The Boy Scouts of the Flying Squadron Part 6

It might have been the fourth time he did this that he thrust his head inside again and called to the others to join him.

"That clatter of machinery is hanging around again, Hugh!" he said, excitedly. "Perhaps you'll be able to tell me whatever it means, and if we could really hear the working of the mills all these miles away!"

CHAPTER VII

BUD'S METEOR

Both scouts hurried out to join Bud. They found him standing there with his head c.o.c.ked on one side, apparently listening as hard as he could.

Indeed it did not require any especial gift of hearing to catch the strange noises spoken of by the ambitious inventor. They seemed to be close at hand and constantly growing louder all the time. Just as Bud had declared, the racket was undoubtedly caused by some sort of machinery.

Hugh immediately made an important discovery. It rather startled him, too, as well it might, for he had not been dreaming of anything so unusual.

"Why, it's in the air!" he exclaimed involuntarily.

"Sure it is," agreed the excited Bud; "in the air and everywhere else.

Seems to me I might be listening to a dozen shuttles working with a rush."

"But I mean that it comes from _above our heads_!" Hugh quickly added; at which both the others gasped in wonder, though realizing that what the patrol leader had said was actually true.

"Whatever can it mean?" stammered Bud.

"Say, do you know it makes me think of something I heard over at Bellville during county fair week!" burst out Ralph.

"Meaning an aeroplane?" declared Hugh.

"Just what it was, Hugh," returned Ralph. "But what would a flier be doing away up here, going around and around in the dark of night?"

"I don't know, and that's all I can say," replied the other; "but perhaps we may be able to find out. There it comes again, swinging around in a circle. If we all look sharp, we may be able to glimpse something up against the sky."

"My stars! An _aeroplane_!" Bud was muttering to himself, as he hastened to follow his companions away from the door in order to have a better range of observation. "Of all the things that we could meet up here, an aeroplane! And me just pining away with yearning to see one in action! Oh! don't I hope it turns out that way, though? Do you see it yet, boys? When you do, please put me wise, won't you?"

All of them were straining their eyes to make a discovery, and as it was possible to follow the course of the swiftly circling though as yet unseen object by listening to the rattle of its engine or propeller, they kept their attention directed to one particular quarter.

"Oh! I think I can see it now!" cried Bud excitedly.

"Yes, we all do," added Ralph.

They continued to stare up at the moving object, which, as seen in that uncertain light, looked not unlike a monstrous bat with extended wings. The sound of the busily working machinery grew louder constantly. No wonder Bud had been so perplexed when he heard all this, though more faintly, on the previous night and asked whether it could be possible to catch the sound of the mills many miles away.

As the three scouts continued to stand there gaping at the dimly seen flier, a sudden terrific crash and vivid flash almost stunned them.

Indeed, Bud crumpled up and might have fallen to the ground, only that he came in contact with Hugh and received the support of his firm footing.

The very ground shivered under them. It seemed as though some subterranean mine must have been exploded, causing the rockribbed earth to quiver in a sickening fashion.

When they dared look up again, the queer bat-like object had vanished entirely from sight. Voices were heard, however, close at hand.

They told of more or less excitement; and coming with them was the sound of one or more persons pushing recklessly through the thickets that grew in many places as a second growth.

Presently even these noises died away and a dead silence reigned. By then, Bud managed to regain possession of his voice.

"Oh, another terrible meteor! Why, we must be right in the middle of a shower of shooting stars! And let me tell you, that one hit the earth not a great way off, too! I'm going to take a look in the morning and see if I can find it. They say that college professors often pay big sums for being set on the track of these meteors that bury themselves in the ground. What if she had dropped right down on top of this shanty, boys? I'm glad we got off as well as we did, aren't you, Hugh?"

Hugh did not answer. Evidently he was thinking deeply at that particular moment. There was indeed plenty to concern him in connection with the mysterious aeroplane that nightly circled the region, always accompanied by that strange explosion.

