A fellow met him-----"
"Did you see the man who met him?"
"Yes. Foreign looking man. Black mustache and beard. But I"m afraid that"s all I ean tell you."
"You have helped us a lot," Joe a.s.sured the pilot. He turned to Frank. "Let"s call up that New York airport."
32 The Mark on tlie Door ""Did he take a Coastal plane!" Frank asked Crawford.
"Sure. But I don"t know where he was headed for. Perhaps the officials in New York can tell you."
As the boys hurried back to the office Chet remarked: "I just love being a detective. What is this all about, anyway?"
"We don"t know ourselves," Joe told him.
The Hardy boys put through a long distance call to the Coastal Air office at Roosevelt Field. The connection was soon completed and Frank asked if a pa.s.senger by the name of Peter Smith had been booked out the previous night.
"Just a moment, please." Evidently the company"s filing system was efficient, for the information was soon forthcoming. "Mr. Smith is booked to Brownsville, Texas."
"Thank you."
Frank turned to his brother with a whistle of amazement.
"Brownsville, Texas!" he exclaimed. "Elmer Tremmer is traveling far and fast."
Chet stared at him.
"The missing witness! Do you mean to tell me that you fellows have picked up Elmer Tremmer"s trail?"
Frank nodded.
"I think so. But it"a a trail that leads to 33 Texas. And it"s all mixed up with a man who ran into our boat, and a hairless dog and a few oil certificates and a mark on a door."
The Hardy boys were highly elated that their hunch had been correct. At least, they would have some valuable information for their father. They lost no time hastening back to the motorboat and making a quick run to Bayport.
"What"s the hurry?" Chet wanted to know. "If Tremmer is in Texas you"ll never be able to catch him."
"As long as he is on United States territory Dad may be able to have him. brought back.
But if he ever gets across the border into Mexico it will make a big difference," Frank pointed out. "There is no time to lose."
When the boys returned home, however, they found that Fenton Hardy was out. Greatly disappointed, they waited impatiently for him. An hour pa.s.sed before they heard their father"s familiar step in the hall. Frank and Joe rushed out to meet him.
"We"ve picked up Tremmer"s trail!"
"He"s flying to Texas!"
Fenton Hardy stepped quickly into his study and sat down at his desk.
"Really?" he asked. "Tell me about it."
The boys hastily gave their story. Fenton Hardy was astounded.
34 "I can hardly believe it," he said. "The man seems to have gone of his own free will. But why did he offer the authorities his help and then clear out just when he was needed?"
The boys" father reached for the telephone and called the District Attorney. In a few words he acquainted that official with the news. After a brief conversation he replaced the receiver.
"We"re going to Texas!" said Fenton Hardy abruptly.
The boys stared at him. They were incredulous.
"We!" they cried. they cried.
Their father smiled.
"Don"t you want to go?"
"When do we startT" demanded Frank.
"Just as soon as we can. I think you boys deserve the trip, seeing you located Tremmer for me."
Joe did a little step dance in the middle of the floor.
"But it will take two or three days to get to Texas, won"t it ?" asked Frank. "" By that time who knows where Tremmer will be?"
"He didn"t waste any time. Neither will we," Mr. Hardy said. "We"re going by plane."
The boys were almost speechless with excite* ment. They rushed ma4Jv from the room.
35 "We"ll be packed up and ready in five minutes," shouted Joe.
Fenton Hardy was using the telephone again. He was calling the airport, inquiring about the flying schedule.
Frank and Joe were halfway up the stairs when the doorbell rang.
"Bother!" muttered Frank. "Just when we"re in a hurry." However, he hastened downstairs and opened the door.
The visitor was Mrs. Smith, the erstwhile landlady of the mysterious Pedro Vincenzo.
"I hope I"m not troubling you, Frank," the old lady said, "but I found something I thought you might like to see. It"s part of a letter that I discovered under the carpet in Mr. Vincenzo"s room. I can"t understand it myself. Besides, it"s partly burnt, but perhaps ^t will help you find the rascal."
CHAPTER V.
A STOWAWAY.
the Hardy boys were in a state of great excitement over the thrilling prospect of an airplane flight to Texas, and impatient to be on their way. But when Mrs. Smith stated the object of her visit they knew that it might have an important bearing on their own mission.
"Won"t you come in, Mrs. Smith?" Frank invited.
"No, thanks. I just brought this letter over in case you might be able to make use of it. I I can"t make head nor tail of the thing myself."
The landlady handed Frank a crumpled envelope with charred edges. Then, remarking that she had a great deal of work to do if her boarders were to have supper on time, she took her departure.
"What"s all this about a letter?" Fenton Hardy called out from his study.
The boys brought in the missive to him and told him about their investigations of the stranger known as Pedro Vincenzo.
Mr. Hardy was deeply interested, particularly as it was evident that the man was connected in some way with the Rio Oil Company and Elmer Tremmer"s disappearance.
"Let me see the letter," he suggested.
Both the envelope and the page within had been badly burned; more than half the letter had been destroyed. When Frank carefully removed the charred sheet he saw that the message had been written in a foreign language.
Fenton Hardy examined it carefully.
"" Spanish,"" he remarked. " I used to know a little of it. Let me see-"a rogue and a rascal.
I have nothing but contempt for you and in answer to your impudent proposal that you marry my daughter Dolores I warn you that I shall never give my consent-" And that seems to be all that"s left of the letter."
"Is it addressed to Vincenzo?" Joe asked.
"Isn"t there a name signed to it?" said Frank.
