CHAPTER XXIV
THE CLUE ABOVE THE CLOUDS
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Jimmie exclaimed as the boys gazed toward the peak. “I believe that gink had busted up the Louise, not knowing how to run her, and that they’ve abandoned her there.”
“Wouldn’t it be a joke if we could sail over and pick her up again?” asked Kit with a grin.
“Sure it would!” answered Jimmie. “Suppose we try it.”
In a moment the impulsive and foolhardy boys were starting the machine along an incline with the motors going at full speed. When she lifted it was within a few rods of the opposite peak.
Naturally the boys scrutinized the summit before them very closely, as there was still time to lift again should anything like peril appear. However, everything seemed quiet and peaceful below.
Not a moving figure was to be seen. The one light of the Louise burned dimly and appeared to be cloaked with a covering which did not quite perform its duty.
“It’s all right!” Jimmie shouted to his companion. “We’ll land close to the Louise, and you jump down the first thing and see if she’s fit to run. If she is, you climb aboard and push the starter. If she isn’t, you jump back into your seat and I’ll duck away.”
The next minute the wheels of the flying machine were rolling over the rough surface of the summit. Kit sprang out as directed, but Jimmie retained his seat. The instant the boy struck the ground a sharp cry of terror reached Jimmie’s ears, and he also prepared for a spring.
His idea was that his chum had been seized by some one lying in wait beside the machine, and that his assistance would enable the boy to get back into his seat without injury.
However, before Jimmie could execute his purpose, a rope was thrown over his head and shoulders from behind, and he was dragged from the machine. Then, as if in a daze, he saw gathered about him three figures that he knew.
Phillips, Mendoza and the blond aviator were gazing down upon him with triumph in their faces! Behind them stood two slighter men, resembling Japanese, and behind them, in turn, quite a collection of Chinamen.
“Brought my machine back, did you?” asked the blond man.
“Yes,” replied Jimmie struggling with the rope that held his arms to his sides. “I thought you might need it.”
“That’s nice!” smiled the aviator.
“And so you are the boys who left New York to capture Phillips and myself are you?” demanded Mendoza thrusting a savage face toward Jimmie.
“We came out here to try something in that line,” replied the boy.
“If I had known that, you would still be sleeping in the shelter-tent,” the ruffian said with a significant glance.
At this moment one of the Japs turned to Phillips and asked:
“How many more Chinks are there in Two Sisters canyon?”
Jimmie gave a quick start and turned to Kit:
“Does that make you think of Robinson’s barn?” he asked.
“Sure it does!” replied Kit. “It makes me think of the note I found there. I suppose that’s Two Sisters canyon that we just crossed.”
“Your suppose is all right, kid!” laughed the blond man.
“How many more Chinks did you say there were in Two Sisters canyon?” repeated the Jap.
“I don’t know,” replied Phillips. “We have nothing to do with the smuggling end of this game. We have known ever since we reached this part of the country that smuggling was going on, but we have kept away from those engaged in it. How many Chinks were here when you landed from the crippled machine this afternoon?”
“I don’t know,” was the Jap’s reply. “When the machine failed us here and the aviator went away to secure a spark plug from the boys, if possible, the smugglers came up and told us a long story about getting the Chinks out to-night, and they have been about here ever since. I don’t know why they happened to select this peak for their operations just now.”
“I’ll tell you,” said a rough-bearded man, approaching where the two stood. “We selected this peak because in this kind of weather it is always above the clouds, and because the country below is being raked over with a fine-toothed comb by the rangers. Under the circumstances, it appeared to me that the best thing we could do was to hide the fellows high up in the air.”
“I understand now,” the Jap replied. “And you say the officers are below?” he questioned. “Aiming for this peak, perhaps?”
“They certainly are!” replied the smuggler. “Listen a moment and you’ll hear shooting!”
In the short silence which followed the report of firearms could be heard from below. The smuggler darted away, closely followed by the blond aviator, and the two Japs and Phillips and Mendoza began looking about for hiding-places in case a rush should be made for the summit. They found hiding-places, at last, at the edge of the canyon which lay between the two peaks. Kit, forgotten in the sudden excitement, hastily released Jimmie from the rope which held him, and the two boys prepared to mount their machines.
