[Illustration: The biplane made several furious dashes this way and
  that, as slants of wind caught her extended planes.      [Page 152]

  The Bird Boys; or, Young Sky Pilots’ First Air Voyage.]




  THE BIRD BOYS

  _OR_

  _The Young Sky Pilots’ First Air
  Voyage_

  _By_
  JOHN LUTHER LANGWORTHY

  [Illustration]

  Chicago
  M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY




CANOE AND CAMPFIRE SERIES

Four Books of Woodcraft, and Adventure in the Forest and on the Water,
that every Boy Scout should have in his Library

_By ST. GEORGE RATHBORNE_


  CANOEMATES IN CANADA; or, Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan.

  THE YOUNG FUR-TAKERS; or, Traps and Trails in the Wilderness.

  THE HOUSE-BOAT BOYS; or, Drifting Down to the Sunny South.

  CHUMS IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Cruise of a Motor Boat.

In these four delightful volumes the author has drawn bountifully from
his thirty-five years experience as a true sportsman, and lover of
nature, to reveal many of the secrets of the woods, such as all Boy
Scouts strive to know. And, besides, each book is replete with stirring
adventures among the four-footed denizens, of the wilderness; so that
a feast of useful knowledge is served up, with just that class of
stirring incidents so eagerly welcomed by all boys with red blood in
their veins. For sale wherever books are sold, or sent prepaid for 50
cents each by the publishers.

Copyright, 1912, M. A. Donohue & Co.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER.                                           PAGE.

      I. “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”                            7

     II. RIVALS IN THE FIELD                            20

    III. TRYING OUT THE ENGINE                          31

     IV. A MIDNIGHT ALARM                               42

      V. A MESSAGE FROM THE SKY                         53

     VI. BLOOMSBURY IS BOOKED FOR FAME                  64

    VII. A SENSATION FOR OLD HOME WEEK                  75

   VIII. A NOVICE OF THE BIPLANE                        86

     IX. THE NEWS LARRY BROUGHT                         95

      X. SIGNS OF TROUBLE                              104

     XI. THE AEROPLANE THIEVES                         113

    XII. HELD BACK                                     122

   XIII. THE BIRD BOYS IN LUCK                         131

    XIV. A GOOD NIGHT’S WORK                           140

     XV. “IT IS FINE!”                                 149

    XVI. SEVEN TIMES AROUND THE CIRCLE                 158

   XVII. WHEN THE MONOPLANE FELL                       167

  XVIII. A SCOUT AND A DISCOVERY                       176

    XIX. HELPING OUT THE THIEF                         187

     XX. THE AEROPLANE RACE                            196

    XXI. HEADED FOR THE SUMMIT OF OLD THUNDER TOP      207

   XXII. WELL WON!                                     218

  XXIII. PROVEN GUILTY--CONCLUSION                     229




The Bird Boys;

or

The Young Sky Pilots’ First Air Voyage




CHAPTER I.

“BIRDS OF A FEATHER.”


“What are you frowning so much about, Andy?”

“And look at him shake his head, Frank; just for all the world like
he’s gone and lost his best friend!”

“Well, perhaps he has fellows,” laughed Frank Bird, promptly. “At any
rate, my poor cousin’s heart is nearly broken into flinders, just
because he can’t for the life of him remember what he did with that
wonderful little tool he invented.”

“Oh! say, is that what it’s all about?” cried Larry Geohegan; “I guess
now, you mean the handy aluminum monkey wrench that always kept its
jaws locked after you set ’em? Too bad, Andy. Wish you luck in finding
it again.”

“Yes, that’s it, fellows!” exclaimed the sorrowful one, quickly. “Tell
me, have either of you set eyes on the little jewel since--well, say
last Saturday noon?”

“Huh! just why do you go and pick out that day, of all the blessed
week?” demanded “Elephant” Small, a boy who had been given this
nickname in derision, since he was anything but ponderous; and who at
home chanced to be called Fenimore Cooper.

“I’ll tell you,” replied Andy Bird, promptly; “honestly then, because
that’s the last time I can remember handling the same. I was tightening
up a nut that had come loose on my bike--perhaps you may have seen me
do it.”

“Oh! yes,” remarked Larry, the fourth member of the group, “that was
the day we took that long spin on our wheels, and Frank cooked us
a bully good camp dinner when we rested on the side of Thunder Top
mountain, wasn’t it?”

“Sure it was,” responded Andy. “And just before we got ready to start
off again I fastened that bolt. Then it was goodbye to my dandy little
wrench, that I always expected to make a bushel of money patenting some
fine day.”

“Well, I’ve got an idea, and a bright one too!” observed Elephant,
calmly.

“Then it’ll be the first you ever had,” declared Larry, derisively.

“Don’t hold your breath till you forget it, Elephant. Let’s hear the
wonderful stunt that’s struck you!” suggested the broken-hearted loser,
looking interested.

Elephant never hurried. Perhaps after all it was because of his
slowness that his name had been changed so radically.

“Why, you see, it occurred to me that the old bald-headed eagle we
watched circling around and around that noon, may have dodged down when
nobody was looking, and carried the cute little wrench away in his
talons.”

This was not a joke on Elephant’s part. He was never known to show
genuine humor himself, although his chums frequently found cause for
hilarious laughter in some of the numerous suggestions he put forward.
But Elephant himself really believed in them all, marvelous though they
may have been.

“Well, now that _is_ a clever idea,” observed Frank, always ready to
lead the other on, in order to enjoy a laugh. “I tell you, that old
king of the upper air must have heard Andy boasting how he meant to
follow in his father’s wake, and be an aeronaut for keeps?”

He winked at the others while speaking; but Elephant of course failed
to see anything of this side show.

“That’s the ticket!” cried the originator of the idea vigorously, happy
in the belief that for once he must have actually hit upon a bright
thought; “the measly old pirate just made up his mind that he’d cripple
Andy in the start, and stop all work on your wonderful monoplane. No
competition allowed, understand, Andy! So he hooked the wrench; and
that ties up the whole business.”

“Oh! shucks! You give me a pain, Elephant,” grunted Larry, pretending
to double up as a boy might in the green apple season.

“Huh! it’s easy to pick flaws,” sniffed the other, contemptuously. “But
if you don’t like my clever thought, Larry Geohegan, just suppose you
give us a better one. Now, none of your hedging, but out with it!”

“That’s as simple as falling off a log,” sneered the bantered boy, as
he thrust his thumbs into the upper pockets of his coat, and assumed
the air of consequence with which he loved to tantalize Elephant.

“Talk’s cheap; do something, can’t you?” demanded his competitor.

“Listen,” said Larry, impressively. “It seems to me that something
happened to Andy on last Saturday, P. M. How about that little episode
of the quicksand you got stuck in, old fellow? Didn’t we have to run
and get a fence rail to pry you out, wheel and all.”

The two Bird cousins exchanged quick looks.

“Now you’re talking, Larry; because that was just what did happen to
me, for a dead certainty!” admitted Andy, readily.

“Looks like Larry had struck a warm trail,” ventured Frank, nodding his
head encouragingly.

“Hear further, fellows,” the originator of the newest clue went on
saying. “I remember right now that after we pried Andy loose, he had to
draw himself up by means of the limb of a tree. Also, that he straddled
the same limb, so that his head hung down for a little while.”

“Sure. That was when I was trying to get the rope I had tied to my
wheel, over the limb, so you could pull her out of the mire,” admitted
Andy.

“All right,” remarked Larry. “That was just the time the wrench must
have dropped out of your pocket, and went souse in the mud, to sink to
China. Some day you may hear of an enterprising pigtail man over there
taking out a patent on a nice little wrench, warranted never to slip
while you work.”

“Did you see it drop?” demanded the other.

“Nixey, I did not; still, it stands to reason----” began Larry,
obstinately.

“Did you _hear_ it drop?” Andy continued, positively.

“Well, seeing that you were shedding gallons of water about that time,
not to mention hunks of mud, it wouldn’t be funny if we failed to hear
such a little thing fall into the sucker hole,” grumbled Larry, driven
to bay, yet not willing to change his mind.

“All the same then,” declared Andy, “I don’t believe it fell into that
muck you call a quicksand. I’ve just gone and misplaced it, that’s all.
And some minute, when I get my mind on it, I expect to remember what I
did with that little beauty.”

“Meanwhile,” remarked his cousin, with a smile, “we can makeshift to
get along at our work with the big monkey wrench. After all, it isn’t
the tools that really count, but the ability to do things when you’re
left high and dry. Hello! Going to leave us, fellows?” as Elephant and
Larry stopped at a cross roads.

“I promised to do a job in our yard today, and it’s going to take me
the rest of the time to get through,” announced Larry, with a shrug of
his shoulders.

“And me to the woodpile for a little more muscle. So-long, boys;
and don’t you believe that old bald-headed thief of the air didn’t
understand how you meant to snatch his honors away from him. Look to
his nest up on Thunder Top for your monkey wrench, Andy.” And Elephant
solemnly shook his head as he walked slowly away.

