Chapter XI: A Foe in the Air

"What is it?" asked Matt, struggling up on the cot.

No revolver had caused the report he had heard. From the sound he knew that a rifle had been fired.

A babel of excited voices now came to him from without, accompanied by sounds of running feet diminishing rapidly in the distance. Then came another report, and another, both from a more distant point than the first.

The girl stepped through the doorway and was looking upward.

"Take off these ropes!" called Matt. "Let me get out there and see what is going on!"

The girl turned and reentered the hut. Her face wore an expression of the utmost concern.

"No," said she, "I can't release you just now. If dad was to come and find that I'd set you free, he would suspect me at once and that would spoil my plans."

"But what was the cause of that shooting?" persisted Matt.

"There's another air-ship over the island----"

"Another air-ship?" echoed Matt.

"Yes. It must be Jerrold's, although how he ever found out where dad was is more than I know. Dad and the rest were shooting at the air-ship with rifles."

"I'll bet it's somebody who's come looking for me!" exclaimed Matt. "If your father and his gang should kill anybody----"

"They won't," interrupted the girl, confidently; "dad knows better than to do anything of that kind. They'll try to put a bullet or two into the gas-bag of the air-ship and frighten Jerrold away."

"Go and take another look," said Matt, anxiously. "See what they're doing."

The girl glided to the doorway again.

"The other air-ship is moving off," the girl reported, with a measure of relief in her voice, as she came back. "I think the bullets must have injured the propeller, or some of the machinery, for the air-ship is moving very slowly and seems to be in trouble."

"Did you see how many were aboard?"

"There were three in the car--one of them was Jerrold, and he was managing the motor."

"The other two," asked Matt, eagerly, "do you know who they were?"

"One of them was in uniform, and looked like a policeman. The other was short and thick-set and looked like a German."

"Carl!" exclaimed Matt, jubilantly. "Good old Carl! How did he ever find out where I was, I wonder?"

"I'll bet dad is trying to guess the same thing," said the girl. "He'll be badly cut up over this. But it's no more than he ought to expect," she added. "Whenever a man breaks the law he'll have to pay for it, sooner or later."

"What has your father been doing?" asked Matt.

"I came to talk with you about that. While I'm giving you your breakfast, I'll tell you my plans. Dad, and all the rest except Whipple, are off in the swamp, somewhere, keeping track of Jerrold's air-ship, and that will give us a chance."

Matt swung his bound feet over the edge of the cot, and while he sat there the girl drew a chair close and began giving him his breakfast.

"Dad has been doing a lot of criminal things," said the girl, "and all he built that air-ship for was to make it easy for him to rob people and get away without being found out. Didn't you guess that when I showed you that article in the paper? I thought you might."

"I've been mighty thick-headed," answered Matt, between mouthfuls, "and I never thought the thing through that far. Possibly it's because so much has been happening to me since I went into that place on Hoyne Street."

"It's nearly broken my heart having dad act like he's been doing," said the girl, her lips quivering. "If mother had lived she'd have kept dad straight, but when she died dad just seemed to go to the dogs. He has tried to make the people in South Chicago think he was just an honest inventor, but, even at that, he stole all his ideas from Jerrold. That balloon house, that he built out of some of the proceeds of his first robbery, was put up for what they call a 'blind.' With a big house like that, out in plain sight, dad felt that everybody would think his work was open and aboveboard. When he committed any robberies, the Hawk was taken from the shed in the dead of night, and Harper would steer it for the place they were to rob. The blackest kind of a night was always selected, and only flat-topped buildings were robbed. You see, the air-ship would alight on the roof, and dad and the rest would break into the building from the top. When they left they always went in the same way they came, and the police were puzzled because they could not find any clues in the lower part of the buildings."

"It was a slick scheme," commented Matt.

"That's the way Hartz & Greer's place was robbed," proceeded the girl. "Dad and the rest got fifteen thousand dollars' worth of goods from Hartz & Greer, and for more than a week the stuff has been hidden in that house on Hoyne Street. But now dad has left South Chicago for good and all. He's afraid the police are beginning to suspect him, and that Jerrold might try to do something on account of those stolen blue prints."