"Seems to me I can smell something queer like burnt powder," Bud presently remarked. "Do meteors explode when they hit the earth, Hugh?" And would they send out a rank odor like that?"

"I don't happen to be up in the doings of meteors, Bud," answered the other, "but I should think it might be something like that.

We'll all take a look after breakfast, and see what we can find.

Perhaps it may surprise us. This seems to be a general all-around surprise party for the lot of us. We were taken aback to find Ralph here in the old shack; he had his surprise when he watched those two men carry on so queerly; then we had the shock last night of hearing thunder and seeing lightning when the sky was clear; after that, the fellow looking in at the window startled us. You were a little surprised your self, I reckon, Bud, at your success in trying out your stability device as applied to aeroplanes. And now comes the discovery that one of the air craft is skimming around here nightly, doing some stunt that we can't understand yet."

"We ought to call this Camp Surprise, then," announced Ralph.

"That's what," echoed Bud.

"Now let us go in again," suggested Hugh. "It seems as if the fireworks might be all over for this particular night. Even the aeroplane has gone off where none of us can hear the motor working any longer."

"Perhaps she dropped to the ground," remarked Bud. "There might be another open place not far away, like the old field where we tried out my little model this morning. And say, doesn't it strike you as funny that just one solitary meteor should take a notion to explode each night?"

No one answered this question, though Bud was too busy pondering on the run of strange events that had fallen to their share of late to notice the lack of interest his comrades seemed to take in the matter.

Once inside, they again sat around talking. It was Ralph this time who gave utterance to a certain fact that had been in his mind, which interested both his chums as soon as they heard it.

"I don't know," he started to say soberly, "whether either of you happened to notice it, but there seemed to be something foreign about the voices we heard after the big noise. Not a single word could I understand, either, and yet they seemed to be pretty near by."

"I didn't happen to notice that, Ralph," Hugh observed seriously; "but if the men who spoke were your mysterious friends of the other day, one thing is sure---they weren't the ones who sat in that speeding monoplane."

"Eh? How do you know that?" queried Bud, becoming deeply interested.

"Well, in the first place," suggested Ralph, not waiting for Hugh's reply, "the sound of voices came from the same level as our own location. I'm dead sure of that fact. Then again we could hear the swish of brush, and I even caught the sound of men crashing through thickets and falling over logs."

"Yes," added Hugh, "and it struck me that they were in something like a blue fright, as though the nearness of that explosion had given them a bad scare. Only a sudden panic could make men rush through thickets as recklessly as they were going."

"Everybody may not like meteors to drop all around 'em," Bud muttered; "and I can't blame the fellows much, either. I came near being knocked flat on my back, myself, when that one let go with a bang.

My ears are ringing yet, and I'm afraid I'll go deaf if I have to hear much more of that sort of cannonading."

Although they continued to sit up for some little time and talk, Hugh did not see fit to mention certain suspicions that had taken root in his own mind. He believed he was on the track of the truth, but until he had a little more positive evidence he hesitated to speak out boldly.

They finally settled down and tried to sleep. Bud seemed to find little difficulty in forgetting all his troubles and triumphs, for his heavy breathing quickly announced that he was dead to the world.

With the other two it was a more protracted task, and possibly they turned over as many as half a dozen times before surrendering drowsily to the G.o.d of slumber.

There was no further trouble during the balance of that night, the second they had spent in the old shack. Sat.u.r.day morning dawned with a clear sky, and it looked as though the day might be a repet.i.tion of the two previous ones. This gratified the scouts very much, for no matter how seasoned a camper may be, the weather has considerable to do with his enjoyment. If rain continues to pour down, there is very little pleasure to be found in spending hours or days under canvas or the leaking roof of a cabin, wishing in vain for a break in the weeping clouds. And so the three lads expressed themselves as contented when they broke out from the shelter of the shack on that morning and found the conditions so favorable.

Bud hoped to make another try with his model before noon, since they expected to be on the move shortly afterward. There was a long hike before them ere they could expect to reach the road leading home, where possibly a wagon might be hired to help get them into town again.