“What shall we do now, Frank?” asked Andy, when they found themselves
alone. “Had we better go and tackle a little more work on our machine,
while we wait for that cylinder to arrive?”

“You know we can do mighty little now until we install that. And I’ve
somehow got a hunch it’s about due to arrive. So what say we meander
down to the station and find out?” suggested the other.

“A bully idea; so come along!” declared Andy, usually only too willing
to play second fiddle when in the company of his energetic cousin.

Both were healthy looking boys. Frank’s father was the leading doctor
in the town of Bloomsbury, which fronted on Sunrise Lake, a sheet of
water some seventeen miles in length, and with innumerable coves along
its crooked shores.

Because the boy’s mother had died in his infancy with a suddenly
developed lung trouble, the worthy doctor had always been unusually
solicitous about Frank; and urged upon him the necessity for securing
all the outdoor life he could. Nobody else dreamed that Frank looked
delicate; but his father saw suspicious signs in every little “bark” he
gave utterance to.

The result was that just now Frank was to be kept out of school for a
whole year. His father, being a self-made man, had always believed that
an education could be more practically attained from observation and
travel than by study of books.

Andy, on the other hand, was an orphan. His father had been quite a
well known man of science, and a professor in college. Having a leaning
toward aeronautics, he finally took up the fascinating pursuit, after
his wife died. A year before the time when we make the acquaintance of
the boys, he had vanished utterly from the sight of mortal man, having
been carried away in a severe gale while in a balloon, crossing over
the line of the partly finished Panama canal.

No word had ever come back, and it was of course fully believed that
the daring navigator of the upper currents had perished at sea, or in
the wilds of that tropical country to the south.

So Andy found himself left in charge of a jolly old gentleman named
Colonel Josiah Whympers, mentioned in the will as his guardian. There
was ample money in the estate, and every month Andy received many times
more than any lad in all Bloomsbury. But he had no bad habits, and
spent his money for good purposes; much of it going toward building
a monoplane, which he and Frank expected to utilize in taking little
flights around the vicinity.

So far as Andy was concerned, he certainly came by his great love
for aviation honestly; since his father had been infatuated with the
science of flying.

“Besides,” Andy was accustomed to remarking, when any one challenged
his wisdom in choosing such a dangerous calling; “A Bird ought to take
to the air just as naturally as a duck does to water. My father had to
give in to the call of the upper wild; and I just guess I’ve inherited
the longing to soar through the clouds from him.”

Andy was a merry lad, with twinkling blue eyes, and full of the joy of
living. His cousin Frank happened to be more serious-minded as a rule;
and so they made a most congenial pair of chums, who were yet to have
their first quarrel.

Colonel Josiah was supposed to be a rather gruff old party; but that
was pretty much a blind; for at heart he was the most amiable gentleman
within twenty miles of the home town. Andy could just wind him around
his little finger. Having become a cripple some years back, the colonel
could no longer roam the world, looking on strange sights, as had been
his custom all his life. Consequently, he had to take his enjoyment
in reading of the exploits of others, and in encouraging the boys of
Bloomsbury to become athletes.

At many a hotly contested baseball game the old traveler could be seen
waving his crutch and his cane in the air as he rooted loyally for
the home team. And when he learned how Andy aspired to follow in the
footsteps of his gifted father, with a sturdy intention to conquer the
problems of aviation, instead of throwing obstacles in the way, the
old man actually applauded his choice, and offered to assist by any
reasonable means in his power.

For more than two months now the Bird boys had been industriously at
work upon a model of a monoplane fashioned very much after the style
of the Bleriot which they had seen do wonderful stunts on the day they
traveled down to the trying-out grounds on Long Island.

A great advance had been made in securing a new Kinkaid engine, said
to be three times as light as the best hitherto made. Both boys
anticipated great things when they had completed their task. Several
times they had undone certain parts of the work, to go about it another
way that promised better results. And now they only waited for the
cylinder which had been sent for, to get their little machine into
practical use.

It was far from being a toy. Both boys had gone deeply into the
subject. They talked of little else, read everything that came their
way, consulted every authority attainable, experimented, and planned
their way carefully.

As yet the wonderful monoplane was something of a mystery. It was
housed in a long, low building they were pleased to call a “hangar,”
and which was kept scrupulously locked at all times, whether the
toilers were within or absent. This odd-looking building was situated
in a field back of Colonel Whympers’ house, which also belonged to the
crippled traveler. And frequently he would limp out to where he could
look toward the shack, to talk to himself, nod his head, and smile, as
though he expected great things some day when “his boys” had completed
their task.

Walking down through the town on this July day, rather cool for the
season, the cousins talked as usual of little else save the chances of
their flying machine proving all that they expected of it.

“I’m willing to stake my future reputation on her being a hustler from
the word go!” declared Andy, energetically, as they drew near the
railroad yards.

“And I’m going to risk my precious life on her ability to stay up, once
she gets away from the ground. That’s as much as any fellow could say!”
echoed Frank; who knew only too well what faithful labor had been put
into every part of the monoplane, built for two.

“Don’t I hope we’ll find our cylinder has come to hand, though?”
said Andy, as he began to cast his eyes around, to immediately add
excitedly: “Look there, that seems to be about the size of the package
we’re expecting. Yes, and here’s the name of the aeroplane dealer we
wrote to. It’s a cylinder, as sure as you live. Go and hunt up the
clerk, Frank, and settle with him. Meantime I’ll be ripping off this
cover, so we can carry home the beauty easier.”

So Frank immediately strode away toward the little freight office, to
pay the bill, and settle matters. Andy, left alone, started to make use
of his knife in cutting away the burlap that had been sewed around the
object with heavy twine.

He was just well into this pleasant task, whistling merrily meanwhile,
as was his wont, when he heard a hoarse cry of anger from some point
close by.

“Hey! hold on there, you! What in thunder are you tearing open my
freight for? I’ve got a good notion to have you arrested as a thief!”
cried a voice.

And Andy, looking up in startled surprise, saw two figures bearing down
under full sail, in whom he recognized his particular detestation,
Percy Carberry, backed up by his shadow and crony, “Sandy”
Hollingshead.




CHAPTER II.

RIVALS IN THE FIELD.


“Did you ever see such nerve, Puss, in all your life?” gasped Sandy, as
the two newcomers brought up alongside the astonished Andy.

“Look at the vandal, would you, ripping the cover off our cylinder just
as cool as you please! Hey! Sandy, see anything of the yard watchman
around? We ought to have him pinch this thief straight away!” snapped
the Carberry boy, as he glared at the stooping figure.

“Ain’t he the bird, though?” went on Sandy, pretending to be surprised
in turn; “And as sure as you live, Puss, it’s the tail end of that
wonderful Bird combination that’s going to do such stunning stunts one
of these fine days. Oh! me! oh! my! What a loss there’ll be when he is
shut up in the cooler!”

“Looky here, just explain what right you’ve got cutting open our
freight, that’s the ticket!” blustered Percy, shaking his clenched hand
in front of Andy’s nose.

“Take that away! I don’t like it. And what the dickens do you mean
saying this thing is your freight?” demanded the threatened one,
beginning to gain his feet; for he did not just fancy kneeling so close
to a fellow like Percy Hollingshead, whose reputation for treachery was
well known.

“Because it is our freight. Go back to school and learn to read,
you lunkhead!” the other went on, seeming to get more and more
angry--because they were two to one, and the freight yard was a usually
sequestered place, where no one would be apt to interfere, if so be
they chose to administer a drubbing to the offensive investigator.

“But it’s certainly a cylinder for an airship!” declared Andy, casting
a quick glance down toward his feet, where the partly uncovered object
lay.

“Who said it wasn’t, tell me that? Did you hear either of us whisper
anything to that effect?” demanded Percy, aggressively.

“Must think you’ve got just a monopoly of the flying business!” sneered
Sandy, puffing out his chest like a pigeon strutting along the barn
roof. “Time you woke up and learned a few things, one of which is that
with all your bluster and brag the firm of Bird and Bird is soon going
to be a back number. Back to the junk heap for yours, Andy. Your name
should be spelled Mud!”

“Oh! that’s it, is it!” exclaimed the other, more than a little
surprised; for these fellows had up to now kept their intentions
secret. “Let me take a peep at the tag then. Didn’t occur to me to
think of doing that before, because neither of us ever dreamed that
anybody else in Bloomsbury but us could be getting a cylinder for an
aeroplane.”

One glance convinced him, for the name of Percy Carberry was plainly
printed on the big stout tag.

“Say, I’m sorry about this,” Andy declared instantly. “Wouldn’t have
had it happen for a good deal. But you can see how we fell into such a
blunder, fellows! I guess no harm has been done. I’ll fasten up this
burlap again if you say so.”

It was as manly an apology as any boy would expect, and should have
been met in the same frank spirit that it was given. But that was not
the Carberry and Hollingshead way. They exchanged looks. Then they
laughed sneeringly.

“Listen to the sneak crawl, would you?” exclaimed Sandy, with an
expressive and insulting shrug of the shoulders.

