23 chapters
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23 chapters
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
"Telegram, sir." "Who for?" "Dave Dashaway." "I'll take it." The messenger boy who had just entered the hangar of the great prize monoplane of the aero meet at Columbus, stared wonderingly about him while the man in charge of the place receipted for the telegram. The lad had never been in so queer a place before. He was a lively, active city boy, but the closest he had ever seen an airship was a distance away and five hundred feet up in the air. Now, with big wonder eyes he stared at the strange
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
The "BABY RACER" "You know all about it?" repeated Dave Dashaway, looking up in great surprise. "That's what I do," declared Hiram positively. "What do you mean?" "I'll explain." "I wish you would." "I'm a blockhead, that's just what I am!" cried Hiram. "I don't know what possessed me that I didn't tell you all about it before." "See here, Hiram," broke in Dave, "What are you talking about?" "Why, about Mr. Timmins. You know he here night before last and left us then?" "Yes, Hiram, to go to Kewa
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
"Go!" It was less than half an hour after the appearance of Grimshaw on the scene that the Baby Racer was all ready for its stormy night's flight. The old aviator had fussed and poked about the dainty little biplane, as if it was some valued friend he was sending out into the world to try its fortune. Every once in a while he had growled out some brief advice to Dave in his characteristic way. Then he directed and helped, while two field men started the machine on its forward run. "Look out for
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
"We've landed!" shouted Hiram in a jolty tone, plunging forward in his seat in the biplane. "Yes, but where?" Dave asked quickly. "That's so. Whew! What have we drifted into?" The Baby Racer had struck a mass soft and yielding. It drove through some substance rather than ran on its wheels. There was a dive and a joggle. Then the machine came to a halt—submerged. Whatever had received it now came up about the puzzled young aviators as might a snowdrift or it heap of hay. Dave dashed a filmy, flak
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
"What's happened?" cried Hiram, rolling over and over on the gravel walk to which he had tumbled. "Stop that man!" shouted Dave. In a flash the young aviator took in the meaning of the situation. The fugitive, for such he now was, made a quick move the instant he gained his feet. Not waiting to see who had obstructed his progress, and probably deciding that it was the police, he bounded in among some bushes. Dave, running after him, made out his form dimly, swiftly scaling a rear brick wall. "Wh
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
"Dashaway, you're a wonder." "Thank you, sir." "And I'm proud of you," added Mr. Robert King, the winner of the monoplane endurance prize, and the man who had practically adopted Dave into the aviation field. "I've got something to say as to the matter of pride," spoke up old Grimshaw. "A lad who can make the run Dashaway did with the Baby Racer, is a boy to holler about." "If there's anything to be proud about," added Dave, "it's the right good friends I've made." "My friends, too," put in the
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
"What do your suppose that was?" inquired Hiram excitedly. "It was kind of startling," said Dave. "Listen." With the power shut off, the hydroplane drifted, Dave checking its slack running. They were now in a dense fog; with night fast coming on. For the moment everything was still. Then there rang through the misty space one word: "Help!" "It was in that direction," said Hiram quickly, pointing. "I think so, too," nodded Dave, "and not far away." "What could have happened? Those shots?" "Probab
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
Dave hurried his steps. Old Grimshaw turned off at the Aegis headquarters. Hiram led his companion by a short cut to the Baby Racer hangar. On a campstool inside the tent where the boys slept, Dave found a keen-eyed, hatchet-faced man. He sat stiff as a poker, and seemed to pierce Dave through and through with his glance as he looked him over critically. "Dashaway, yes?" he interrogated, and as Dave bowed assent he added: "Thought I'd wait and see you, although our young friend here has been pre
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
Dave Dashaway and his friend were promptly on hand at the Aegis hangar at eight o'clock that evening. Usually the boys took their meals with Mr. King. A group of the airman's admirers, however, had insisted on a special dinner at a hotel just outside the grounds. Hiram piloted the way for Dave to the restaurant on the field. He had worked for the man having it in charge, and the best meal possible was set out for them free of charge. They found Mr. King in the little partitioned off room of the
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
"What is it, Dave?" inquired Hiram, tracing a sudden seriousness in the manner of his comrade. Dave did not reply. With a thoughtful air he passed the telegram to Hiram. "Wonder what's up?" queried the latter. "I can't imagine," said Dave. "They tell you to cancel your dates," went on Hiram, looking very much worried. "Yes, that's what bothers me," replied Dave. "And to come on to the factory at once." "Perhaps they want to pay me off and let me go," suggested Dave, pretending to smile. "Don't t
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
"Stolen!" exclaimed Dave, in dismay. "It startles you?" spoke the manager of the Interstate Aeroplane concern. "So it did us." "But—" "You are mystified—unusual occurrence rather. You can follow the track of a stolen automobile. But when it comes to pursuing an airship, you won't find many familiar roads in the clouds." "How did it happen?" inquired Dave. "Why, we had tested the machine and it was to have been shipped to you yesterday. The day before, our expert made a very fine and satisfactory
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
"You have got a badge like mine for sale, you say?" exclaimed Dave. "That's so," bobbed the tramp with a grin. "Where did you get it?" "That don't go with the sale, but I didn't steal it." "You found it, I suppose?" suggested Dave. "Well, you might call it so." The man drew from his pocket a badge which was the exact counterpart of that worn by the young aviator. "Let me have a look at it," said Dave. "No, sir." "Why not?" "You can see what it is, can't you? I don't want to get into trouble, bos
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
Dave walked straight along the fence. By the shortest route possible he reached the gateway entrance to the factory yard. The tramp had put nimbly in the opposite direction. He was headed for the nearest business street, where he could spend some of the money that he had earned so easily. The young aviator was very much excited. He had made certain discoveries that had amazed him. He could not help but mentally rejoice over the strange fortune that had come from his stray meeting with the tramp.
