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Frank Merriwell's Bravery, a novel by Burt L. Standish |
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Chapter 16. The Mad Inventor |
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_ CHAPTER XVI. THE MAD INVENTOR Frank and Barney were strolling about the place when they came upon Professor Scudmore. "Ha, young gentlemen!" cried the eccentric old fellow; "come with me. I am about to start upon my trial voyage. The _Eagle_ is inflated and ready to soar. I wish you to witness my triumph." He took them outside the town to a secluded glen, in which was an old cabin and a huge, odd-shaped arrangement of silk, fine wires, and wickerwork. It was, in fact, a balloon, shaped like an egg, and inflated with gas. To it was attached a large and comfortable car, and there were two huge fore and aft rudders, together with some fan-like arrangements that seemed to be sails. This strange contrivance was secured to the ground by strong ropes. "There!" cried Scudmore; "you now behold the _Eagle_, a flying-machine that will fly, or, rather, sail. With the wind it will travel at wonderful speed, and it can beat to windward like a vessel. I have been at work upon it for years. Some time ago I perfected it, and I brought it here for my trial voyage. I have set it up and inflated it without attracting attention or advertising myself. I should not have called on Professor Scotch, but I was full of enthusiasm, and thought it would be a fine thing to have an eminent man like him accompany me on my first voyage." The boys looked at each other. "Phwat do yez think av it, Frankie?" asked Barney. "Can't tell," was the reply. "Let's look her over." "That's right, look her over," urged Professor Scudmore. "I am going to start at once, but I must first get aboard a few things that are in this hut." So the boys examined the airship, while the inventor brought bundles from the hut and placed them in the car. "Phwat do yez think now?" asked Barney, when they had looked it over quite thoroughly. "Will she sail?" "She will rise in the air, like an ordinary balloon," said Frank; "but I am not satisfied that the rudders and sails will work." "I will soon satisfy you on that point," said the professor, who happened to be near enough to overhear their words. Immediately he set about explaining everything in connection with the handling of the singular craft, and it did not take him long to make it seem an assured thing that the _Eagle_ could be steered in almost any direction, and that, with the aid of horizontal rudders, she could be brought to the ground or sent soaring into the air, without a change of ballast or the body of gas. Frank was intensely interested. "It is remarkable, professor!" he cried. "Scotch made a mistake when he refused to accompany you on your trial trip." "Ha! You are a boy of sense! Saw it the first time my eye rested on you. I will make you famous." Frank looked surprised. "How?" "You shall accompany me on my trial trip." "How long will it be?" "As long, or as short as we choose to make it. What do you say? Decide quickly. I am eager to be off." "Can you take Barney along?" "I can, but two is enough. I do not care for too many." "Can you drop us in Blake by nightfall?" "Yes." "Well, if you will take us both, we'll go along, professor." Scudmore considered, his right elbow resting in the hollow of his left hand, the long forefinger of his right hand touching his forehead. "I will do it!" he cried, with a snap. "Get in. We'll lose no more time. In a few moments we shall be sailing away like a bird." "Here goes, Frankie," grinned the Irish lad. "Av we're both killed, Oi want yez to tell me ould mither how Oi died." They entered the car, and Scudmore prepared to cast off. He was full of anxiety and excitement. At length but a single rope held the now swaying and surging air ship to the ground. "Here goes the last strand that ties us to earth!" cried the professor, as, with the slash of a knife he severed the rope. Up shot the air ship. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the inventor. "Who said I would fail! We are off!" "Thot's all right," muttered Barney; "but will we ivver come back?" "Look!" cried Frank, pointing downward; "there is Professor Scotch! We are already passing over the town." It was true; in a remarkably brief space of time the air ship had sailed out of the glen and was rising above the town. Looking downward, they saw Professor Scotch and a number of persons, including Walter Clyde and two rough-looking companions, staring up at the _Eagle_. "Good-by, professor," shouted Frank, leaning out of the car and waving his hat. "We're off in search of the last of the Danites." They saw the professor dance wildly around and beckon to them. Then his voice came faintly to their ears: "Here, here, you rascals! come right back here this minute! If you don't, I shall have to----" They could understand no more, for the swiftly rising air ship carried them beyond the reach of his voice. Professor Scudmore was chuckling to himself, as he worked at the apparatus