072-The Voodoo Plot by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon [Dixon, Franklin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-08-07T15:12:08+00:00

Chapter 10

Razzle-Jazzle

"Hold on tight!" Joe shouted, throttling the engine and pulling up the stick. With one quick motion, he swung the small plane out of harm's way. The Cessna took off beneath them, turning westward once it was off the ground.

"That lunatic!" Frank cried out. "He could've killed us!"

"Let's follow him!" Joe said angrily.

"It wouldn't do any good. The Cessna's too fast."

"I guess you're right," Joe grumbled. He made a loop around the airport and brought the rental plane in for a landing. Once they were on the ground, the boys went straight to the manager's office.

"I didn't clear him for takeoff!" the manager, who doubled as the flight controller, said defensively.

"Did you tell him we wanted to talk to him?" Frank asked.

"That's what set him off!" the manager exclaimed. "The guy seemed determined to get out of here before you landed, with or without clearance."

Frank whistled. "That figures. Did you get a good look at the pilot and his passenger this time?"

"Roger Mann was still wearing his aviation glasses. All I can tell you is that he's about mid-sized, fairly thin, and has dark, curly hair. His passenger, as usual, kept himself out of sight. I only spotted him from a distance when he boarded the plane. He seemed to be tallish."

"What's the Cessna's destination?" Frank queried.

"His flight plan says Charlotte, North Carolina. But I think he lied. He took off in the opposite direction." The manager paused a moment, then added, "I overheard Mann say 'New Orleans' to his passenger before he got into the plane. Maybe that's where they're headed."

Frank and Joe thanked the man and walked outside. Soon Rick and Chet arrived to pick them up.

"See anything from up there?" Chet asked his buddies.

"No. But I think we found out something more important," Frank said, then explained how the blue, twin-engine Cessna had nearly caused an accident in the air in its attempt to avoid their questions.

"Clem couldn't have been the passenger on that plane," Chet declared. "He's in jail."

Frank was thoughtful as they drove away from the airport. "I wondered all along why we found so much evidence pointing to Clem as the burglar, and yet he seems an unlikely candidate," he said, looking out the window at the passing scenery. "Now I'm beginning to think that someone's trying to frame him."

"You mean somebody set this whole thing up to send us on a wild-goose chase after Clem?" Chet asked.

"Possibly," Frank replied. "Someone could've been using the rattlesnake emblem to lead us to Clem. Even the note we got to meet Clem in the swamp was probably faked."

"And the guy who did it might well be Roger Mann or his passenger," Joe added.

The airboat operator dropped the boys off at the Swamp Creek Inn, where they contacted Sam Radley in Bayport to see if he had uncovered a lead on Roger Mann. But all he could tell them was that the blue Cessna belonged to the pilot.

Frank and Joe then called their father, who offered to pay for their trip to New Orleans so they could track down Mann and the blue Cessna.

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