they set toward the margin of the little lake below them.

"Reminds me of Ponce de Leon's hunt for a spring," laughed Roy, who felt in high spirits over the fine way the Golden b.u.t.terfly had conducted herself.

"But he was looking for the Fountain of Eternal Youth," said Peggy, quickly.