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
"That is the machine I want, Mr. Randolph," said Dave Dashaway. It was two days after the young aviator had told his friends at Columbus the name of the person he suspected of stealing the aero-hydroplane, the Drifter from the Interstate Aeroplane Company. Now, he and Hiram and the manager of the Interstate plant stood amid the half hundred or more aero machines that comprised the stock of one of the largest factories in that line in the country. They had left the aero meet at Columbus the eveni
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
The manager of the Interstate factory and Dave and Hiram followed the messenger from the plant back to the office. "The gentleman who wishes to see me," the young aviator explained to Mr. Randolph, "is the revenue officer I told you about." "Ah, I think I understand the purpose of his visit, then," said the manager. Mr. Price was the same keen-faced, ferret-like person he always appeared, as Dave introduced him to the manager. "I have heard of you from our young friend, Dashaway," said Mr. Rando
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Hiram stared his hardest at the stranger, Dave's eyes quickened with sudden intelligence. Almost in a flash he took in the situation. "You just mentioned a name," he said. "I would like to mention another one." "All right, what?" "James Price." "Hello!" The stranger looked flabbergasted, as the saying goes. He furrowed his brow as if puzzled. "You have made a mistake," continued Dave. "You think one of us two is Jerry Dawson." "I did think it, yes," admitted the man, a trifle less self assured t
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
The young aviator might well ask the question he put to the moving picture man, for the negative in Dave's hand showed plainly the face and figure of Jerry Dawson. There could be no mistake. The boy who had run away with the Drifter had features strongly marked and not readily forgotten. The picture had been taken in the open street. Jerry was standing there talking to a Chinaman. "Some scene you know, Dashaway?" asked Mr. Alden. "No, somebody I know—and am very anxious to find," replied Dave. "
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
"Hallo! Hallo!" Dave made the echoes ring with the loud call as he moved up and down and across the queer basin, or cairn, where they had landed in the Monarch II the night previous. He had awakened just at daylight to find Hiram Dobbs mysteriously missing. Dave was not worried at the first, but as he looked around and then explored the immediate neighborhood, he began to get mystified, if not alarmed. Neither did his vigorous shouting bring any response. Dave came back to the camp spot to make
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
"Did you see it?" asked Hiram, in a great state of excitement. "Yes," responded Dave. "A rocket." "See! See!" continued Hiram-"there's it second one!" "Sure enough." "Dave, this means something." "For us, you think?" "Yes, I do. Keep near the place where these rockets were fired, Dave. Now then, what do you think?" Dave slowed down. There was certainly something to his companion's surmises or suspicions, whatever they were. Directly at the spot whence the rockets had been fired there now suddenl
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
Dave roused up, wide awake in an instant. He was about to spring to his feet, when Hiram pulled him back with the words: "Don't get up." "Why not?" inquired the somewhat puzzled young aviator. "You'll be seen." "Who by?" "A man who was just here." "Do you mean that, Hiram?" exclaimed Dave in a startled tone. "I certainly do. Look," said Hiram, pointing, and then he added: "No, the trees shut him out now. As I just said, though, we have been discovered." Now Hiram arose to his feet, the danger of
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
It took Dave an hour to find out just what had happened to him. He roused up to find two men carrying him, one at his feet, one at his shoulders. All that he could guess was that they were on land. How he had been fished out of the water, and what had become of the Drifter, the young aviator had no means of knowing. The two men were rough looking fellows and reminded Dave of dock laborers or loiterers. They were big and sturdy, and as Dave stretched out and showed signs of life, one of them rema
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
The young aviator at once recognized the voice in the adjoining room which spoke the excited, words: "We've got the other one, too!" It was Jerry Dawson who had spoken. Dave knew that the statement could refer to no other than his missing chum. Dave was in something of a flutter of suspense. Then his eye brightened and a cheery smile overspread his face, as he caught the words in a dearly familiar tone: "Say, do you want to kill a fellow?" It was Hiram who spoke, in a resentful and disgusted voi
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
"That's good," instantly cried Hiram Dobbs. "They'll have troubles of their own now, maybe." He and Dave listening closely, could now detect bustle and excitement in the rooms beyond their own prison place. They could hear Jerry Dawson fussing and bawling about, while his father's gruff voice seemed to give orders to the men in the place. "I wonder what they will do with us now?" inquired Hiram. "We shall probably soon know," returned Dave. "Get those fellows out of there, you two," they finally
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