“Just the Bird way, always trying to creep out of trouble. Caught in
the act, he pretends it was all a mistake. But you don’t pull the wool
over our eyes, Andy Bird. We’re on to your curves all right, ain’t we,
Sandy?”

“Sure we are. A clear case of professional jealousy. Heard that we
were going to have a biplane that would cut circles all around your
old top, and just couldn’t resist the temptation to spy on us. Hey!
Puss, I wouldn’t put it past him to throw some strong acid on this fine
cylinder of ours, so as to make it weak, and bust, some time when we
happened to be sailing around up there among the clouds!”

“You’re crazy, that’s what!” burst out the indignant Andy, aroused by
this mean taunt and insinuation, as nothing else could have stirred his
blood. “Nobody in all Bloomsbury would ever think of such a ridiculous
thing but you! Why, your mind’s just crammed with vile tricks like
that, Sandy Hollingshead. Now, just put that in your pipe and smoke it!”

The one addressed scowled, and turned a quick, interrogative look
toward his companion.

“Hear that, do you, Puss?” he gritted between his teeth. “The sneak
wants to pick a fuss with us. It ain’t enough for him to be caught
in the act; he tries to holler ‘stop thief’ just like them clever
pick-pockets do down in New York, when they snatch a purse and run.
What say, ought we to trim him, now that we’ve got the chance?”

Percy looked willing. Indeed, if there was one person in all Bloomsbury
whom he would like to thrash better than Andy, it was his cousin, Frank.

Their manner was pugnacious and aggressive as they began to close in
on the object of their regard. Andy believed he was in for a peck
of trouble. He knew he could never hope to hold his own against the
precious pair; and the worst of it all was that he had unwittingly
given them a good cause for attacking him, owing to his carelessness in
meddling with the wrapper of the steel cylinder before examining the
label.

But Andy was game. He had a never-say-die spirit, even if not as clever
a fighter as his cousin. No one could ever force him to give up so long
as he had a single breath left with which to resist.

So he closed his hands, and assumed an attitude of defense. At this
Sandy actually broke out into a roar.

“Look at that, would you, Puss!” he cried. “The beggar means to object
to taking his medicine like a little man! All right; we’ll just have to
make him open his beak and swallow the bitter pill. You give him the
first dose, Puss. I’ll take care he don’t skeedaddle in a hurry!”

“Hold on a minute, fellows,” said Andy, as though striving to gain time.

“What you got to say now, hey?” demanded the Hollingshead boy. “Get it
off your system in a big hurry, for we ain’t got any time to waste with
you.”

“I’m going to prove what I said, and that we believed this was our
cylinder, or else we wouldn’t have touched it,” declared Andy, who had
an eye beyond the figure of Sandy, though the other did not realize the
fact.

“Are, hey? Well, all I can say is that you’re going to have a mighty
big job convincing _us_ you’re innocent. Hurry up!” snarled Percy,
anxious to start operations, and wipe out some little matters that
burned in his brain, and which had to do with certain defeats in the
past at the hand of a Bird boy.

“All right. While I dropped down here to remove this burlap, just to
have something to do, and feast my eyes on the lovely cylinder we
wanted so much, Frank went to see the yard clerk, and settle the bill.”

“Frank?” exclaimed Percy, uneasily. “Was he along with you?”

“Sure,” sang out Andy, knowing that the anticipated rupture was all
off. “And if you turn your wise old head right now you’ll see his well
known figure sprinting this way, with the clerk following after him!”

Whereupon the other pair shot a quick glance in the direction
indicated; and what they discovered somehow caused them to no longer
keep their hands doubled up in that aggressive manner.

“Oh! well, in that case, perhaps there was a mistake made,” Sandy
hastened to say; for he saw that Frank was jumping toward them in a
fashion that somehow did not appeal to his fancy--for Sandy had more or
less knowledge of the excellent manner in which the tall lad could use
his fists on occasion, when forced to fight.

“Yes, and next time just be a little more careful how you dig into
other people’s things, if you please!” said Percy, also anxious to cast
oil on the troubled waters before the other Bird arrived on the scene.

“What’s the matter?” asked Frank as he reached the side of his cousin,
and turned a look of contempt on the precious pair.

“Oh!” laughed Andy, carelessly, so lightly did such things affect
him, “they were just complaining that I’d gone and meddled with their
freight, and didn’t want to accept my humble apologies. But I guess
it’s all right now, Frank. Has our cylinder come?”

“Sure, but hasn’t been taken from the car yet. Come, we’ll go with Sam
Harrington here, and claim it. He says we can easily carry it home with
us.”

Frank never gave the two standing there a single word. He understood
how matters had probably been at the time of his opportune arrival.

“They didn’t dare a lay a finger on you, did they, Andy?” he asked,
while they walked after the yard clerk toward a certain car near by.

“Well, no,” admitted the other, quickly, “but the storm was just going
to break when you showed up. But what do you think of their nerve in
getting a biplane ready to show us up? Say, things look like they might
be getting warm around old Bloomsbury pretty soon. I can see the time
coming when the town will be a regular aviation center, with aerodromes
and hangars dotting the landscape. And we’re the pioneers of the great
uplift movement!”

“That sounds pretty good--uplift movement when applied to aeroplanes
and dirigible balloons is fine! But don’t let your imagination run
away with you, Andy. Perhaps we may get dropped out of our aircraft
the first shot, and that squash would put a dampener on all flying in
this section. Even Percy’s easy going mother will cut off the spending
money. And that aviation field you have in your mind’s eye can never
crop up.”

“Well, anyway, there’s our cylinder; and just now that’s what ought to
interest us more than anything else. A biplane, he said! Think of that,
Frank. Just like Puss Carberry to want to outdo everybody else. He knew
ours was going to be equipped with a single pair of planes; and of
course he falls into the error of believing he can beat us by doubling
up. His old game, Frank; but when did it work?”

“Not very often, for a fact,” replied the other, as he bent down to
lift one end of the package the clerk pointed out to them.

Presently the freight bill having been settled the two boys walked
off bearing between them the precious piece of machinery that was
needed to complete their labors of two months. With that placed in its
proper position, and several minor things adjusted, they believed the
monoplane would be ready for testing.

And what a great day it would be for the Bird boys when they were able
to take their first little flight near the ground. Andy thrilled as he
talked of the glorious prospect ahead, and now attainable, since the
last difficulty seemed to have been smoothed away.

They took their time in walking back to the Whympers place. Several
boys whom they chanced to meet, asked questions concerning the time
when they expected to try out the new flying machine. But to these the
cousins gave noncommittal answers.

“Think we want a crowd of fellows gaping, and bothering right at that
critical time?” declared Andy, as they left a group of comrades on the
road. “I just can’t get that old story of Darius Green and his flying
machine out of my head. Gee! I hope we don’t come a cropper like he
did, and smash everything! But here we are at the road that leads down
to the field where our hangar stands. Turn in, Frank.”

Passing alongside the garden, they presently struck the gate that
opened into the broad field which they expected to use for their
circling, once they got the monoplane to working.

“Here, drop her while I find my key,” said Andy, suiting the action
to the word. “Three to one it’s up at the house, in my other clothes
that I had on last night when we were working here. Ain’t that just a
blooming shame now, that a fellow has to sprint all the way there and
back?”

“Hold on!” exclaimed Frank, suddenly, and there was that in the tone of
his voice to startle his cousin, who stopped still, while in the act of
hurrying away.

“What’s the matter?” he demanded. “Did I happen to give you the key
now?”

“Not that I remember. But you needn’t run to the house. We can get in
without any key this time, I guess,” said Frank, with an angry gleam in
his dark eyes.

He pointed to the door, and looking, Andy saw that the staple holding
the padlock had _been drawn_, so that it could be pulled with the
slightest effort!




CHAPTER III.

TRYING OUT THE ENGINE.


“Oh! Frank!”

Andy had turned white, and looked weak. A dreadful foreboding seemed to
have suddenly seized upon him. It was as though a cold hand had been
brought in direct contact with his wildly beating heart, stilling its
pulsations.

But Frank was not affected in the same way. His face flushed with
anger. They had, as if by mutual consent, lowered their burden to the
ground upon making this startling discovery. Frank was therefore free
to act; and his first movement was toward throwing open the unfastened
double door of the shed, to plunge inside. Whatever there was to
discover, Frank meant to know the worst immediately.

There upon the floor was the precious monoplane, so nearly finished
that it looked as though it might be ready to start the engine at a
minute’s notice.

But there was something wrong about it. Andy had followed his cousin
into the place, and his horrified eyes quickly discovered what had been
done by the vandal hands of those who had found entrance during the
preceding night.

“The planes have been cut into ribbons! Oh! what a shame! All our
work just ruined by some sneak and coward! Frank, ain’t it awful?”
he exclaimed, clenching his hands in a manner that told of great
excitement.

“Hold on,” said the cooler one, raising his hand; “it’s true that the
canvas of the planes has been spoiled utterly; but if that was the
whole thing I wouldn’t care so much. Let me examine the engine first.”

