<h2 id='chap13'>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
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<div>A REMARKABLE EXPLANATION</div>
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<p class='c011'>The <i>Ariel</i> had found a landing place where some
short crisp grass covered a spot bare of trees and
rocks. Hiram brought the <i>Scout</i> to a halt not
twenty feet away. He shut off the power, leaped
out and approached Dave. The latter stood by the
side of his machine watching the police officer who
had run to the edge of the gully.</p>
<p>“Dave, this has been a startler; hasn’t it?” exclaimed
Hiram.</p>
<p>“You are one of the wisest boys in the world,”
spoke the young airman. “Without that spark
signal we should never have got a start on your
trail.”</p>
<p>“Has it done any good, after all?” questioned
Hiram. “My passenger has got into deeper
trouble; hasn’t he?”</p>
<p>“It looks that way,” answered Dave. “We saw
him stumble over that ledge yonder.”</p>
<p>“Maybe it was a trick,” suggested Hiram.
“He’s a bad one, I can tell you.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='101' id='Page_101'></span>“Here comes the policeman. Any trace of him,
officer?”</p>
<p>The recent passenger of the <i>Ariel</i> looked serious.
He held in his hand a dark lantern, the rays of
which, the others had noticed, he had been flashing
over the edge of the gully.</p>
<p>“Got a rope?” he asked.</p>
<p>“I have one, in the <i>Scout</i>. Always carry it,”
volunteered Hiram briskly and he ran to his machine
and returned with the coil in question.</p>
<p>“The fellow won’t run any further away from
us this time,” advised the policeman. “He’s lying
on a shelf of rock about twelve feet down. Both
of you can help me.”</p>
<p>The boys followed him. They took a look over
the edge of the gully as their leader flashed his lantern
down. There, plainly visible, was the recent
passenger of the <i>Scout</i>.</p>
<p>“He’s insensible, or dead,” spoke the officer in a
callous, professional tone. “He must have landed
head first. We must get him up here. I want a
look at those sparklers.”</p>
<p>The man’s word grated harshly on both Dave and
Hiram. They proceeded, however, to follow the
directions of the officer. The rope was not heavy,
but was very strong, being reinforced with strands
of flexible wire.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='102' id='Page_102'></span>It took them nearly fifteen minutes to lower the
policeman and hoist, first the injured man and then
the officer, to the surface. As the fugitive lay extended
motionless upon the grass the officer inspected
him with the aid of the dark lantern.</p>
<p>“None of his limbs seem broken,” he reported,
“but he got a terrific crack on his head. I’ve seen
a good many cases of such hurts, and I guess this
fellow has run his last race.”</p>
<p>“Can’t we do something for him?” asked Dave
solicitously.</p>
<p>“Say,” broke in Hiram, “I see the lights of a
settlement over to the west there. It can’t be more
than a mile away.”</p>
<p>“You had better reach it, then,” suggested Dave.</p>
<p>“Yes, and get them to send a wagon, or an ambulance,
for this man,” added the policeman.</p>
<p>Dave helped his assistant get the Scout off the
ground, its pilot marking with his eye closely the
main points in the landscape. Thus he would be
able to pretty accurately direct those who came after
the injured man. The minute the officer was satisfied
that nothing could be done to add to the comfort
or safety of their charge until aid arrived, he
proceeded to examine the pockets of his insensible
prisoner.</p>
<p>The young aeronaut considered this rather a
heartless proceeding, but realized that the officer
was acting in pursuance of his duty. Twice he went
<span class="pagenum" title='103' id='Page_103'></span>over every pocket and possible secret hiding place
in the clothing of the fugitive. He finally arose to
his feet with a baffled and angry expression of
face.</p>
<p>“He’s beat us!” he growled. “I fancied he was
getting away with his booty—but it was getting
away from me and my partner that he was after.”</p>
<p>“But what has become of the diamonds you spoke
about?” queried Dave.</p>
<p>“Got rid of them to some partner, I suppose, before
we finally ran him down,” was the explanation.
