“However, did they come to lure you down here?” asked Billy as soon as the two autos with their rascally owners had departed.
“Why, we saw a signal waving from this opening in the woods, and thought it was you showing us where there was a good landing place. We soon found out our mistake, however,” answered Frank.
“Say, boys,” observed Bart suddenly, after he had earnestly scanned the sky for awhile, “we’d better be getting on. I believe we are going to have one of those storms that we get up in these hills every once in a while.”
“Bad!” echoed the miner, “why, boy, ef you’re wearing all your own hair arter one of ’em you’re lucky.”
“Well, we can’t fly any further to-day,” announced Frank.
“One of our rudder wires got snapped as we came down here. It was a narrow place to land in at best.”
“How are we going to get the aeroplane up the trail?” demanded Bart.
“Tow it. How in the name of sea-sick catamounts air we goin’ ter do that?” demanded Bart.
“Easy,” laughed the boy; “just hitch a rope to it, attach it to the auto and it will tow right along on its wheels.”
“Yes, but the wings are too wide to pass along this narrow trail,” objected Bart.
“We can unbolt them and pack them in the auto. Some of us will have to walk, but that will be no great hardship for a short distance.”
“Say, Frank, you’re a genius. Come on, boys, git busy with them monkey wrenches and we’ll be in Calabazos to-night. Then ho—for the lost mine.”
As Frank had anticipated, it was not a lengthy work to detach the wings of the _Golden Eagle_, thanks to their simple construction, and soon the cavalcade was moving forward up the mountain side with the framework of the aeroplane in tow. Stripped of her planes, she looked not unlike a butterfly from which the wings have been plucked, but the boys did not mind appearances in the saving of time they effected.
“Say, Frank, though,” said Billy suddenly, as they tramped along in the rear of the auto which Lathrop was driving, “isn’t this breaking the rules of the flight? Are you allowed to tow your air craft?”
Frank drew a little book from his pocket.
“In cases of absolute necessity owners and fliers of contesting craft may accept a tow, provided they do not actually load their machines on railroad trains or other means of transportation,” he read. “This shall be understood not to apply to circumstances other than where an aviator finds it impossible to make an ascent from his landing place.”