The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 172 pages of information about The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing.

The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 172 pages of information about The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing.

“What business have they got bothering us this way?” he grumbled.  “Say, don’t you suppose it would be all right for me to try a few shots at ’em with the fine Marlin repeating rifle we’re carrying?  Perhaps I could give ’em a scare anyhow and make ’em haul off.”

“No, I wouldn’t think of it,” replied Frank, hastily.  “You might cause trouble to our own delicately balanced little aeroplane by firing.  And then again, what if you brought about an accident and sent them down to the earth like so many stones?”

“But you know those other chaps banged away at us and they didn’t bother their heads a cent whether they upset our whole business or not,” objected Andy, belligerently.

“Two wrongs never make a right, Andy.”

“But when they opened fire on us,” the other went on, complainingly, “that constituted a declaration of war, and so you sec, we’d be quite justified in giving ’em back the same kind of medicine.”

“You forget that one of those two in the biplane is a former schoolmate of ours and that perhaps he’s just being compelled to chase us right now,” said Frank.

“Think so, do you?” growled Andy, above the rattle of the exhaust; “well, I’d like to warrant you that Puss Carberry is grinning right now, because of the fright he thinks he’s giving us.  No, sir, he’s only too willing to do anything to upset our plans.  I know him pretty well, and I wouldn’t put any meanness past that fellow.”

Frank in secret did begin to feel more than anxious.  The afternoon was almost over and the sun perilously near the western horizon.  Too well did he know how rapidly darkness came after the disappearance of the king of day.

He bade Andy pay more attention to the lay of the country ahead of them.

“We’re keeping well ahead of the biplane,” he observed, “and there’s little danger of their overtaking us.  But in case they drop out of the race we must try and know something of the chances for a landing ourselves.”

“Gee! it looks pretty punk down there!” admitted Andy, after he had carefully turned the glasses forward and down.

“That’s what is bothering me,” Frank said.  “We’ve sure got to drop, sooner or later, because it would be utterly impossible for us to keep afloat all night.  And if there happens to be no opening in that dense forest, how can we land?”

“Listen! as sure as you live they’re trying to wing us with a shot!” cried Andy.

“Well, I wouldn’t bother about that.  The fellow only has a revolver, if I know the sound of one, and he could never reach us at this distance.  It tells me that he’s got to about the limit and that something is going to change pretty soon, mark my words, Andy.”

Of course one of Frank’s objects in saying this was to encourage his chum, for he knew that in all probability Andy was getting pretty close to what he himself would call a “blue funk.”

Sure enough the reports continued until just six had reached their ears faintly.

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Project Gutenberg
The Aeroplane Boys on the Wing from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.