"Jack!" cried the youth on the machine.
"Mark!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the lad who had sprung from the projectile. "What has happened? Who is the fellow who has been masquerading as you?"
"A scoundrel and a villain! Let me get at him!" and, slamming on the brakes, as he shut off the power, Mark leaped from the motorcycle, stood it up against the projectile, and clasped his chum by the hand.
"What"s the matter?" asked Professor Henderson, as he, too, ran out of the _Annihilator_. "What does that tramp want, Jack? Give him some money, and get back in here; we ought to have started long ago." He looked at the ragged figure.
"This isn"t a tramp," cried Jack. "It"s Mark!"
"Mark! I thought----"
"There have been strange doings," gasped the lad in tramp"s garments.
"I have just escaped from being kept a prisoner. Where is the mysterious man? Oh, I"m glad I arrived in time! Were you about to start?"
"That"s what we were," replied Jack. "Oh, Mark, but I"m glad to see you again! I didn"t know what to think. You acted so strange--or, rather, the fellow we thought was you had me guessing!"
"Good land a" ma.s.sy!" exclaimed Washington White, as he stood in the doorway, with Andy Sudds behind him. "Am dere two Marks? What"s up, anyhow?"
"Don"t let that fellow get away--the fellow who pa.s.sed himself off as me!" shouted Mark. "Lock him up! There"s some mystery about him that must be explained. He"s a dangerous man to be at large."
Professor Henderson turned back to enter the projectile. Jack advised Andy to get his gun ready, with which to threaten the scoundrel in case of necessity.
At that instant there sounded a crash of gla.s.s, and the whole front of the big observation window in the side of the _Annihilator_ was smashed to atoms. A figure leaped--a figure which no longer had its head bandaged, and whose arm was no longer in a sling--the figure of a man--the mysterious man who had held Mark a prisoner!
"There he goes!" shouted Jack. "Catch him, somebody! Andy, where"s your gun?"
"I"ll have it in a jiffy!" cried the hunter, as he dashed back to get it.
But the man did not linger. Scrambling to his feet after his fall, caused by his leap from the broken window, which he had smashed with a sledge hammer as soon as he understood that his game was up, he raced out of the yard. He turned long enough to shake his fist at the group a.s.sembled around the projectile, and then leaped away, calling out some words which they could not hear.
"Let"s take after him," proposed Mark.
"Come on," seconded Jack.
"No, let him go; he"s a desperate man, and you came just in time to unmask him," said Professor Henderson. "He might harm you if you took after him. Let him go. He has not done much damage. We can easily replace the broken window. But I can"t understand what his object was in disguising himself as Mark. He certainly looked like you, Mark, especially when he kept his face concealed. Why did he do it?"
"He wanted to go to the moon in my place," answered the former prisoner of the deserted house.
"But why?" insisted Jack.
"Because, I think, he"s crazy, and he didn"t really know what he did want. But he certainly had me well concealed," spoke Mark. "I"m free now, however, and as soon as I get some decent clothes on I"ll go with you to the moon. I wouldn"t want the moon people to see me dressed this way."
"How did it happen?" asked Jack. "Tell us all about it. My! but I certainly have been puzzled since you--or rather since the person we thought was you--came back last night all bunged up. Give us the story."
"I will; give me a chance. I guess that villain is gone for good." Andy Sudds came out with his gun, and insisted on taking a look down the road and around the premises. The man was nowhere in sight.
"Now we"re in for another delay," remarked Jack ruefully, as he gazed at the smashed window. "It seems as if we"d never get started for the moon."
"Oh, yes, we will," declared Professor Henderson. "We have some extra heavy plate gla.s.s in the shop, and we can soon put in another observation window."
"Let"s get right to work then," proposed Jack. "That man may come back.
Did you learn who he was, Mark?"
"No, he wouldn"t tell his name, and he said he was doing this to get revenge on us for some fancied wrong. I can"t imagine who he is. But let"s work and talk at the same time. I"ll tell you all that happened to me," which he did briefly.
Mark soon got rid of the tramp clothes, and donned an extra suit which had been packed in his trunk in the projectile. Then he helped replace the broken window, which, in spite of their haste, took nearly all the rest of the day to put in place.
"Shall we wait and start to-morrow?" asked Jack, when four o"clock came. "It will soon be dark."
"Darkness will make no difference to us," announced Professor Roumann.
"Our Cardite motor will soon take us out of the shadow of the earth, and we will be in perpetual sunshine until we reach the moon. As we are all ready, we might as well start now."
They all agreed with this, and, after a final inspection of the projectile, the travellers entered it, and Jack was once more about to seal the big door.
Before he could do so there came riding into the yard, on his motorcycle, which he had claimed that afternoon, d.i.c.k Johnson.
"Wait a minute," he cried. "I"ve got a letter for you. It"s from that man!"
"What--another thing to delay us?" cried Jack, but he called to Professor Roumann not to start the motor, and ran to take from d.i.c.k the letter which the lad held out.
"That same man who gave me the one for Mark gave me this, and he paid me a half a dollar to bring it here," said the boy.
"All right," answered Jack impatiently.
He looked at the note. It was addressed to the "Moon Travellers," and, considering that he was one, the youth tore open the envelope. In the dim light of the fading day he read the bold handwriting.
"I have fixed you," the letter began. "You will never get to the moon.
I shall have my revenge. You took my brother Fred Axtell to Mars and left him there. I determined to get him back, and to that end I disguised myself as one of the boys, and got aboard. When we were safely away from the earth, I would have compelled you to go to Mars and rescue my brother. But my plan has failed. I will have my revenge, though. You will never reach the moon, even if you do get started.
Beware! George, the brother of Fred Axtell, will avenge his fate!"
"The brother of the crazy machinist!" gasped Jack. "Now I understand his strange actions. He"s crazy, too--he wanted to go to Mars--he says we will never reach the moon! Say, look here!" cried Jack, raising his voice. "Here"s bad news! That scoundrel has put some game up on us!
Maybe he"s tampered with the machinery! It won"t be safe to start for the moon until we"ve looked over everything carefully! He says he"s fixed us, and perhaps he has!"
From the projectile came hurrying the would-be moon travellers, a vague fear in their hearts.
CHAPTER XIV
OFF AT LAST
In the gathering twilight Professor Henderson read slowly the note d.i.c.k had brought. Then he pa.s.sed it to Professor Roumann. The latter shook his s.h.a.ggy gray hair, and murmured something in German.
"Where did you meet the man?" asked Jack of the young motorcyclist.
"About two miles down the road. He was walking along, sort of talking to himself, and I was afraid of him. He called to me, and offered me a half a dollar to deliver this message. I didn"t want to at first, but he said if I didn"t he"d hurt me, so I took it. Is it anything bad?"