The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune Part 21

AS our readers are fully acquainted with Frank's adventure it would only tedious to relate all that took place at the breakfast. It may be said, however, that both Captain Carney and his mate received a substantial recognition of their services, from Dr. Perkins, in the form of a check.

At first the bluff fishermen were by no means willing to take pay for what they had done, but were finally prevailed upon to accept the present, which, as Captain Carney owned, "would come in mighty handy."

After the conclusion of the meal all hands adjourned to the wharf, and a thorough examination was made once more of the _Sea Eagle_, with the object of detecting any damage which the Daniels and Duval might have done her, and which might have been overlooked in the lamplight investigation made by Dr. Perkins and Harry. A bright spot was found on one of the metal braces. Undeniably it had been done by the teeth of a file, but it was only a superficial damage, which did not affect the strength of the _Sea Eagle_ in any way.

"I guess Frank scared them away before they had time to do any more harm," was Dr. Perkins' conclusion; but later on he was to have a different opinion.

As things were at present, however, Dr. Perkins felt no hesitation in declaring the _Sea Eagle_ fit to resume her voyage without further delay. The fresh provisions being on board, and there being nothing to prevent an immediate start, the voyagers at once made ready for a continuance of the trip which, so far, had proved so packed with adventure.

The gasolene tank was refilled, and the emergency receptacles for the liquid fuel seen to. Plumbo Boggs was paid and instructions left to telegraph Dr. Perkins in New Orleans in case any trace was found of the miscreants, who undoubtedly had intended to injure the _Sea Eagle_, and who had played such a dastardly trick on Frank.

"You'll fly from the sea far up to the sky; good-by! good-by! good-by!

good-by!" cried Plumbo Boggs as the ropes that held the _Sea Eagle_ to the wharf were cast off and, amidst a loud cheer from the crowd, the engine was started.

It was a fine summer morning with a gla.s.sy sea and a sky that was cloudless, except in the east, where a great ma.s.s of castellated white clouds were piled up.

"You'd best hug the sh.o.r.e," were Captain Carney's parting words of advice. "To my mind we'll have a storm of some sort before the day's out."

But in the noise and excitement of the departure his words were unheard and the _Sea Eagle_ started off down the coast with the warning unheeded. Dr. Perkins ran the craft over the water till the mouth of the harbor was reached, easily outdistancing some fast launches that tried to keep up with them. When they got "outside," the _Sea Eagle_ was driven ahead at top speed, and with her rising planes set at a sharp angle she was driven upward till a height of some five hundred and fifty feet had been obtained. Her course was due south.

They were flying over a small island not far from the sh.o.r.e when Frank, who was looking over the side, noticed a dory ash.o.r.e on the beach. He had hardly noticed this before three figures came running down to the beach and pointed upward. One of them jerked a rifle up to his shoulder, and a minute later a puff of smoke came from the barrel. Simultaneously a bullet sang through the rigging of the _Sea Eagle_, boring a small hole in one of the upper planes, but, fortunately, not striking any vital part of the craft or doing injury to her pa.s.sengers.

"That's those rascals now!" exclaimed Frank indignantly. "They must have rowed down to that island and are waiting there for a chance to get ash.o.r.e quietly. Shall we go down and attack them?"

Dr. Perkins shook his head.

"Nothing much would be gained by it," he said, "and it would only delay our trip."

The _Sea Eagle_ was flying fast, and the rascals on the island, who, as Frank had rightly guessed, were the two Daniels and Duval, had no chance to try a second shot. At noon, after a steady flight all the morning, the voyagers found themselves off Martha's Vineyard. A hasty lunch was eaten in midair, with the _Sea Eagle_ still winging her way like a grayhound of the sky.

The sh.o.r.e swam by below them like a panorama, but they only viewed it indistinctly, as the course was kept about five miles off sh.o.r.e. In the afternoon they saw, off to the right, a stretch of mammoth hotels and amus.e.m.e.nt resorts.

"Atlantic City!" cried Frank. "I'll bet there are hundreds of gla.s.ses leveled at us from the boardwalk right now."

"I guess so," rejoined Harry. "We must look funny way out here at sea."

It was half an hour later that Frank's attention was attracted to the sky by the sudden blotting out of the sun, which had been s.h.i.+ning brightly. He gave a cry of alarm as he looked upward. A vast bank of black clouds had come rolling up, like a sable curtain, blotting out the blue sky. The sea below was leaden and angry in hue, and its surface was flecked with white caps.

"We're in for some bad weather, I'm afraid," declared Dr. Perkins, when Frank called his attention to it.

