The Man Without a Memory Part 62

The laugh provoked him beautifully and stimulated his blasphemy as he ordered me again to let Harden speak to him.

"I can't very well do that, can I? You'll understand why."

"What the devil do you mean by that?"

"Think, man, think. It would stop my getting off with No. 14 in time to reach Schipphasen before dark, if I were to wait an hour before making this trial trip."

"But you mustn't do anything till I come, Vibach," he growled.

"Good. I thought you'd see that." I paused and added: "Of course I will. I've told him we're awfully obliged to him. All right, good-bye.

Don't make it longer than an hour. The days are none too long."

I made as if to hang up the receiver when Harden put out his hand to take it. That was according to specification; and I started as if remembering he wished to speak to Schiller, stumbled against a chair behind me, nearly fell, holding tight to the receiver, and in recovering myself, pulled it clean off the flex and put the 'phone out of action.

A mouthful of apologies for my clumsiness was met by a smile from the good simple man whose conviction of my good faith had been a.s.sured by the half of the conversation he had overheard.

"It is of no consequence at all. My people will put it right in a few minutes," he declared, little guessing what those few minutes meant to me. "What I had to say to Captain Schiller can quite well wait until he arrives," he added.

"He may be a bit put out, but I'll explain that it was my fault entirely. He reckons to be over in about an hour," I said as we returned to the field; "and that will give us nice time for the little experimental flight--our little bit of convincing evidence, eh? He likes the idea, and is as much obliged to you as I am."

"I am only too pleased to be of any service, I a.s.sure you. I myself should be quite prepared to deliver No. 14 to you; but I hope you'll understand my position."

"Certainly, Harden, certainly. Just as clearly as I do my own. I shouldn't think of taking it until he comes. He's a good man to keep in with; a bit crochetty, but influential. It placed you in a nasty fix, and you couldn't do otherwise than you have."

"It's a great relief to me to hear you say that, and please don't talk about obligation."

"That's all right; but Schiller's a useful man to oblige. What sort of a plane is this?" I asked as we reached the men.

"An old type, but quite reliable. We use it for lessons chiefly. The petrol tank filled, Max?" he asked the foreman.

"Yes, sir; but there's something wrong with the engine; keeps missing fire," was the reply.

Pleasant news, seeing that in about ten minutes the mysterious Schiller would be on the scene raising Cain!

"Take long to put right, Max?" asked Harden.

"Can't exactly say, sir. I can't quite get at the mischief yet."

"Let's have a look at her," said Harden; and he and the man wasted five of the invaluable minutes over the examination.

There was only one thing to do. The way out being closed, I must get away in the car.

"It doesn't matter, Harden. After all it's not necessary, you know."

"I'm afraid it would take an hour or two at least," he said, looking up from the engine. "I'm really most annoyed about it."

"Well, I'll stroll back to my car, I've left some papers there I want;"

and I turned away when Max made a suggestion.

"There's a No. 5 over there. She's not so good as No. 2 here, but she could take the lieutenant up. I filled her tank in case, when I found No. 2 was wrong."

"Why didn't you say so before, Max?" cried Harden.

If he had, he would have saved me from a very nasty heart spasm. As it was, there would only just be time to get off safely. But it might have been fatal to appear in any hurry, so I strolled over casually to the No. 5, pretended to look her over, as if time was no sort of consideration, and was climbing into the fuselage when we heard the furious tooting of a motor horn in the distance.

"Hullo, what can that be?" exclaimed Harden.

"Sounds as if some one had had a breakdown and was tooting for help," I suggested with a smile.

A few seconds later the horn sounded again; much nearer this time.

Schiller was in a hurry and no mistake. But all this hurry wouldn't help him now. The bus was an old type needing the help of the mechanics to get moving, and Max struggled with the propeller to start her.

There was a little difficulty and I held my breath. It was a matter of seconds now; seconds which meant life or death to me.

Fortunately Max knew his job thoroughly and knew the bus also and its little peculiarities. He got her going, just as the horn sounded once more and an officer, followed by a couple of soldiers and police, came running round the corner of the buildings and out towards us, shouting furiously and waving their arms.

I shoved the lever and the bus began to move.

"It's Captain Schiller; he's waving to us to stop," cried Harden.

It was just too late. "He'll be able to see me start," I called over my shoulder. "Give him my love and tell him he ought to have been here sooner."

"What do you mean?" shouted Harden.

"He'll know," I yelled. The noise of the engine probably drowned the words, for she was running sweetly; the bus lifted like a bird in reply to the touch of the controls; and I was off.

Not without a cheering salute from the captain, however. I wasn't far away before a bullet grazed the edge of the right plane, and glancing round I saw his soldiers emptying their magazines in the hope of satisfying his loving desire to embrace me.

They were tremendously busy. But it's no easy job to bring a bus down with a rifle bullet, and the majority of Bosches are mighty poor shots; so I didn't worry about it, began to climb, pointing for the frontier, and was soon out of range.

My last glimpse earthwards showed me a little group of dots hurrying to and fro excitedly, like a number of disturbed ants infuriated by the ruin of their nest.

No doubt that was about the condition of things in that Ellendorf nest.

Rather a pity I couldn't be present, perhaps.

But it didn't seem worth while to go back.

I could enjoy the scene sufficiently from the air.

CHAPTER x.x.x

THE END

I had a lovely trip in that old practice bus. She was quite a decent old thing and I let her rip, all out, as long as the daylight lasted.