which controlled the sails and rudders. "It is a success, and my fortune is made!" he was saying. "I shall become richer than Jay Gould ever was! Ha! ha! ha! I shall not only be rich, but I shall be honored!" "Oi don't loike th' way he is actin', Frankie," whispered Barney. "Thot laugh does not sound natural at all, at all." "You are right," admitted Frank. "Is it possible we have started out on this kind of a cruise with a man whose brain has been turned?" "It may be thot." "The situation will not be at all pleasant if it turns out that way." "He is getting control av th' ship. See how he handles her now, me b'y." It was true that the inventor was getting control of the _Eagle_, and he was beginning to "put her through her paces," as it were. He ran before the wind, then luffed and took first one tack and then the other. The remarkable craft behaved very well. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the professor, wildly. "I am the king of the air! I am the first man to make a successful air ship. The world and all its countries are mine! I can destroy armies and change the destiny of nations! I am the greatest man who ever lived!" "By Jove!" muttered Frank, in alarm; "I believe the man is going mad!" "It looks loike thot," admitted the Irish boy. "In which case, this will be the worst scrape we ever got into, Barney. That is plain enough to see." "Roight, me laddybuck! An' th' professor will soay it wur judgment on us fer runnin' away." "He will. But we ought to be able to handle this man between us, if it comes to a struggle with him." "We can; but can we handle th' ship afther thot, Oi dunno?" "That is a question we cannot answer till we try the trick. But there may be no trouble at all with Scudmore if we do not anger him." Below them lay a wild panorama of broken country, through which ran Green River to plunge deep into the winding mazes of Labyrinth Canyon, away to the southward. Away to the west, beyond the San Rafael Swell, rose the Wasatch Mountains; being much nearer than the Rockies to the eastward, and, therefore, looking nearly as lofty. To the north were Desolation Canyon and the Roan Cliffs, the latter rising brown and bleak at the southern boundary of the Ute Reservation. To the south of mighty Colorado, rolling through the dark depths of canyons which seemed to sink deep into the bowels of the earth. Farther to the south, beyond the Fremont, which as yet could not be seen, Mount Pennell lifted its snow-capped summit eleven thousand feet in the air. Mount Pennell was in the very heart of the mountain region in which the last of the Destroying Angels had found homes. "Professor!" said Frank, speaking gently. "Ha! ha!" muttered the inventor, as he threw over a lever and sent the _Eagle_ scooting in a breathless sweep toward the earth. "She is like a bird! Up or down, to the right or left, she will sail in any direction." "Professor!" "Don't bother me now--don't bother me!" he almost snarled. "I was a fool to take you along! I should have retained all the honor for myself. Now you will share it. It will be published all over the world that you accompanied Professor Scudmore on his trial trip in his wonderful air ship." He glared at them a moment, as if he longed to cast them overboard, and then the handling of the craft claimed his entire attention. "How do yez loike it, Frankie, me b'y?" asked Barney, with a sly nudge at his companion. "It is decidedly uncomfortable." "Phwat shall we do--jump th' son-av-a-goon at wance?" "Nothing of the sort. We will keep still, as if we are quite satisfied and content. I will draw him into conversation when I think it proper, and he may be brought round all right." So the boys remained silent and passive, one of them constantly watching Scudmore, so that they might not be taken by surprise, in case he took a fancy to attack them. He continued to mutter and talk to himself, now and then laughing in a way that was not pleasant to hear. The boys fell to wondering what the various bundles contained. Opening one of them, covertly, they found it was a supply of dried beef. "Great shmoke!" gasped Barney. "He has laid in a supply av provisions to larrust a wake!" Frank nodded. "It looks that way; but these things are not all provisions. See there at his side--one of those bundles contains firearms, for you may see the muzzles of two rifles protruding. I fancy the bundle next to that contains ammunition." "Whoy, thot's enoogh to shtock a small arumy, Frankie!" "A man like Professor Scudmore has very little notion as to what he needs or desires, and so he is liable to obtain four or five times what is necessary." "Are you talking of me?" harshly demanded the inventor. "Then speak up distinctly. I may think you are plotting against me--plotting to keep me from reaching the land beyond the ice." "The land beyond the ice?" cried Frank. "That is what I said." "Well, what did you mean? Whither are we bound?" "For the South Pole," was the answer. "Ha! ha! ha! We will pass over the ice floes and reach the land beyond them!" _ |
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