“trouble surely is hovering over us!” grimly mused tom swift, as he leaped out of bed and hurried into the pilot house, where he found peltok and the two machinists gathered.
“can you speak the language of these bandits?” asked tom of peltok. for that the advancing chinese were bandits there was little doubt.
“oh, yes, i can talk to them. but it will do little good, i fear,” was the answer. “they make it a practice to capture foreigners whenever they can, to hold them for ransom.”
“and they’re likely to capture us unless we can rise soon!” exclaimed tom. “can we?” he asked the machinists.
brinkley shook his head while his companion said:
“it will take about two hours more to fix that carburetor and adjust it.”
“then we’ve got to fight!” said tom. “all right, if they want that they can have it! get out the guns, ned!” he cried. “peltok, you man the ammonia tubes. hartman, you——”
“wait a minute!” advised peltok. “i think if we drive the machine on her wheels in the direction of these bandits they may scatter. they are not as intelligent as the yellow gypsies. we can run on land with only one motor. it will be better than starting a fight, for it will take only a few bullets to damage the machine beyond repair.”
“that’s right,” agreed tom. “but do you think we can bluff ’em?”
“it’s worth trying,” peltok answered. “i’ll give them a word of warning!”
he leaned out of the pilot house window and shouted something which, as ned said later, sounded like the back fire of an auto. the oncoming chinese, none of whom were mounted, halted and talked among themselves.
“i told them,” said peltok to tom, “that you would mow them down as a typhoon mows down a rice field if they did not scatter.”
“what did they say?”
“they expressed some doubts, but i have them frightened. if you’ll start the machine and open the cut-out so the muffler isn’t working, i think they’ll run.”
“better that than shooting them,” declared tom.
it did not take long to start the land motor, and when the engine was warmed up tom opened the cut-out, and such a staccato, rapid series of explosions resulted as to make it sound like a battery of machine guns in action.
there were surprised shouts from the bandits, and some of them started to run. a few however held their ground.
“shave her nose right into the midst of them!” advised peltok. “but run slow, and knock them down gently. since the propellers are aft they will do no damage.”
so tom, guiding the craft, put her in motion toward a knot of the scowling chinese bandits, some of whom seemed about to fire with their antiquated guns.
but when the bandits saw the powerful craft headed straight for them and when the foremost in the line were gently but effectively bowled over, rolling out of the way of the wheels just in time to save their lives, it was too much for the spirit of the rascals.
with cackling, shrill cries they turned and fled, and in a little while the plain was cleared of them. at this tom swift was well pleased, for he did not wish to take life, even of a bandit, if he could avoid it.
“might just as well keep right on with the land motor,” advised ned when the way was clear before them. “we can get to some place better fitted to stand off an attack than we were back there. and we’ll be delayed a bit yet, sha'n’t we?”
“i’m afraid we can’t get that carburetor tuned up before to-morrow morning,” hartman reported. he was an expert on this particular part of a gasoline motor. “it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get to some place where we’d have a hill at our backs,” he added.
“all right,” agreed tom swift, so he guided the craft for several miles across the treeless plain until they reached a plateau which they thought would be a good place to stop.
“now, boys, make the best time you can on that carburetor,” begged tom of his mechanics when they were again at rest. it was decided that it would be wiser to lay to until the repairs were completed, rather than to try to make distance by traveling on land. the air monarch was not at her best climbing hills.
though the delay fretted tom, there was no help for it, and as the afternoon wore away and nothing further occurred to disturb the party, they had visions of taking off early in the morning and heading once more through the air on their course.
“an hour’s work in the morning, and we’ll be all set,” announced hartman as he and the other two mechanics, weary with their labors, sought some much-needed rest. peltok, who was a nervous, restless man, said he would stroll about a bit before turning in, and as tom and ned sought their bunks they saw him walking off in the darkness.
in spite of his anxiety over the delay, tom swift was soon asleep. how long he had slumbered he did not know, but he was suddenly awakened by some one shaking him and in the dim light of a small electric lamp in his cabin he saw peltok bending over him.
“what is it?” asked tom, starting up. “is it morning? are we going to leave now?”
“i don’t know whether we can leave or not,” was the answer. “we are in great danger. listen. i walked out this evening and, most unexpectedly, i came upon a place where the red arrow is hidden in a glen.”
“the red arrow?” cried tom. “you mean kilborn’s ship?”
“yes. she is right near-by, and i believe he and his men know we are here. but that isn’t the worst. kilborn has hired a band of chinese bandits to attack us just before sunrise, disable our plane, and capture us!”
“are you sure of this?” gasped tom.