Eagerly he removed the canvas covering the motor. Andy went and opened
the great doors wider, so that he could have an abundance of light.
Then, with his heart in his throat, so to speak, Andy hovered near,
waiting for the dread verdict.

Presently Frank looked up.

“Oh!” cried the other, as he saw that his cousin was smiling, “tell me
nothing vital has happened, Frank! They didn’t dare hurt that little
darling Kinkaid engine, did they? No, your beaming face tells me so. Is
that all the damage they did?” and he pointed to the cut canvas of the
two planes.

Frank nodded his head.

“I can’t find anything more, old fellow,” he said, cheerily, the cloud
dissipated from his brow that had a minute before been so threatening.

“But how did that come, d’ye think?” demanded Andy. “Seems to me I can
give a right good guess who did this dirty job, even if they covered up
their tracks like they always do; but why would they stop at smashing
our planes, when they could put our engine on the blink so easy?”

“Well,” observed Frank, thoughtfully, “we happen to know that some
people I won’t mention have more than their share of caution. While
we mightn’t make much fuss about the planes, if the engine had been
tampered with we’d be apt to complain to the chief of Bloomsbury
police, Mr. Waller, and have him investigate.”

“But what could have been their object?” Andy complained, as he looked
closer at the slashed material covering the framework of the planes.

“Just malicious deviltry, I guess,” replied Frank, gloomily. “They
were curious to see what we were doing with our monoplane, and forced
the lock last night. Then the temptation was too great to be resisted.
They just _had_ to do something to satisfy that craving for ugliness.
Besides, don’t you see, it would delay us; and that would allow them
to steal some of our thunder.”

“Sure enough,” cried Andy, “I never thought about that. Everybody knows
that we expect to give our little trap a trail soon. And what a feather
it would be in the cap of Puss and Sandy if, instead of the Bird boys,
_they_ sailed over Bloomsbury first! Oh! what schemers they are! Always
jealous of everybody else, and wanting everything to come their way!”

“Well, after all, there’s really no damage done,” laughed his cousin.

“Ain’t, eh? How d’ye make that out?” asked Andy, ruefully handling the
tattered material of the planes.

“Why,” said Frank, “have you forgotten what we decided about this
stuff--that it was a bit too flimsy, and not to be depended on, when
a fellow was risking so much? And didn’t I go and order another lot
through Spencer’s drygoods store last week? They ought to have it in
by tomorrow, or the next day at most; when we can get busy, and cover
these wings with canvas that will hold.”

Andy had his turn to laugh, which he did most heartily, as usual.

“What d’ye think of that, now? After all, they only helped us cut the
old stuff away, to make ready for the new. Of course, they don’t
happen to know about your order. And they think we’ll have to wait a
week before we can get anything worth using. And come to think of it,
that’s the way the schemes engineered by Puss Carberry generally do
turn out. They kick at the wrong end, like a gun that isn’t pushed up
against the shoulder. Well, this is a joke on them, after all.”

“All the same, their intentions were bad enough!” declared Frank,
sternly.

“Sure they were,” Andy echoed. “In the first place they busted open
our locked doors, and looked our machine over. That was treachery of
the first water. Then they tried to hold us back, so they could show
the town people that the Bird boys weren’t the only smart chaps in
Bloomsbury. That was about the way Sandy bragged. And Frank, what d’ye
think he accused me of wanting to do?”

“Stealing his freight, you said,” returned the other.

“Huh! worse than that,” grumbled the other. “He declared he believed
I meant to throw some acid on their cylinder, so that it would eat
in, and make the blooming thing crack, just when they were up in the
clouds, boring for altitude.”

“Just like the mean skunk. Those sort of things are always in his
mind; and so he suspects others are just as nasty about doing such
stunts,” said Frank with an expression of disgust.

“Just about what I told him to his face,” Andy observed, quickly. “And
as sure as you live, here’s the evidence of it right before us. Ten to
one Sandy slashed these planes with his knife. Wish he’d happened to
drop it here; wouldn’t I like to pick it up, and tell him where I found
it?”

As he spoke, Andy started to look around the shop. His comrade
presently heard him give utterance to a sudden exclamation, as he
stooped over.

“Found any knife?” asked Frank, humorously.

“Well, no; not a knife; but I have raised a knave of spades. Look here,
neither of us ever had a pack of cards in this shanty, did we? Then
what is this doing here, tell me?” and Andy excitedly held up what he
had found.

Frank thought enough of it to take the card from his cousin’s hand, and
look it over. Then he laughed.

“Same old story,” he said, nodding. “Did Puss Carberry ever try any
dodge without having it backfire? Now, I would be willing to take my
affidavit that there was no such card lying around loose here yesterday
when we worked at our monoplane. So it goes to show that it must have
been pulled from the pocket of one of our midnight visitors, perhaps
when he was getting out his handkerchief or a knife.”

“But can we prove it on them?” asked Andy, hungrily, as he glanced once
more at the cut planes.

“Perhaps we can,” replied Frank, thoughtfully, wrinkling his brow as he
reflected. “In the first place, we must try and learn whether either of
those fellows own a pack of cards marked on the back like this. You see
it is an Indian figure, and underneath are the words ‘The Red Hunter.’
I don’t know for certain, but I’ve got a hunch that Puss brought this
pack back with him, when he came from the city last.”

“Yes. Go on,” said Andy, deeply interested.

“All right. Then in some public place, where there are a number of
people present, we must make sure Puss has the cards with him; after
which we will accuse him, and make him show whether this one card is
missing from his pack.”

“Gee! you know how to show up these things all right, Frank!”
exclaimed, the delighted Andy. “Suppose you get that brain-box of
yours busy on another little mystery we know of now. Honestly, I have
a hunch that if you would only _try_ you could discover what became of
my darling little monkey wrench. I’m like the baby and the soap you see
advertised--I’ll never be happy till I get it.”

“I don’t believe you’ll give me any rest till you do remember where you
put that plagued little tool,” declared the other, laughing.

“Hold on, don’t you go to calling it names,” said Andy, aggressively;
“because it’s no fault of the wrench that it’s missing. I’m the one to
blame, I reckon. But I’ll never give up trying to recollect where I put
the thing away so safe that I’ve even forgotten the combination.”

“Yes,” smiled his cousin, “I’ve known people to do that before. Perhaps
I may have done it myself. But if it comes to the worst, I suppose you
can have a duplicate made that will answer just as well?”

“Oh! I reckon so,” replied Andy. “But think of the time and worry that
thing cost me, not to mention the expense. Besides, I just don’t know
how we’re ever going to make that first ascent minus that invaluable
tool.”

“Well, forget it just now. We’ve sure got all the trouble we want to
install this important part of our machine. I’ll drop in at Spencer’s
place the first time I’m in town today, and see if the bolt of stuff
has arrived. It would be great good luck if I found it had, Andy.”

Throwing off their coats, the two boys got to work. And presently they
were as busy as beavers, crawling about the apparently clumsy object
which occupied so much of the shed’s interior.

Colonel Whympers had had the place constructed especially for the
purpose of furthering their plan. There never was a guardian more
indulgent than this old traveler, now reduced to hobbling around with a
crutch and cane. And Andy never tired of letting the old chap know how
much he appreciated his generous heart.

Of course the structure was flimsily built, as most hangars are, being
intended merely as temporary resting places for air craft. Many times
Frank and his cousin knew that the town boys had come out of their way
to peer through the crack in order to gratify their natural curiosity.
But up to now no one had ever attempted to injure anything connected
with the monoplane, or its shelter.

Several hours passed away. The engine was now complete, and Frank had
even given it a trial spin. The sound of its humming was pleasant music
in the ears of these aeroplane boys, for they had a severe case of the
up-to-date disease. Andy came by his naturally, inheriting it from his
father; but with Frank it was acquired from his reading, backed by a
desire to see strange places of the great world, hitherto inaccessible
to ordinary travelers.

“Say, that’s great!” cried Andy, as he stood and watched the easy play
of the lightest little engine ever invented.

“Works like a charm,” said the proud Frank, standing there, adjusting
the automatic oiler, ready to drop a little lubricant wherever the
friction came sharpest. “And even now I’ve only got half the power
turned on. Tomorrow we’ll place the bicycle wheels under the framework;
or if we happen to feel like it, that might be done tonight.”

“Tonight?” echoed the other. “Sounds like you expected to camp out
alongside the little charmer.”

Frank turned upon him, and his dark eyes gleamed as he replied.

“And that’s just what we’re going to do, my boy--stick by our machine
day and night until we make our first flight. I’d never feel safe in
bed after seeing how easy it would be for those savages to injure her.
What if they were mean enough to file partly through a wire support
of the planes, and we never noticed it? It would hold out till we put
extra pressure on it, and that might be five hundred feet up in the
air. No, one of us must be here all the time!”

“You’re right, Frank. I’ll bring over blankets from the house, and we
can just bunk out here. Won’t be the first time either that we’ve kept
house together, not by a long shot. But you figured that card business
down fine. Only wish you would turn that genius on the puzzle that’s
bothering me.”