"Both signature and address are missing. I"m afraid we can"t attach much importance to this doc.u.ment. However, keep it in your pocket. It may be useful some day."
Mr. Hardy gave the letter back to Frank.
"The airport tells me that we can make connections with a night plane from a Jersey field if we leave here at seven o"clock," he told the boys. "I"ve made the arrangements. We"ll 38 travel light, and if we"re in the south for any length of time we can buy what extra clothing we need down there."
For the next two hours the Hardy boys were in a frenzy of excitement as they prepared for the trip. Their mother was a little dubious when she was told of the projected journey, but as Fenton Hardy explained that the boys had really earned the trip by their clever detective work in tracing Elmer Tremmer, she gave her consent. Aunt Gertrude, however, was against the idea from the moment she heard of it.
"Airplanes!" she snorted. "Traveling by airplanes! Well, I may as well say good-bye to you now, for I"ll never see you again, not in this world. It"s bad enough to have the man of the house traipsin" off halfway around the world without ten minutes" warning, without the children going along, too."
"Children!" exclaimed Joe indignantly.
Aunt Gertrude always treated her nephews as if they were still in rompers.
"Yes, children!" she answered. "Flying to Texas! Now in my day-----"
Aunt Gertrude was off on one of her familiar monologues to the effect that in her day boys were much better behaved than they were in the present generation.
Finally, however, Fenton Hardy and his sons took their departure. They reached the airport by taxi in good time to take their places in the big pa.s.senger plane that was to carry them to the Jersey field. It was not their first experience in flying. Frank and Joe had been involved in some thrilling air adventures on a previous occasion when they solved the mystery of a series of mail thefts, described in "The Great Airport Mystery," one of the earlier volumes of this series. But this was to be their first long flight, and they were agog *with antic.i.p.ation of adventures that might await them at the end of it. They were not destined to be disappointed. Stranger experiences than any they had ever had before lay in store for them.
The big night flying machine to which they transferred when they reached New Jersey was a revelation to the lads. It was a veritable liner of the air, a roomy, luxurious craft that carried them swiftly through the night, high above the scattered clumps of lights that marked the locations of towns and villages. Frank and Joe were so excited that they could not sleep.
Their father, to whom air travel was an old story, settled himself comfortably and was soon slumbering peacefully.
The plane landed at a southern airport during the night. The boys got out to stretch their legs while the machine was checked and re40 fuelled. Daybreak found them drumming steadily over the farm lands, lakes, rivers and valleys that lay far below in the first rays of the rising sun. The big craft was eating up the miles. Frank caught sight of a train in the distance. It looked like a toy, with a tiny line of white smoke streaming from the funnel of the locomotive. In a few minutes they had left it far behind them. Frank realized how hopelessly they would have been outdistanced by Tremmer should they have traveled by rail.
They changed to another plane that morning, and it was shortly after they took off on the fourth leg of their flight that they had their first taste of adventure. There were several other pa.s.sengers; every seat was taken, and the baggage capacity of the ship was within a few pounds of the safety limit. The big machine lumbered down the field, taking off sluggishly, finally to gain alt.i.tude and roar off into the south.
"This machine doesn"t fly as smoothly as the others," Frank remarked to his father.
"It"s carrying more weight, I suppose."
However, it soon became evident that the pilot was having trouble. The tail of the ship dipped constantly. After a while the mechanic came back and conferred with the steward, who disappeared into the regions at the rear of the ship. The plane gave a sudden lurch, the nose 41 went up sharply, and the Hardy boys glanced at each other in alarm. The pilot had his ship well in hand, however, and in a moment had it once again on an even course.
There was a sudden scuffle at the back of the pa.s.sage, as the steward emerged, dragging by the collar a ragged, olive-skinned boy.
"A stowaway!" shouted Frank.
The steward"s face was flushed with anger. He shook his captive vigorously.
"How did you get in there?" he cried. "Don"t you know you might have caused a crash?
We"re overweight. What"s your name? Where do you come from?"
The captive, who was about Frank"s age, merely shrugged his shoulders helplessly and shook his head as if to indicate that he didn"t understand.
"You understand me all right!" declared the steward angrily, wagging his finger under the youth"s nose. "What do you mean by stowing away in this ship? Speak up, boy!"
The lad refused to do so. He merely continued to shake his head, with an expression on his face which indicated he could not comprehend a word the steward was saying.
"We"ll attend to you at the next stop," the steward declared. "If you can"t speak English we"ll find someone who knows your lingo."
He made the boy sit on a small folding stooL 42 There the stowaway crouched, his arms encircling his knees, looking all the while very wretched.
Darkness had fallen, and the gleaming lights of the airport that marked the end of their journey came in sight. The big plane swooped down, descended in a great spiral, and finally settled to the ground in a perfect landing. Then, with motor open, it taxied across the level field toward the hangars.
The steward was so busy attending to the pa.s.sengers that for the moment it seemed he had forgotten about the stowaway. The youth, got out of the plane close behind the Hardy boys but made no attempt to escape. He stood there, a lonely and dejected looking figure.
Suddenly from out of the gloom there came a stranger. His face was obscured by the broad brim of his hat. He stepped up to Fenton Hardy and bowed politely.
"Senor Hardy?" he inquired in a low voice *with a foreign accent.
Mr. Hardy was surprised.
" Yes," he admitted. "" How do you know my name?"
"Ah," replied the man, "we have been expecting you. I have a message------"
With that he thrust a folded note into the detective"s hand, turned away, and vanished into the darknesa.