“very sure! i crept near enough in the darkness to overhear all the details. kilborn was talking to the bandits through an interpreter, and i heard all that was said. the bandits are angry because we repulsed them this morning, and they are eager for revenge. they promised kilborn to attack us in force, to wreck our machine and to carry us off.”
“the dirty rascal!” cried tom. “what can we do?”
“if we could finish those repairs and be ready to start up before they got here, we’d trick them,” said peltok. and when ned, who was aroused by the talk, heard what was in prospect, he too, advised the same thing.
“then we’ll do it!” decided tom. “i hate to route joe and bill out of bed again, but it’s got to be done.”
never a word of protest came from the two mechanics as they sleepily rolled out of their berths, and, with the help of peltok and tom, while ned managed a flashlight, went to work adjusting the carburetor and fitting it in place.
“now we’ll try it,” said hartman when, toward morning, the last of the adjustments were made.
“but if we start the motors and they don’t work,” objected ned, “won’t those bandits, who must be camped near here and waiting, hear them and come to the attack.”
“we’ve got to chance it,” said tom.
luckily, just as they began to make the test a violent storm, with heavy thunder, came up, and the sound of the motors’ exhausts were drowned in the furious rumbles from the sky. the bandits heard nothing of the trial of the airship’s machinery and, to the delight of tom and his friends, the carburetor functioned perfectly.
“we’re ready to go up now!” announced peltok, as the first rosy tints in the sky denoted the coming of dawn. “everything is all right. we’re going up!”
“and here come the bandits!” cried ned as, through the windows of the pilot house, he saw a crowd of chinese advancing.
“lively!” ordered tom. “it’s going to be touch and go!”
the motors roared as more gas was turned on. the air monarch trembled, seemed to cling for an instant to the earth, and then she began moving rapidly.
a cry of astonishment and rage burst from the bandits, who had not expected this. it was rapidly getting light. tom was in charge of the controls and, waiting only until the craft had acquired sufficient momentum, he pulled on the elevating rudder handle.
“there’s kilborn!” shouted ned, as he caught sight of the rascal who had come out to see how his plot worked. he was yelling something, though what it was could not be heard, and he seemed to be urging the bandits to rush up and grab the airship before it could get fully off the earth.
but now the motors were warming up. the nose of the craft lifted. in desperation kilborn yelled and waved his hands wildly. one of the bandits, directly in the path of the plane, made a jump and grabbed a rope that had, inadvertently, been left dangling. he caught it and was lifted up in the air.
“we’re taking him with us!” cried ned, leaning out of the window to observe.
“that’s his lookout!” said tom coolly.
but the chinese bandit had no relish for being taken from his home in this strange fashion. with a yell, he let go the rope when he was ten feet up, and down he fell.
“wow!” yelled ned, with a laugh of delight. “he got his all right!”
“who?” asked tom, who was guiding the plane up higher and higher, out of danger.
“kilborn,” was the answer. “that bandit fell squarely on top of him, and they both went down in a mud puddle! oh, baby!” and ned chuckled in delight while grins of satisfaction spread over the faces of the others.
tom looked down in time to see the discomfited pilot of the red arrow picking himself up from beneath the bandit, his clothes dripping mud and water, and then the air monarch shot on her way.
the remainder of that day was one void of excitement. they traveled in the air over the vast extent of china, making only one descent to get some oil, as a leak developed in one of the reservoirs, allowing much of the precious fluid to drip away. they had a little trouble with the chinese authorities in the city where they landed. but this was not due to any scheming on the part of kilborn. it was just a local “squeeze” custom, and tom had to pay out money for graft. but he said he did not mind as long as he was ahead of the red arrow, and he felt sure that he was.
it was the middle of the next day, when they were about to leave the region above land, once more to sail over water, that tom observed the barometer falling.
“does it mean anything?” asked ned, as he saw the serious look on his chum’s face.
“a storm, i’m afraid,” was the answer. “and a storm here, in the region of the japan sea, is anything but pleasant.”
“bad?” asked ned.
“the very worst,” was tom’s reply. “but we may be able to get above it.”
he increased the speed of the motors and headed the air monarch in a different direction. but the glass continued to fall. the sky soon became overcast and there was a dead calm, as they could tell by looking down on the surface of the sea, which was as flat as a mill pond.
but not for long.
suddenly there was a puff of air that swerved the craft, powerful as she was, to one side. then came a howl as from some mighty siren whistle. tom, who had given peltok charge of the steering wheel, sprang to aid him as the spokes were almost torn from his hands. at the same time the young inventor cried:
“typhoon! typhoon! it’s going to hit us hard!”
then, in spite of all efforts to keep her nose up, the airship began shooting down toward the surface of the sea that was now lashed into foamy waves by the power of the awful wind!