“Oh! rats. Suppose you let that thing sleep for a while, Andy. You said
yourself you’d be sure to remember some minute what you did with the
wrench. Now, let’s figure how we’re going to get any grub while here.”




CHAPTER IV.

A MIDNIGHT ALARM.


“I tell you what,” suggested Andy; “let’s cook our supper here. What’s
to hinder, when we’ve got a stove handy, and there’s no great amount of
gasolene around? I’m just hungry enough to want to see you throw things
about and wrestle with a regular camp dinner. What say, Frank?”

His cousin seemed to reflect.

“Oh! well, I don’t mind,” he presently replied. “Nobody ever knew me
to refuse a chance to do my own cooking. But only this once, Andy,
remember. We’ll be too busy tomorrow to spend time over a fire. All
that will come in time, when we’re off on some of the bully little
trips we expect to take, when we get used to piloting our flying
machine through the clouds.”

“All right. In the morning we can get breakfast at the house, one at a
time, while the other stands guard. After all I guess the only danger
is leaving things alone at night. There’s a good moon tonight, too. But
since you agree to my game, I’m off to get some grub, and that dandy
aluminum camp outfit the colonel gave me on my birthday. Just the
chance to break it in. What will I fetch along to eat, Frank?”

“Oh, anything you can grab,” laughed the other, knowing that Andy,
being a good feeder, the real difficulty would be in his gathering
enough for half a dozen fair meals. “A beefsteak wouldn’t go bad, with
some spuds and beans from the garden. And don’t forget the tea, on your
life!”

“Listen to him, would you?” jeered Andy, stopping in the doorway to
answer. “Why, to hear him talk you’d think he was an old maid. Shall I
fetch the cat for you to rub as we sit before the fire? If I had my way
it’d be coffee every meal. But I suppose I’ll have to give in like I
always do,” and he ran off laughing.

When he came back later he was fairly loaded down with numerous
packages, while over his back he seemed to have a little bag thrown.

“Take some of these traps, will you, Frank? That’s the little aluminum
cooking outfit in the sack. It nests in a mighty small space, you see,
but answers for two persons. But you’ve seen it before and admired it
without stint. Just the thing to carry up in an aeroplane, where every
ounce of extra weight counts. And I’m pleased to know that you’re going
to be the one to take the new shine off my birthday present from the
best of guardians, Colonel Josiah Whympers.”

Andy generally pronounced the full name of his guardian. Somehow, he
seemed to feel that the old gentleman rather liked to hear it. And
besides, it gave an added spice to what he was saying.

Whatever Andy did was right, according to that indulgent party. There
might be a limit to his belief in the boy’s capabilities; but if so, it
had never as yet been reached.

So, while Frank was once more looking with admiring eyes on the frying
pan that could shed its handle, the neat little shiny kettles nesting
within each other, the utensils for coffee making, and tea, too, if
wanted, not to mention cups and platters, all made of the strongest
aluminum, Andy jogged back to the house for another load.

“Here, hold on,” said Frank, looking up when the other had deposited
the second assortment of stuff, “d’ye want to swamp us outright? I
declare if you haven’t gone and brought out enough for half a dozen
already. Look at the steak! How in the dickens are we going to make way
with all that, not to speak of cooking it?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you we’re going to have company,” said Andy,
wickedly, as he made ready to shoot off again.

“Colonel Josiah Whympers’ coming to join us in our frugal repast?”
asked Frank, a look of pleasure on his face.

“Just that. When he heard what we meant to do he got fidgetty at once,
and finally threw out such broad hints that I had to ask him to join
us. Besides,” added Andy, with a look of what his cousin called “soft
sawder,” and which was meant as oil is used to allay friction; “he’s
been complaining a good deal lately because he never had a chance to
taste your cooking, after me bragging about it so.”

“Ah, get along with you,” laughed Frank, pretending to throw something;
“but I say, Andy, while you’re about it just borrow the family frying
pan from the cook, because this little one would never do for such a
gigantic steak, especially since I see you brought a lot of onions
along and want them fried, too.”

“O.K., boss! All shall be done as you order, after being so kind as
to not kick over the traces because I’ve invited a guest. But _such_
a guest! They destroyed the pattern after Josiah Whympers was made, I
reckon. I’m going to get blankets this turn and that blessed frying pan
ditto,” after which he shot off on a run.

Andy did things with a rush, in which he was ever a marvel to his slow
friend, Elephant Small, whose failing seemed to be just the other
extreme, as he crawled along after the style of a snail.

Frank always carried out everything he attempted well. If he worked
at machinery he was conscientious about every trifling bolt and nut.
If he played baseball he did it with his whole soul and made as near
a success of his work as was possible. And now, when he was elected
“chief cook and bottle washer,” as Andy called it, of the supper that
was to be prepared, he set about the job just as an experienced cook
would have done.

Evening had come. Already the July sun was hovering close to the
horizon. The day had been singularly cool for a summer spell, though
doubtless it would grow hot again by the morrow.

At any rate it was not a serious task standing over a fire and looking
after the various vessels that simmered and bubbled. Then the fine
steak was slapped on a pan that had already been well heated, which
was Frank’s way of cooking such a delicious morsel. It immediately
began throwing off a most appetizing odor that kept Andy groaning and
wondering how long he could stand it.

The onions, too, had a scent all their own. And as if this were not
enough, Frank, in honor of the expected guest, had allowed Andy to have
coffee, so that there was another fragrant smell added to the lot.

Pretty soon a thumping announced that Colonel Josiah had arrived, and
Andy jumped up to welcome the old man. He came in, sniffing the air
vigorously and manifesting the most intense delight.

“Reminds me of many a scene in my checkered past, lads,” said the old
gentleman, who was a smooth-shaven party, with long white hair, and
eyes that had not lost the fire of their younger days. “And I’m glad
I held off until the feast was nearly ready, because I just couldn’t
stand that long. This looks homelike. Glad to be with you, my lads. It
was nice of you to ask an old codger like me. Perhaps I can repay you
by relating a number of events this reminds me of.”

That was his one weak point. His past had really been so filled with
adventures without number that everything served to bring some striking
scene to his mind. But boys with red blood in their veins never tire
of hearing about such things. And these two lads were built along such
lines, for they deemed it a treat whenever they had a chance to listen
to his thrilling recitals.

And the colonel never forgot to impress a moral to his tales. Old age
was beginning to give him a different view of life from what he may
have entertained at the time these scenes he mentioned were being
enacted.

They sat there for nearly two hours talking. From his own past
experiences the old man deftly turned the conversation in line with
their aspirations, and asked many questions concerning what they
expected to do when they found they could manage their aeroplane, which
he had examined with considerable curiosity, and not a few words of
praise.

Finally he announced that he had better be returning to the house. Andy
would not let him go alone, though the moon was shining brilliantly.

When he came back later he found his comrade deep in the job of
cleaning up.

“Oh, what’s the use doing that tonight?” asked Andy, prone to want to
put off things to another day that ought to be done now.

Frank knew his little weakness only too well.

“Not much,” he said, decisively. “We’ll find enough to do in the
morning. Here, you get a towel and start in to wiping these things.
And with such a dandy outfit I do hope you take a little pride in
keeping things clean and bright.”

“Huh!” grunted Andy, “thought that was the best thing about
aluminum--that a fellow never needed to clean it up.”

“Listen to him, will you?” laughed his cousin; “perhaps you had a
sneaking notion, too, that it might get the spuds peeled and do all
sorts of stunts. Make up your mind, my boy, nothing is ever gained
without some work. Give that dish another rub while you’re about it,
Andy, and then set it back on the stove to warm up. Soon be through
here and then, if we feel like it, we can get at those bike wheels that
are to go under our framework, according to the design we’re following
after.”

Although possibly Andy may have confessed to being somewhat tired,
still, the fever was rioting through his veins, and he could not say
no, when Frank proposed anything connected with the completion of that
wonderful monoplane that haunted his very dreams, so much was it in his
mind during his waking hours.

Accordingly they set to work. Frank had arranged his plans and knew
just how this thing and that must be managed in order to secure the
greatest amount of success.

“Now she looks like the real thing!” declared Andy, enthusiastically,
when the little wonder had been duly elevated and fitted with the
wheels that were to prove so useful in starting off and in landing.

“Watch how the engine works again in this new position,” said Frank, as
with a few deft turns of his hand he set things in motion.

The quick pulsations of the motor thrilled them. Small wonder then that
these enthusiastic novices of the air navigation idea could hardly tear
themselves away from a contemplation of their prized aeroplane and
think of such an ordinary thing as securing some sleep.

“Come, look here, it’s going on midnight,” declared Frank, finally;
“and we must get our bunks ready to turn in. I’m going to tumble over
on this pile of planks here. Nothing like the soft side of a board for
a bed, they say.”

“And since I went and fetched this cot out, thinking you’d accept it,
why, sooner than see it lie idle, I’ll dump my blanket in there and
curl up. Got the bar across the door, Frank?” asked Andy, as he started
to yawn again.

