So they provided themselves with two of the rifles, plenty of ammunition, and much of the provisions in the car.
In the shelter of the valley the night was no longer cool, but was warm and pleasant.
They found an overhanging shelf of rock where they could get close up under a bluff, and it made quite a satisfactory camp.
For some time the boys lay and talked over their adventure, wondering if they would get out of the predicament all right. At last they became drowsy, and finally fell asleep.
They slept soundly till morning. Frank was the first to awaken, and he shook Barney to rouse him.
"Come, you bit of the Old Sod," called Frank. "Turn out and pay for your lodging."
"Begobs! Oi fale loike th" bed had been shtuffed with bricks. Hurro! Oi must have fell out av bed in th" noight, an" dropped clane out av th"
windy. It"s a bit av a kink Oi have in th" small av me back."
Barney sat up, making a wry face, and staring about in a bewildered way.
"Phwat howtil is this, Oi dunno?" he cried. "Have Oi been slapin", or have Oi been in a thrance?"
"We came here in a flying-machine, you will remember."
"In a floying-machine? Oi thought Oi dramed it."
"It was no dream."
"Well, may Oi nivver live to see th" back av me neck!"
It took some time for the Irish boy to recover from his amazement.
"Where is thot floying-machine, Frankie?"
"It is just beyond this line of bushes, where we left it last night.
Professor Scudmore is tied up in the car, and I fancy he must be a bit uncomfortable by this time. I did not mean to leave him that way so long. It was rather heartless."
"Ye can"t be aisy wid his koind, me b"y. There"s no tellin" phwat they"ll do."
"That is true; but it is our duty to handle him as gently as possible.
He is a most unfortunate man. His air ship seems an a.s.sured success, and yet he has lost his reason working over it."
The boys arose and pa.s.sed round the bushes, Frank being in advance. A cry of wonder and amazement broke from Merriwell"s lips.
"The air ship!" he gasped.
"Phwat"s th" matter?" asked Barney, quickly.
"It"s gone!"
CHAPTER XVIII.
MISKEL.
"Gone!"
"That"s what!"
"Where?"
"Sailed away."
It was true that the _Eagle_ was not where they had left it the night before, and, looking all around, they could find no trace of it.
"Thot bates me!"
The knees of the Irish boy seemed to weaken beneath him, and he sank in a limp heap on the ground.
"It beats the band!"
Frank was scarcely less broken up than his companion.
"How did it happen, Frankie? Th" ould thing didn"t go off av itsilf, did it?"
"Not much!"
"Phwat thin?"
"Professor Scudmore must have succeeded in releasing himself."
"Roight, lad; an" thin he skipped."
"As soon as he was free, he sailed away in the _Eagle_, and we are left here in the heart of this mountainous region."
"Oi"m homesick! Oi wish Oi hadn"t come!"
Frank laughed.
"This is not the worst sc.r.a.pe we have been in, by any means. We"ll pull out of this, with our usual good luck."
But a feeling of loneliness and desolation did settle heavily upon them, for all that Frank made an effort to throw it off. The mountains lifted their heads on every hand like mighty sentries that hemmed them in, and they felt shut off from all the rest of the world.
When they fully realized that Professor Scudmore had released himself and escaped in the air ship, they walked round the place where the _Eagle_ had been left the night before, but they discovered nothing beyond some severed bits of rope.
Then Frank became philosophical.
"We may as well take it easy," he said. "It is useless to make a fuss about it. Here we are, and---"
"Where we are Oi dunno!"