Dave Dashaway and his Hydroplane | Page 7

going at a rapid rate, and every moment the Baby Racer threatened to turn turtle and spill them out.
Dave succeeded in temporarily checking the tendency to tip. All aerial support was gone. He kept the rudder at counterbalance, threw off the power, and wondered what they were headed into.
The next moment the Baby Racer crashed to the ground.

CHAPTER IV
A BUSINESS BOY
"We've landed!" shouted Hiram in a jolty tone, plunging forward in his seat in the biplane.
"Yes, but where?" Dave asked quickly.
"That's so. Whew! What have we drifted into?"
The Baby Racer had struck a mass soft and yielding. It drove through some substance rather than ran on its wheels. There was a dive and a joggle. Then the machine came to a halt--submerged.
Whatever had received it now came up about the puzzled young aviators as might a snowdrift or it heap of hay. Dave dashed a filmy, flake-like substance resembling sawdust from eyes, ears and mouth. Hiram tried to disentangle himself from strips and curls of some light, fluffy substance. Then he cried out:
"Dave, it's shavings!"
"You don't say so."
"Yes, it is--a great heap of shavings, a big mountain of them."
"Lucky for us. If we had hit the bare ground I fear we would have had a smash up."
Gradually and cautiously the two young aviators made their way out of the seats of the machine. They got past the wings. A circle of electric street lamps surrounded them on four sides. Their radiance, dim and distant, seemed to indicate that they were in the center of a factory yard covering several acres.
A little way off they could discern the outlines of high piles of lumber and beyond these several buildings. The biplane lay partly on its side, sunk deep in a heap of long, broad shavings. The mass must have been fully a hundred feet in extent and fifteen to twenty feet high. They reached its side and slid down the slant to the ground.
"Well!" ejaculated Dave.
"Yes, and what?" inquired Hiram, brushing the loose bits of shavings from his soaked tarpaulin coat.
"Business--strictly and quick," replied Dave promptly.
"And leave the Racer where she is?"
"Can you find a better place, Hiram?"
"Well, no, but--"
A man flashing a dark lantern and armed with a heavy cane came upon them around the corner of the buildings. The boys paused. The man, evidently the watchman of the place, challenged them, moving his lantern from face to face.
"Who are you?" he demanded sternly.
"Aviators," replied Dave.
"What's that?"
"We just arrived in an airship."
"No nonsense. How did you get in here?"
"Mister," spoke out Hiram, "we just landed in the biplane, the Baby Racer. If you don't believe me, come to the shavings pile yonder and we'll show you the machine, and thank you for having it there, for if you hadn't I guess we'd have needed an ambulance."
The watchman looked incredulous. He followed Dave and Hiram, however, as they led the way back to the heap of shavings. One wing of the biplane stuck up in the air and he made it out.
"This is queer," he observed. "You say it's an airship?"
"Yes, sir," nodded Hiram.
"We had to make a hurried night journey from Columbus," explained Dave. "There were no trains, and we came with the biplane."
"Well, well, well," commented the watchman. He had heard of Columbus and the aero meet there, and began to understand matters.
"You see," spoke Hiram, "we can't land everywhere, or we'd have to settle some damage suits."
"I will be glad to pay you for letting us leave the machine here till after daylight, and watch it to see no harm comes to it," proposed Dave.
"Why, we'll do that," assented the watchman. "You look like two decent young fellows, and I'm sure the company won't object to letting your airship stay up there for a few hours."
"We will be back to see about it in a few hours," promised Dave.
The watchman led the boys to the big gate of' the factory yard and let them out. The rain had ceased and the wind was not blowing so hard as before.
"What now, Dave?" inquired Hiram, as they found themselves in the deserted street.
"The Northern Hotel."
"Oh, going to try and fix things before daylight?"
"We can't afford to lose a minute," declared Dave. "There's a policeman. I want to ask him a question."
They hurried to a corner where a policeman had halted under the street lamp. Dave inquired the location of the Northern Hotel. Then the boys proceeded again on their way, and reached the place in about half an hour.
The night clerk and others were on duty. Dave approached the desk and addressed the clerk.
"Is a Mr. Timmins stopping here?" he asked.
"Why, no," replied the clerk, looking Dave and Hiram over curiously, their somewhat queer garb attracting his attention.
"Do you know him, may I inquire?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. Timmins has been here