“Sure,” replied the other, “and the little window partly open, to give
us air, for it’s close in here. Now turn in and don’t let me hear a
yawp from you till morning.”

“Oh, I’ll sleep as sound as a nut; always do. That is, if I don’t get
to dreaming something about that darling little----” but as Frank threw
a block of wood across the shed and made the speaker duck his head, he
did not finish his sentence.

Presently all was quiet within the long shed, save the regular
breathing of the two boys. The moonlight sifted in through the open
window and lighted up the queer workshop after a fashion, so that the
great batlike object occupying so much space could be dimly made out.

Perhaps an hour had gone by. From without there came only such sounds
as one might expect to hear on a July night in the country, for
the place of Colonel Whympers was outside of Bloomsbury and really
surrounded by fields and woods.

Something suddenly aroused Frank. He hardly knew himself what it could
have been, but as he sat upright in his blanket he believed he heard
loud voices somewhere outside. Then something that seemed to be very
heavy came down with a loud impact that awoke even that hard sleeper,
Andy.

“What was that?” he exclaimed, sitting bolt upright.

Frank, quick to act, was already out of his warm nest and making a bee
line for the window, which happened to be in a quarter that could be
reached without his stumbling over the monoplane occupying the middle
of the place.

Of course, not to be outdone, Andy tumbled off his cot, climbed to his
feet and as the doors happened to be more convenient to him, he was
quickly throwing the heavy bar aside. This done, the impulsive Andy
rushed straight outside, clad only in his pajamas as he was.




CHAPTER V.

A MESSAGE FROM THE SKY.


When Andy thus wildly rushed out of doors he fell over some object
which he did not chance to see. Perhaps in his excitement he even
imagined some one had given him a clip alongside the head with a club,
for he struck the ground with a bang that must have made him see stars.

“Frank! Frank! Come here, quick!” he shouted.

The other, who had been thrusting his head out of the window of the
hangar, immediately made a break for the door. Doubtless he half
expected to see his cousin wrestling with some daring intruder, whom he
had caught in the act of setting fire to the shed or some such caper.

“Where are you? What’s going on here?”

Calling in this strain Frank arrived in time to see Andy still on his
hands and knees just as he had fallen. He seemed to be staring up at
the starry heavens as though he had taken a sudden intense interest in
the planets of the universe.

“Did you see anything?” he questioned, as he managed to clamber to his
feet and clutch hold of the other.

“Not a thing!” came the ready reply; “but it seemed to me I heard
shouts. And they seemed to be getting fainter and fainter, as if the
fellows were running away.”

“That’s it, Frank, voices that sounded like they were sailing along
overhead!” exclaimed Andy, excitedly.

“What’s that?” demanded the other, turning upon him; “overhead, you
say? Ginger! Now that you mention it, seems to me there might be
something in that. But how could anybody get above us, when there isn’t
a single tree in this big field?”

“Frank,” Andy went on, earnestly, “I saw something just disappearing
over yonder, where the woods begin to poke up in the east. And I give
you my word that was where the voices came from!”

“Disappearing? Do you mean over the tree-tops, Andy?” cried the other,
just as if the announcement he listened to nearly took his breath away.

Andy nodded his head several times, while his face, seen in the
moonlight, appeared to be covered with an eager grin.

“Yep, went over the tops of those same trees just like a bird--poof!
and it was gone. I couldn’t make head or tail out of it, because, you
see, I was nearly standing on my own head just then. But it wasn’t a
bird, I’ll take my affidavit on that! It sure must have been some sort
of flying machine, Frank!”

His listener whistled to express his surprise.

“Here, let’s go and get some clothes on over these zebra stripes,” he
suggested. “Then we can come out and look into this thing a little
closer.”

In less than three minutes they issued forth again, better able to
stand the chilly air of the night.

“Did you hear anything more than the shouts?” asked Andy, as they
emerged.

“Why, yes; some sort of racket woke me up. Don’t just know what it was,
but I thought somebody might be banging on the side of the shack, and I
jumped. I guess that’s what woke you, too,” continued the taller lad.

“But Frank,” declared Andy, impressively, “I couldn’t say for certain,
and yet it seemed to me as I lay here, after tumbling over that wooden
bucket I forgot to carry indoors, I heard some sort of sounds that made
me think of the popping of a little motor!”

“A motor!” cried the other, “and up there in the air, too!”

They stared hard at each other. Some startling thought must have
instinctively lodged in each brain, for almost immediately Andy went on
sadly, saying:

“Just to think, they’ve beaten us a mile! And after all the talking
we’ve gone and done, too. However will we hold our heads up after this?”

“See here, you don’t mean that those fellows have got their biplane
rigged up already and are soaring around in the moonlight?” demanded
Frank.

“Well,” Andy continued, “it looks like it, don’t it? Something that can
fly and carry passengers certainly passed over our hangar just then.
And not only that, but they let loose at us, no doubt intending to
smash in our roof with a great big dornick.”

“Hold on, you’re jumping too far ahead, Andy. Let’s go slow and not get
off the track so easy. If you were on the witness stand could you swear
that you saw a biplane just disappearing over the trees yonder?”

“Well, no; perhaps not exactly,” said the other; “but I saw _something_
that was moving along just as neat as you please.”

“Yes, and the moonlight is mighty deceiving, I know,” remarked Frank.
“But we’ll say that you did see something, that might have been a
flying machine or a cloud. Will you declare that you heard the popping
of a motor?”

“I think I did, but perhaps it may have been the blood rushing through
my brain, for I came down pretty solid. Still, it wouldn’t surprise me
if we learned, after all, that it _was_ a motor in an aeroplane. Then
think what they tried to do to us, will you?”

“There you go, Andy. Don’t be a false alarm all your life. We’re going
to investigate that same noise presently, when we’ve threshed this
other thing dry. It may be that they’ve gone and done it. But if two
greenhorns can start up in an aeroplane by moonlight and sail around
just as they please, flying must be easier than I ever dreamed of,
that’s all.”

Frank did look puzzled. He could not bring himself to believe such a
wonderful thing had happened. Knowing both Percy and his crony as he
did, he doubted their ability to accomplish the feat in broad daylight,
let alone night, with its deceptive moonlight.

And that was why he frowned as he tried to figure the thing out.

“We both heard the big row,” he mused. “Then Andy here declares he saw
_something_ floating off above the trees yonder; he can’t say for sure
whether it was an airship or a nighthawk. And he kind of thinks he
heard something like the crackling of an aeroplane motor! Now, what
happened? That’s what we’ve just got to find out.”

He looked around him.

“Yes,” he continued, as if speaking to himself, “I’m nearly sure that
crash came from over yonder to the west. It seemed to reach me by way
of the window, and that was why I made for that opening in such a
hurry. Thought some fellow might be trying to climb in there and had
fallen back.”

Again he cast his eyes upward, then slowly described a half circle.

“Andy says _it_ disappeared over that clump of trees, which is almost
due east of here. And I thought I heard the crash over at the other
side of the shack, making it almost west. Now, that sounds reasonable.
If they dropped something, meaning to hit the roof of the hangar, and
undershot the mark, it would have fallen to the ground to the west of
the building!”

“Yes,” said Andy, who had been listening eagerly, “and you remember,
there’s a little pile of lumber lying there, which we meant to use if
we had to enlarge the house. It must have struck those boards, Frank!”

“That’s a clever thought,” admitted the other, “and one I didn’t clutch
myself. Let’s meander over that way and take a little observation.
What say?”

“I’m with you every time,” declared Andy, quickly. “I never could stand
having two mysteries bothering me at once. It’s enough to be always
wondering where that blessed little monkey wrench could have vanished
to.”

“Come on and drop that, if you please. Life is too short to be
everlastingly whining about lost opportunities and monkey wrenches and
such things,” said Frank, leading off as he spoke.

“Oh, splash! You haven’t got a grain of sentiment about you, Frank.
Everything is too practical, according to your way of thinking. Now
to my mind, there’s nothing prettier in the world than a cleverly
constructed wrench that knows its business and refuses to get out of
joint just when you need it to hold most.”

But Frank had declined to listen to his “chaff,” as Andy would have
called it himself. Already the other had advanced toward the opposite
side of the structure. Here, in the fairly bright moonlight, they could
see the pile of planks that had been left in the expectation that the
building might have to be enlarged sooner or later.

Straight toward these Frank strode. The nearer he came to the pile
the stronger grew his impression that they must be near a plausible
solution of the mysterious racket.

“It came from somewhere about here, I should say,” he remarked, as he
halted by the heap of boards to glance around.

“Yes, but so far as I can see there’s no big stone lying on top of the
pile. Guess after all it was a mistake. We must have dreamed it,” said
Andy, ready to give up.

But Frank was very stubborn. Once he had set his mind on a thing it
was hard indeed to change him. And somehow he believed more than ever
that if they looked close enough they would find the explanation of the
queer noise in this quarter.

“Strange!” he muttered, evidently chagrined because he did not seem to
discover what he had expected as soon as he had thought would be the
case.

“No big stone here, that’s sure!” declared Andy, picking himself up
from the ground.