It was perfectly plain to Matt that the girl's recital of these crimes, in which her father had played the leading part, was anything but easy for her. She was talking from a sense of duty, and Matt honored and admired her for the stand she was taking.

"It doesn't seem possible," said he, gently, "that Brady is your father."

"But he is," she answered brokenly, "and he has brought shame and disgrace on me. But what could I do? Dad knows how I feel about his actions, and he has watched me and kept me away from other people ever since he began his stealing. When you came to the house, last night, it was the first chance I have had to tell what I know. I overheard dad and Pete planning what they were going to do if you came, and--and I hoped you would come, although I knew you would never leave the house until you were taken away as dad's prisoner. I felt sure, though, that I could help you to escape, and I feel even more sure of that now than I did before."

"What is your name?" asked Matt, his eyes full on the girl's face.

"Helen," she answered.

"What are your plans, Helen?" he asked.

"My plan," she went on, "is for you to get away from the swamp in the Hawk, and to take the stuff stolen from Hartz & Greer with you. That will stop everything, for dad will be perfectly helpless without the air-ship. Then, too, you can return the stolen diamonds and jewelry to Hartz & Greer, and that will go far toward righting one wrong. When you are back in South Chicago, you can send the police here and--and they can capture dad and the rest."

Matt had finished eating and the girl had put aside the dishes. Suddenly she broke down and hid her face in her apron. For a few moments she sobbed convulsively.

Small wonder her feelings overcame her! In carrying out her ideas of right and justice, she had planned to give her own father into the hands of the law.

"You're a noble girl, Helen!" declared Matt. "But how am I to get away in the air-ship and to take the stolen property with me?"

"You already know how to run the machine," said the girl, recovering herself a little and looking up, "and when the right time arrives I will come here and take off your ropes. As for the stolen property, I will see to it that that is put in the car before you start. There will be danger in what you do, but, from what I have heard, you know how to win out in spite of it."

"I will run any risk to get away from here," returned Matt, gravely, "but when I go you must go with me. This is no place for you--with such a thieving gang!"

"I must stay here," the girl said resolutely. "Even though I am sending my father to prison I want to be with him to the last. If something isn't done," she continued passionately, "he will go on and on, constantly from bad to worse, and perhaps some time"--her face blanched as she spoke--"he might receive worse than a prison sentence. It is the only way to save him."

It was clear that Helen Brady had spent much time in thinking out and planning her present course, and how much mental anguish and bitterness of spirit her conclusion had cost her, only she could know.

"I am ready to do whatever you want me to," said Matt, "and if you think it best to stay here, all right. I still believe, though, you ought to leave this place with me."

"No, no," she replied firmly. "I have thought it all out a dozen times, and I have made up my mind as to what it is right for me to do. You must get away from here in the air-ship. With the Hawk taken away from him, dad will be helpless."

"Haven't you any friends or relatives to whom you could go?" asked Matt.

"I have relatives on my mother's side, but they won't have anything to do with dad or me--simply because dad is what he is. They have asked me to leave dad and come to them, but I know my place and what it is right for me to do."

A brief silence fell between the two, during which Matt turned the queer problem over in his mind.

"When do you think your plan can be carried out?" he asked presently.

"It has got to be soon, if at all," she answered. "I don't know what effect this appearance of Jerrold's air-ship over the swamp will have on dad, but I hope it won't interfere with my plans. We'll have to wait a little while and see. Whipple is watching the Hawk now, and----"

Just at that moment a heavy step was heard outside. A man appeared in the doorway, stared in at Matt and the girl for an instant, and then strode into the hut.

The man was Brady, and his face was black as a thundercloud.

"What're you doing here so long?" he cried angrily to the girl. "Clear out! I've got something I want to talk over with King."

With a supplicating look at her father, the girl got up and passed out of the hut.