Hardly had he spoken before, from the cloud bank, a red, jagged flash of lightning blazed. It was followed almost instantly by a sharp clap of thunder, and some heavy rain drops began to patter on the broad upper planes of the _Sea Eagle_.

"I'll make for sh.o.r.e," declared Dr. Perkins; "we must be about off Cape May now. We can lie there in shelter till this blows itself out."

"That will be the best idea," said Frank. "This is going to be a hummer.

Wow! Look at that!"

A flash of lightning, that seemed as if the whole curtain of clouds had been split from top to bottom, had caused his exclamation. So brilliant was the glare that it caused them all to blink involuntarily.

"Put on full speed, Frank!" shouted Dr. Perkins above the deafening peal of thunder that followed.

Frank needed no second bidding. He opened both gasolene and spark levers to their full capacity. Dr. Perkins had already headed the _Sea Eagle_ for the distant low-lying sh.o.r.e. This caused the craft to plunge almost as much as if she were "bucking" into a heavy sea. For the wind was off sh.o.r.e, and the thunder storm, as such storms frequently do, was coming up against it.

Suddenly, in the midst of the fight with the wind, Frank noticed an ominous sound from the motor. It gave a sort of spluttering, coughing exhaust and slowed down perceptibly.

"What's wrong now?" he exclaimed anxiously. "Gracious, if the motor should go out of business now!"

He did not say this aloud, but bent over the laboring machine to try and ascertain what was the matter with it.

"More speed!" cried Dr. Perkins from the forward part of the air s.h.i.+p; "we can't fight this wind at this pace."

"There's something the matter with the motor," shouted Frank above the now almost continuous rolling of the thunder. "I can't make out what--"

A sudden loud report, like a pistol shot, came from the engine-a back-fire, as it is called-and the next instant the motor stopped dead.

The _Sea Eagle_ was at that moment some 750 feet above the angry sea, with the storm raging about her furiously. Before Dr. Perkins could realize what had happened, the big craft began to drop downward with sickening velocity, while her occupants clung on to whatever was handy, with the desperate clutch of drowning men.

Frank had just time to shout:

"The life preservers! Quick, quick! for heaven's sake!"

But there was no time to obey the order before the _Sea Eagle_ struck the waves, hurling spray and wind-driven foam in a great cloud all about her wings and substructure.

CHAPTER XXIV.-A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

The next moments were filled with anxiety. The sea was running high, and, although Dr. Perkins had brought his craft upon a level keel by skillful volplaning, before it struck the waves, the situation was extremely serious.

The hydroplane portion of the _Sea Eagle_ was built lightly, and, although it was well strengthened with braces, the test was a severe one. Over the bow the crests of the waves broke constantly, showering the occupants with spray. The _Sea Eagle_ was tossed about helplessly, a plaything of the waves, while her adventurers strove to collect their thoughts and decide what was to be done.

First they adopted Frank's suggestion and donned the life jackets, so that if the worst came to the worst they would have a fighting chance for their lives. When this had been done, Frank, who had had some experience in motor boats, supervised the rigging of a "spray-hood"

across the bow. This kept some of the spray out, and, although it was formed of sheets of spare canvas intended to be used as waterproof night coverings, it answered its purpose well enough.

"Do you think that there is a chance of our keeping afloat?" asked Harry when this had been done.

"Well, we appear to be making out all right so far," rejoined Dr.

Perkins; "the wing floats are working well, and if only we can get the engine going again we may be able to fly ash.o.r.e yet."

The wing floats referred to were nothing more nor less than the light cylindrical pontoons affixed to each lower wing tip. They acted precisely as "outriggers" would do in steadying the _Sea Eagle_. In fact, had it not been for this lateral support, the craft must have turned turtle under the terrific tossing she was receiving.

"I'm going right to work on the engine," announced Frank.

With Harry to help him, the lad proceeded to carry out this purpose. But it was the hardest bit of "trouble finding" he had ever done. The motion of the _Sea Eagle_, as she was tossed on a wave crest and then hurled into the abyss beyond, made it hard to hold on, let alone investigating the complicated mechanism of a motor. But as time wore on and they still kept afloat, they began to have hopes that they would at least stay on the surface till the engine could be started once more.

One after another Frank made the different tests employed to ascertain the various troubles that may a.s.sail a gasolene motor. He tested the ignition, the spark, the gasolene supply and the bearings. Everything appeared to be all right, and he paused in a puzzled way before he went to work on the carburetor. That is a delicate piece of mechanism, even to an ingenious boy like Frank Chester; but he finally concluded that the trouble must lie there. His first task was to open the relief c.o.c.k and drain the bra.s.s bowl of the mixing chamber.