“What was that you stumbled over?” asked his cousin quickly.

“That? Oh, only a bag of sand that swift bunch of masons who laid the
foundations of our shack forgot to carry away with them. They’re a
punk lot. Might have knocked my nose that time and started the claret
to running,” and he gave the object of his disgust a vicious kick
with his toe, after which he immediately began a war dance around the
spot, for he had quite forgotten that he was wearing a pair of deerskin
moccasins just then and had stubbed his toe against the hard contents
of the bag.

“What are you giving me?” demanded Frank. “A bag of sand! Why, you know
very well those masons never brought their sand in bags. It came in a
load and was dumped right over at the other side of the shack.”

“All right. This is a bag, I tell you. Perhaps it’s got gold dust in
it, for all I know. Feels hard enough for that. I’ll put you wise,
Frank. Just you try giving it a good kick, if you want to see,”
grumbled Andy, nursing his injured toe.

“A sandbag! Whew! I wonder----”

Frank did not finish what he had on his mind, and his companion looked
his surprise at seeing him drop down alongside the object in question,
which he began to handle eagerly.

Then, to the utter amazement of Andy, he made to pick the heavy bag up
and start away with it.

“Hey, come back here!” called the other, trailing and limping after
him; “what under the sun are you going to do with that thing? Want it
for a pillow? Maybe you think we can make a breakfast off it? Why, what
ails the fellow? He acts like he’d struck a prize, that’s what!”

“Come along inside and I’ll show you something,” called the other over
his shoulder, which, of course, only added new fuel to the fire of
curiosity that was already raging in Andy’s soul.

When he got inside he found Frank in the act of scratching a match,
which he immediately applied to a lamp, one of those by which they were
wont to work of nights.

There upon a rude table where they planed and sawed Andy saw a small,
stoutly made canvas bag that had what seemed to be a handle on one side.

“Well, I declare, it’s got a label of some sort tied to it! Nice,
pleasant fellows these, trying to smash in the roof of our hangar and
then sending their compliments along with it!” Andy exclaimed, for like
a flash it had come to him that the sandbag had been hurled down from
above!

“Here, listen while I read what it says!” exclaimed Frank.

  “Balloon ‘Monarch.’
             “DeGraw, Pilot.

  “Launched at St. Louis July 4. Sixty-seven hours up. Last bag
  ballast but two. Please notify committee through New York newspapers.”

“Butt in; I’m listening, Frank!”

Then the two boys stood there and stared at each other, as though
hardly able to grasp what the whole thing meant, but the one positive
fact that stood out was that this sandbag must have come down from a
passing balloon!




CHAPTER VI.

BLOOMSBURY IS BOOKED FOR FAME.


“Please pinch me, Frank!” said Andy, weakly.

“What for? Do you think you’re asleep?” asked the other, himself hardly
able to believe what his eyes had read.

“It seems like a dream. I just can’t understand it all. Yet there’s the
message all right that dropped down from the clouds. And we sure heard
voices. Tell me I’m not seeing things that don’t exist, Frank. Say
_something_, for goodness sake!”

Frank did manage to arouse himself at last.

“Well,” said he, slowly and seriously; “let’s look at this thing a
bit closer. We were waked up by a big bang. Then we thought we heard
voices that gradually grew fainter. You got the notion in your head you
glimpsed some sort of flying thing that disappeared over the tree tops
to the east. Finally, we picked up this sandbag, made just like those
we saw with that balloon that was down at the aviation meet on Long
Island. That about covers the business, I reckon.”

“Covers it, yes!” cried Andy, now growing excited; “but it gives me
a creep just to think how that balloon, drifting all the way from St.
Louis, happened to pass straight over _our_ heads! And then what a
streak of luck to have the pilot drop his message at the door of our
hangar. Why, it was just like he knew there were a pair of aeroplane
boys here ready to grab his message as they would a gold nugget.”

“Right you are, Andy,” observed his cousin. “And do you know I take
this as a sign that we’re going to have good luck with our aeroplane.
Things are coming our way.”

“I should say they were. First some fellow sneaks in here and cuts the
wings of our bird to flinders. Then these balloon racers get the notion
that our camp would be a rattling good place to drop a message to their
committee. Do we carry out their suggestion, Frank?”

“Do we?” echoed the other, instantly; “well, what would you think
of our chances among the profession if we declined to assist fellow
aviators hustling the news along? Why, I’d get up out of a warm bed any
time of night and wheel twenty miles to carry such a message as that.”

“Then you’ll go to town with it and send to the papers in New York?”
demanded Andy.

“Yes, right away; so they can have the news in the morning issues, if
it isn’t too late. I’ll hunt up Casper Dunbar. You know he has some
sort of connection with the _Herald_, and never fear but that he’ll
find a way to tell the whole story.”

Frank was nothing if not energetic. Even while he was speaking he began
to hurriedly dress himself.

“I suppose,” ventured the other, cautiously, as if an idea had suddenly
come to him, “our names will have to be mentioned in the telegram?”

“We’ll leave that to Casper. Ten to one he’ll make it a point to say
that the boys who had the message left at their door are known as local
aeronauts,” replied Frank, secretly chuckling, for he could guess what
was coming.

“Well,” said the other, presently, “would you mind asking Casper if he
seems bent on mentioning us in his dispatch that he get my name as Andy
and not Andrew? You know nobody but the dominie calls me that, and I’ve
always detested the name. It belonged to an uncle who after all turned
out bad. Spell it for him, Frank--just plain Andy Bird.”

“All right, just as you say. But there’s no need of you sitting up to
wait for me. I may be gone quite a while, because you see Casper would
want to hear all the particulars. Go back to your cot, Andy.”

“Perhaps I will,” replied the other, who was, however, evidently in
no frame of mind to woo the gentle goddess of sleep, for he continued
to shake his head from time to time and mutter words covering his
astonishment over the “miracle.”

“Say,” he finally burst forth with, “we are lucky and that’s a fact.
Suppose now that pilot of the _Monarch_ had just knocked at the door of
the Carberry home instead of here, wouldn’t that have queered us? Well,
anyway, he knew a real bird-boy had his nesting place where he saw the
roof of our hangar. I’m going to let Mr. DeGraw know some day that I
consider him a mighty far-sighted gentleman.”

“Shucks! It was just an accident, pure and simple,” laughed Frank, “and
we’ll let it go at that. I’m ready to skip off now. Is your wheel in
condition, Andy?”

“Plugged that rear tire only yesterday and made a cracking good job.
Yep, she is holding like a house afire. Good luck to you, Frank. And be
sure that you spell the whole name out for Casper. I’d hate to see it
Byrd or Budd or something like that.”

“You certainly take the cake, Andy. Don’t you know that a bird by
any other name would fly just as high? But I’ll impress on Casper the
enormous crime he’ll be committing if he gets a single letter wrong.
By-by!”

Wheeling the bicycle out of doors, Frank threw himself into the saddle
after the manner of an accomplished rider and was off.

The moon still rode high in the clear summer sky, so that, after a
fashion, it was almost as light as day. Frank quickly found himself on
the road. Then it was an easy dash into town and out along the other
road, which would speedily bring him to the home of Casper Dunbar.

Left alone in the shed, Andy did return to his cot, for it was rather
cool at that uncanny hour of the night. Sleep, however, was the very
last thing he considered as he lay there, a thousand thoughts flying
riotously through his excited brain.

The strange passing of that balloon racer, which had covered something
like a thousand miles in its long drift across country, filled his mind
with awe.

If a mere bag of gas, the sport of every shifting wind, could be guided
thus far by the skill of its pilot, in rising and falling in order to
continue a direct easterly course, what ought not a genuine aeroplane,
equipped with the lightest and most complete engine ever constructed,
be capable of doing?

In imagination the sanguine bird-boy saw himself and comrade sailing
over tracts of wild country never before looked upon by mortal eye,
learning the strange secrets that Nature had hidden from mankind all
these thousands of years.

“Why,” said Andy, talking to himself in lieu of any better audience,
“there can be nothing beyond the reach of a flying machine properly
constructed and run by experienced birdmen. It can pass over burning
deserts, where caravans have perished. It might even sail to the South
Pole and beat Peary at his own game. And of all the pursuits in the
world, to my mind that of an aeronaut is the finest. No wonder my
poor father was drawn to take it up by his studies. And nothing shall
ever keep me from following the same profession, unless I meet with a
knockout in the start, which I hope won’t be the case.”

After what seemed to be a long time he fancied he heard Frank
returning. But as more minutes passed and no one knocked at the door,
across which he had drawn the protecting bar, after the instructions of
his mate, Andy concluded he must have been mistaken.

“But it did sound like the tire of a wheel had hit the side of the
shack. May have been a squirrel playing about, because I’ve seen lots
of ’em,” he muttered as he sat up, leaning on his elbow.

Perhaps it was, but all the same, when the little jar came again, Andy
was impelled to climb out of his simple bed and move over to the window.

Possibly he could not wholly forget that on the preceding night some
persons had paid a secret visit to the home of the new monoplane and
shown a vandal spirit in cutting the wings to shreds.

