The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune Part 23

"Look! They're going up!"

"So they are!" cried the spectators, as if there was any room for doubt about the matter.

The light _Firefly_ was first, by the fraction of a second, to point her sharp nose up toward the tranquil blue dome of the sky. But the _Sea Eagle_ was not tardy in following.

"Come on!" shouted Mr. Studley, casting a swift glance back over his shoulder at his large comrade of the air. He appeared to think that he would have little difficulty in distancing the huge machine.

"We haven't begun yet!" cried Dr. Perkins back to him, with an answering wave of the hand.

Nor was the _Sea Eagle_ as yet making a quarter of the speed she was capable of. On account of her great weight, and general size of her wing spread, it was not advisable to "open everything up" at once when she made an ascent from the land.

The _Firefly_ darted ahead like some creature that rejoiced to be sporting in its element. But close behind came a roar and whirr as Frank let out another notch on the _Sea Eagle_. Up and up they flew, while the crowd below dwindled to pigmies, and the houses looked like so many toy Noah's Arks. It was plain enough that Mr. Studley was engaged in a good-natured effort to show his friend that the _Firefly_ was an infinitely faster craft than her c.u.mbersome rival. He darted this way and that, making spirals and doing rocking-chair evolutions with the perfection of aerial grace.

Dr. Perkins attempted none of these stunts, but from time to time he turned back to Frank and nodded as a signal to give the craft a little more power.

By the time the twin propellers were developing their top push and speed, the owner of the _Firefly_ realized that he had a tussle on his hands. He ceased his graceful evolutions and settled down to real flying. But he had not gone a mile over the aerial race track before the _Sea Eagle_ thundered past him like a "Limited" of the skies.

"Good-by and thank you!" Dr. Perkins found time to yell, as they flashed past, bound due south once more.

"Good-by. Good luck to you!" came from Mr. Studley, as he waved his hand in the realization that he was beaten.

There was no time to exchange more words. In a few minutes the boys, looking back, could only see a black speck like a shoe b.u.t.ton against the sky to mark where the defeated _Firefly_ was turning about and heading for home.

As for the _Sea Eagle_, at sixty miles an hour, and with her motor going faster every minute, that staunch and speedy craft was winging her way at top speed for her distant goal.

CHAPTER XXVI.-THE BOY AVIATORS' PLUCK.

But it was almost a week later that the 1,400 odd miles down the coast to Fernandina, Florida, and from thence overland to the Crescent City, were completed. Storms and minor accidents spun out the voyage to this length, although Dr. Perkins had calculated on making a faster run. In fact, his aim had been to make about 500 miles a day, with night flights to help out, if possible.

Many interesting incidents, which it would require another volume to chronicle in detail, marked the trip. Off Savannah the _Sea Eagle_ towed a disabled motor boat, containing a pleasure party, into port, and a short time later flew above the Atlantic squadron of the United States fleet bound south for target practice. Aerial greetings were exchanged by wireless between the _Sea Eagle_ and Uncle Sam's bulldogs of the ocean.

The next day the _Sea Eagle_ was once more enabled to render aerial ambulance service by taking an injured keeper from a lighthouse off Fernandina into port, and arranging for a subst.i.tute to be sent out at once. At every city they stopped they received a great reception, for by this time the flight of the _Sea Eagle_ had received the attention of the country through the medium of the newspapers.

Possibly one incident may be worth chronicling in more detail. This occurred when, a short time after rising for a night flight from Eufala, Alabama, to the Mississippi State line, Frank descried, through some trees, what he thought was the rising moon.

"That's the funniest-looking moon I ever saw," declared Harry, who happened to be doing duty as engineer.

"Why, what's the matter with it?" demanded Frank.

"Why, it's red."

"Probably caused by the mist from some marshlands," decided Dr. Perkins, who was resting, while Frank guided the _Sea Eagle_, at which he had become quite expert. But the next moment he changed his opinion.

"It isn't the moon at all. It's the glare from a fire, and a big one, too. Let's hurry up, boys."

Neither Frank nor Harry needed any urging, and the _Sea Eagle_ was soon traversing the air so fast that the wind sang in their ears. As they raced along the glare grew brighter and angrier, glowing with a lambent red core from which flames could be seen leaping skyward like a nest of fiery serpents.

A few minutes brought them into full view of the conflagration. It proved to be a fine old farm-house. The front of the place was a ma.s.s of flame, and the blaze appeared to be bursting through the roof. Men could be seen running about the grounds like a nest of disturbed ants, and others were hastening on foot, in autos and in buggies, from every direction.

n.o.body paid any attention to the oncoming aeroplane in the excitement, and when it dropped to earth on the lawn in front of the blazing building, there was the liveliest sort of confusion. Some of the farmers did not know what to make of the visitor from the skies, but their more enlightened neighbors soon informed them, and recalled the newspaper accounts they had read of the _Sea Eagle's_ great flight.

"Anybody in the building?" shouted Frank, jumping from the _Sea Eagle_ as the craft came to a standstill.

n.o.body answered for a moment, but suddenly, from the back of the building, came a piercing scream.

"Help! Help!"

"Goodness, that's a woman calling!" exclaimed Frank. "Come on, Harry."

Both boys dashed round to the rear of the blazing mansion, and there, at a third-story window, they saw a woman with a baby in her arms, leaning out and frantically calling for help.

"Get a ladder!" shouted Frank.

"No time to hunt for it," cried Harry. "We'll have to try another way."

"What do you mean?"

"See the flat roof of that coach house over there? If we had a board we could make a bridge from it to the window."

"But how are we to get to the roof of the coach house?"

"Fly there."

"What! in the _Sea Eagle_?"

"Why not? The roof is flat and big enough to give us room to land if we are careful."

"Cracky! I think you're right. Has anybody got a board?"

"Here you are," exclaimed a man who had darted off to a lumber pile when he overheard Harry's plan.

"Good! I think this will be long enough. Come on, Harry, let's lose no time. See, the flames are almost at that part of the house."

At top speed the two boys ran back to the _Sea Eagle_, calling to Dr.

Perkins to join them. Hastily they explained what they meant to do. Dr.

Perkins was inclined to doubt if the plan was feasible, but as it appeared to be the only way to save the woman and the child, he agreed to attempt it, grave though the risk of disaster to the _Sea Eagle_ appeared to be.

While the excited men gathered about, and the woman's cries still filled the air, the _Sea Eagle_ was started up, and after circling about, dropped to the coach house roof. The big craft landed without mishap, but Frank reversed the engines barely in time to prevent her from rolling off. However, with the front wheels of the substructure on the very brink of the cornice, the _Sea Eagle_ came obediently to a standstill.

They had brought the board with them, and it was shoved across to the woman, who saw at once what they intended to do. She secured it to the ledge of the window at which she had been standing, and Frank worked his way across the plank bridge and took the child in his arms. He recrossed in safety with it, and then came the woman's turn to trust herself to the frail bridge. But she hesitated till smoke was pouring into the room, and then, fairly driven to try the slender support, she began to cross it.

From the coach house roof the boys called encouragingly to her, for the plank was far too weak to bear the weight of two persons. Even under Frank and the baby it had sagged ominously. Something in the woman's face as she neared the end of her journey caused Frank to reach out toward her. It was well that he had the foresight to do so, for as she reached the end of her journey she suddenly fainted.

Another instant and she would have fallen forty feet to the ground, but Frank caught her dress in a strong grip. Luckily, it was of stout material and did not rip as he seized it. Dr. Perkins and Harry came to his aid the next minute, and with their united strength they managed to draw the woman's limp form to safety.