Shouts and cries of anger and alarm were now heard coming up from the slope, still veiled by the clouds, and the boys were under the impression that they might be able to get the aeroplanes away before the summit became a battle-ground. Just as they were about to spring into the seats, however, a sharp cry came from the place where the four men had hidden, and the next moment a storm of bullets swept down from above!
“Je—rusalem!” shouted Jimmie, stepping out and throwing his arms up in token of surrender. “That’s the Ann, and she must be loaded with pirates! Quit shooting!” he yelled at the top of his voice.
Kit was not slow in following the example of his friend, and then the outlaws and the Japs rushed from their hiding-places and also held up their hands in token of submission.
The next instant the powerful aeroplane, Ann, swept down upon the surface with a force which almost sent her off on the other side! The sheriff, the ranger and Havens sprang from their seats with revolvers in their hands, and by this time Jimmie and Kit had their own weapons out.
Almost before the four men could catch their breath, they were handcuffed by the sheriff.
“And that,” exclaimed Havens, “is about the neatest and slickest capture I ever heard of!”
“If you fellows hadn’t mixed up with the smugglers,” the sheriff said to Phillips, “you might have chased about here a good many more days yet without being taken.”
“We didn’t mix up with the smugglers!” growled Phillips. “They mixed up with us!”
By this time the firing below had in a measure ceased, and Gilmore hastened down a break in the clouds which looked to those above almost like a trap door into a dark basement. He returned in a few moments with a smile on his face.
“The boys we sent to make the attack from below,” he said, “have captured a score of Chinamen and all the smugglers, including a blond aviator who says he came from New York.”
“Well, boys,” Mr. Havens said with a smile, “we may as well get the machines ready for a visit to Westchester county. It appears to me that the case is closed. The sheriff will, of course, attend to the extradition proceedings and deliver the prisoners over to the New York officers. Our work is finished.”
If looks of rage and hate could kill, then Havens would certainly have been murdered at that instant, for the four prisoners glared at him as if holding him responsible for all their troubles.
“For your information, boys,” Havens said, “I’ll tell you that the DeMotts and their crowd of abductors and river thieves have all been captured since the night they entertained me on board the Nancy.”
“You’ve got nothing against us after you get us to New York!” Mendosa declared. “You can’t prove anything!”
This remark seemed to bring an idea to the mind of the fellow, for he began cautiously feeling about in his vest pockets with his manacled hands.
Watching him closely, Ben saw Mendoza take something from his left-hand vest pocket, drop it to the ground and move forward to crush it under his foot. The boy sprang forward and rescued the object, which was wrapped in thin tissue paper.
The boy tore the paper away and held a diamond ring with four small diamond settings showing. There was a place for the fifth setting, but it was empty. Havens took the ring into his hand and examined it carefully. Then he faced Mendoza with a smile.
“No proof against you?” he exclaimed. “This is the ring you wore on the night you burglarized the Buyers’ Bank and murdered the watchman. All the criminal officers in New York know the ring as well as they know your ugly face.”
“And what has the ring to do with it?” demanded the prisoner.
“And here,” Havens continued taking a slender roll of tissue paper from his pocket, “are the stone and the gold claw broken from the ring on the night of the robbery and murder. They were found by the police on the rug in front of the desk in the bank where you divided the stolen securities. And so,” continued the millionaire, “you are convicted at last by the Clue Above the Clouds!”
For the purposes of this narrative the famous murder case closed there. It is of little interest to explain how the Flying Machine Boys returned to New York, or how they received a goodly portion of the reward offered for the capture of the smugglers. In fact, the boys were so busy planning another trip that they nearly lost interest in the murder case as soon as they reached Havens’ hangar in Westchester county!
They appeared as witnesses at the trial of the man who had been shot on the night the destruction of the hangar was attempted, and were well satisfied when he received a sentence of five years at Sing Sing.
The man’s confession revealed the names of the New York parties who had been concerned in the attempt to prevent the Flying Machine Boys from departing on their mission to the Pacific coast.
These criminals were all arrested and punished with the DeMott gang, and, after the electrocution of Phillips and Mendoza, the famous criminal combination was heard of no more.
With all the cases settled, the boys pushed their arrangements for another trip in their machines. Kit, of course, assisted in all the preliminaries, and the boys often declared that the finding of him was worth the trip to the Pacific!
The next adventures of the boys will be recorded in the next volume of this series entitled:
“The Flying Machine Boys in the Wilds; or, the Mystery of the Andes.”