“It’s too bad to miss the big reward that we’d have
got.”</p>
<p>Hiram returned in half an hour. He had made
a brief and rapid trip.</p>
<p>“A sheriff and his men will soon be here with
an auto,” he reported, and a very few minutes after
that the machine in question halted near the spot.
A surgeon had accompanied the village officers. He
shook his head as he looked over his patient.</p>
<p>“He won’t live the night out,” he announced
with professional certainty. “Concussion of the
brain, and a very serious case.”</p>
<p>The city policeman accompanied the auto back to
the village. Before he did so, however, he wrote
something on a card and handed it to Dave.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='104' id='Page_104'></span>“If you will take that card, and your bill for the
clever work you’ve done, to police headquarters,
they’ll treat you right,” he said.</p>
<p>“Queer about those diamonds, isn’t it, Dave?”
spoke Hiram as they found themselves alone with
their machines. “Maybe the man dropped them in
running, or they went over into that gully.”</p>
<p>“It would be like hunting for a needle in a haystack
to try and find them,” declared the young airman.</p>
<p>Excitement and trying work at the wheel had
worn them out considerably, and they were glad
when they crept into their beds at headquarters an
hour later. Hiram overslept himself. He awoke
late the next morning, in the room they occupied
jointly at the grounds clubhouse, to find his chum
missing. He hurried his breakfast and was soon at
the hangar. As he neared it he noticed some one
seated on a stool inside it. Dave had the <i>Ariel</i>
outside and was tanking up with “juice,” as they
called the gasoline.</p>
<p>“Some one to see you, Hiram,” he announced,
nodding his head towards the garage.</p>
<p>“Who is it?” asked his mate curiously.</p>
<p>“He didn’t give his name, but he’s a boy. Says
he knows you.”</p>
<p>“Is that so?” returned Hiram musingly, and advanced
towards the garage. Then his face expanded
in a welcoming good natured way. A lad
<span class="pagenum" title='105' id='Page_105'></span>about his own age was seated with his back to the
door and seemed to be eagerly inspecting the little
<i>Scout</i> and the mechanical accessories belonging to
it. “Why, Bruce Beresford, hello!” Hiram
shouted suddenly.</p>
<p>“Eh—oh, excuse me, yes, it’s me,” answered the
visitor, springing up with a nervous start, and his
anxious face brightened as Hiram gave his hand a
friendly shake.</p>
<p>Hiram drew back a step or two, and with apparent
admiration looked over in a quizzical way
the lad he had so signally befriended in the past.</p>
<p>“Well,” he observed, “you’re looking more prosperous
than when I last saw you.”</p>
<p>“Oh, yes,” replied Bruce Beresford, his whole
face lighting up. “I’ve had such wonderful
luck!”</p>
<p>“You look it, and I’m glad,” said Hiram. His
friend of the swampy island certainly showed a
great improvement, with good shoes on his feet, and
wearing a neat suit of clothes. When Hiram had
first met him Bruce had worn a big cap pulled closely
down over his ears, clear to the nape of his neck.
Just now, too, Hiram observed that his head back
of his cheeks was well covered up. It gave Bruce
a rather uncouth appearance and the young pilot of
the Scout wondered why.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='106' id='Page_106'></span>“I hope I’m not acting as if I was imposing on
you, coming in on you in this way, and so soon,”
began Bruce.</p>
<p>“Didn’t I invite you to do just that?” challenged
Hiram.</p>
<p>“I know, but it looks sort of—well, cheeky, following
you up when I owe so much to you as it is.”</p>
<p>“Don’t bother about that,” advised Hiram.
“Tell me about that luck of yours. I’ll be interested.”</p>
<p>“Well, you know how I got little Lois comfortably
settled at that children’s home at Benham.
Then I started in to work. It was surprising how
many little odd jobs a fellow can pick up who tries.
I was just delighted, until the second day of my
work when I happened to see a newspaper from
Hillsboro—that is the town where Martin Dawson,
the man who abused us so terribly, lives. There, in
the paper, was an advertisement offering a reward
for a runaway boy.”</p>
<p>“Meaning yourself, I suppose?” questioned
Hiram.</p>
<p>“No one else. It scared me, I tell you, because—because,”
and the speaker flushed up, and Hiram
noticed that he ran his hand over the back of his
head in a conscious sort of a way and seemed embarrassed.
“Well, because there was a very good
description of how I looked,” was added in a quick
short breath.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='107' id='Page_107'></span>“Thought they’d be after you, eh?” asked
Hiram.</p>
<p>“I knew they would and that I wasn’t safe in
that section,” proceeded Bruce. “I felt sure that
sooner or later some one would suspect or identify
me. It wasn’t safe for my sister. I didn’t know
what to do, for what little I had earned wouldn’t
take us far. Then came my big luck,” and the face
of the speaker became radiant.</p>
<p>“Tell it,” directed Hiram, on the edge with
curiosity.</p>
<p>“Some one had stolen an automobile from the
village banker,” went on Bruce. “I had heard of
it. I had read the posters giving the number and
make of the machine, and offering a hundred
dollars as a reward for its recovery. Just think of
it! that very day an invalid lady I had chopped some
wood for, asked me if I could get her a bunch of
water lilies. I made a few inquiries of some boys I
met. They directed me to a swamp about two miles
from the town. I found a fine bed of the lilies, and
was wading out with an armful, when down among
a nest of reeds, where it had been run by the ride-stealers
was the missing automobile.”</p>
<p>“That was fine,” remarked Hiram. “I guess
you got back to town on the double quick.”</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='108' id='Page_108'></span>“I did for a fact,” agreed Bruce. “And inside
of two hours I had the reward in my pocket. Oh
but I felt rich! I went to the matron of the home
and told her my whole story for the first time. She
not only thought I had better get Lois to some safer
place, and further away from Hillshore, but gave
me a letter to a relative living on a farm near
Chicago. I got some new clothing for my sister
and myself, left Lois with the kind-hearted lady
who was only too glad to take her in at two dollars
a week, and her help around the house, and hunted
down the address you gave me. You see—you see,”
concluded Bruce longingly, “I wanted advice.”</p>
<p>“What about?” inquired Hiram.</p>
<p>“Well I’ve got over fifty dollars to invest.
There’s a good deal moving around this place. You
spoke of a friend, a Mr. Dashaway, and I
thought——”</p>
<p>“Yes, that’s my chum, Dave,” interrupted Hiram
proudly,—“the most level headed fellow who ever
lived. Dave!”</p>
<p>Hiram called his chum and there was an introduction.
An explanation followed. The pilot of
the <i>Ariel</i> soon had a knowledge of all the circumstances
of the case. He and Hiram had seated
themselves on a bench opposite their guest. It
was warm weather and both threw off their caps.
Bruce hesitated and then followed their example,
but in an awkward and confused way.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum" title='109' id='Page_109'></span>“Why,” exclaimed Hiram with a start, as he
noticed that under his cap their visitor wore a close
fitting skull cap—“what’s that for?”</p>
<p>Bruce Beresford fidgeted. He seemed at a loss
for an explanation. Then he scanned the friendly
face of Dave, and the good natured one of his assistant.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s my ears,” he said, slowly, evidently
embarrassed.</p>
<p>“Your ears; what about them?” asked Dave,
curiously.</p>
<p>“They’ve been cut,” explained the orphan.
“And they’re not healed yet. I keep them covered
up to keep out the germs the doctor said were floating
in the air. But they’re getting better now.”</p>
<p>He took off the skull cap and showed where both
ears presented a red surface.</p>
<p>“How in the world did that happen?” asked
Hiram. “Have you been playing football?”</p>
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