What if they meant to come again on this night? Andy’s imagination was
doubtless pretty well fired after this strange visit from the racing
balloon. He also knew the character of the two rival aviators and to
what low depths they had often sunk in order to get even with those
they chanced to be at odds with.

But all seemed well. The moon hung there like a great silver shield. An
owl in a neighboring tree whinnied like a horse, calling to his mate.
Everything seemed peaceful enough and with not a sign of intruders
anywhere.

Ah, something certainly moved over yonder. Andy had a thrill as he
looked with his whole energy. How deceitful that bright moonlight was
after all! Why, he could see to read almost, and yet at fifty feet away
it would be next to impossible to decide whether the black object he
saw were a stump or a cow lying down.

Yes, the thing _was_ moving and coming straight toward the hangar,
too. What if it turned out to be either Percy or his shadow, Sandy
Hollingshead? Would they dare attempt another mean trick similar to
that which was played on the preceding night?

Andy was gritting his teeth and trying to decide whether he ought to
shout to let them know their presence was known, when he heard a low
signal whistle.

Then after all it was Frank coming back. The two Bird boys had studied
telegraphy together, as well as “wigwagging” and the use of the
heliograph, as used by the signal corps of the United States army.
They had arranged a code after the manner of Morse, by means of which
they could communicate with each other, no matter what the distance
separating them.

“Hello, Frank, that you?” Andy now asked, softly.

“What’s left of me after banging along the road on a flat tire,” came
the immediate answer.

“Gee! did that plagued plug let go after all my pains to set it?”
said Andy, regretfully, for he did not like his cousin to deem him an
indifferent workman.

“It sure did before I’d gone two hundred feet along the road. But then
I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that keep me back,” replied
the other, as he came in through the door Andy opened.

“Did you manage to wake him up? I tried once, I remember, and it was a
healthy old job. Casper sleeps like a log,” Andy went on.

“Well,” replied Frank, smiling, “it was no easy task; but I pounded on
his door with a club till I made such a racket a neighbor called out
to know if anybody happened to be dead. I told him I was afraid Casper
must be. But just then he poked his head out of a window and told me
not to worry, that he had only been napping.”

“Wow! he sure is the limit;” declared Andy. “And then, when he heard
what news you brought, did he dress and come down?”

“I guess he did, and was tickled to know that Bloomsbury was going to
be on the map again. He asked me a heap of questions, not alone about
the message and the dropping of the sand bag, but about our monoplane,
and what we expected to do after we got it ready. Why, Casper even
remembered that your father had been the well known aviator and
balloonist, Professor Bird, once of Cornell.”

“Oh! did he mention that?” breathed Andy, who was always visibly
stirred whenever any one spoke of his father. “And Frank, I do hope he
gets the name straight. I’d hate so much to see it misspelled; more
than ever if he means to mention that I come by my craze naturally.”

“I impressed it upon him good and hard; and Casper promised to print
it in big capitals, so that there would be no mixup. And now I’m going
to turn in again. It’s a long while to dawn, and what’s the use of our
staying up?”

Frank was as good as his word. In ten minutes the shed was wrapped in
silence; nor did anything else occur to arouse the boys until the sun,
peeping in at some crack, chanced to fall upon the face of Frank, and
aroused him.

Andy went in to breakfast, and after he returned to the hangar Frank
followed suit; for that was the arrangement, since they did not mean to
leave the precious machine alone if it could be helped.

Then they started to work again, for numerous little things remained
to be done ere the aeroplane could be deemed in absolutely perfect
condition, with every wire taut as a piano string, and the engine
working smoothly.

It must have been along about eleven in the morning, when Andy, who had
been bending over holding some parts that Frank was adjusting raised
his head.

“Somebody coming,” he said, “and it sounds like the rat-tat of Colonel
Josiah’s crutch and cane. Say, he’s certainly making speed, all right,
like he wanted to see us in a hurry. Wonder what can have happened now,
Frank?”

The other immediately crawled out from under the engine of the
aeroplane, and hurried to the door, which he opened; to discover that
it was the crippled veteran traveler sure enough, and that he was
showing signs of some great excitement.




CHAPTER VII.

A SENSATION FOR OLD HOME WEEK.


“Hurrah! Great news, lads!” shouted the colonel, as he waved a paper
over his head, when he could stop his forward movement for a second or
two.

“Oh, what if it is about father?” gasped Andy, turning pale, for the
unrevealed fate of the daring aviator had always borne heavily on
the poor lad’s mind, and in the silent watches of the night he often
allowed himself to think of the great joy that would come to him should
his parent ever be found again.

Frank turned to him quickly.

“Don’t allow yourself to think it can be that, Chum Andy,” he said,
softly, for he knew what the dream was that his cousin kept nurturing
deep down in his heart, and also how impossible of fulfillment it must
ever be; “I have an idea it’s only something connected with our little
adventure of last night. But here’s Colonel Josiah at hand and we shall
soon know the worst.”

“Bully news for you, my bold young aviators!” cried the old man as he
came hobbling along, his smooth face aglow and his long white hair
floating over his shoulders. “And I made ’em do it, too! When they
heard about that balloon dropping that message and how Bloomsbury was
destined to become famous as the center of aeronautic doings, they just
couldn’t hold back. And so they had the printer strike off fifty of
these circulars, and they’re going to be posted all around the county.”

“What did I tell you?” said Frank, smiling, but nevertheless he reached
for the paper the old man extended with a hand that shook a little.

“Why,” he said, “it’s issued by the Committee on Sports for the Old
Home week of this month, when they expect to have all sorts of athletic
stunts going on to interest the crowds of people who will flock to
Bloomsbury.”

“Just so,” observed the old man, with a broad smile. “And I finally
showed ’em what a tremendous thing it would be to have an aviation meet
at the same time.”

“An aviation meet!” ejaculated Andy, his eyes almost popping out of his
head with new interest.

“And we talked it over,” went on the old man, “with the result that a
prize is to be offered to any one who first plants an American flag on
Old Thunder Top, landing on the little plateau where the foot of man
has never yet trod, from an aeroplane built in Bloomsbury and piloted
by Bloomsbury boys!”

“Whoop! It’s great! And did you originate that clever stunt, Colonel
Josiah?” shouted Andy, wringing his guardian’s hand as though it were a
pump handle.

“To be sure I did,” replied the veteran, proudly. “I’ve had it in my
mind for some little time now, and what you told me this morning about
that other machine being constructed here just capped the climax, as
I may say. But she’s all fixed now, lads. The prize is to be a silver
cup. And unless I miss my guess, that trophy is bound to be kept in the
Bird family, to be handed down to future generations of bird boys.”

He did not mention the fact, but Frank suspected it on the spot and
afterwards discovered it to be true, that his money had gone to
purchase the said trophy and have it suitably engraved.

“When is this great day to be?” demanded the excited Andy, leaning
over, the better to scan the little poster that told in as few words as
possible what the several conditions of the contest would be.

“July fourteenth, and at two p. m. the word will be given to go,”
replied Frank.

“Whew! That gives us a scant five days to get ready and one of them
Sunday, too, when there’s nothing doing. Can we get the machine in trim
and master her by that time, Frank?” asked his cousin, anxiously.

“We certainly can and will!” came the steady reply from the boy who
believed in his own powers to accomplish things. “Besides, you must
remember that our only competitors are likely to be Puss Carberry
and his crony Sandy, who know far less than we do about running an
aeroplane.”

“That’s right,” agreed Andy, his confidence returning again, as
it always did after being bolstered up by his chum’s unwavering
determination and faith. “With only those two against us seems to me we
ought to have a walk-over.”

“Now, don’t jump to the other extreme and underrate the enemy,” warned
Frank. “You know that’s always a dangerous business. Besides, Percy has
a certain amount of perseverance and cunning that often carries him
along. He’s in dead earnest about this aviation business and bent on
making a success of it. I never knew him to show so much interest in
anything before. And it strikes me as funny, now that I look back, how
neither of us ever suspected that he was up to beating us at our own
game. He’s a sly one, all right.”

“Yes,” Andy went on, “and we might still be as much in the dark as ever
if it hadn’t been for my silly blunder in starting to open his package
of freight, without examining the tag first. That gave the secret away
and put us on to their slick game.”

“Perhaps,” replied his cousin; “not that it would make much difference
in the end, though, for they couldn’t have kept their secret much
longer. But I’m going over to town now and see if that canvas has
arrived at Spencer’s Emporium.”

“This time,” said Andy, “my wheel ought to hold out, for you put the
plug in yourself, and I humbly confess that I’m far from a success as a
mechanic. My jobs look well, but hang the luck, they don’t just seem to
hold good.”

Frank was quickly off. He never felt so happy before in all his life.
Everything seemed to be as fine as the weather. Their little monoplane
was about ready for its trial spin, once they fastened the new canvas
to the planes. There was this competition, which pleased him more than
words could tell. And then the indefinite future beckoned beyond,
holding all sorts of wonderful possibilities for a couple of bold
spirits, fully devoted to solving the secrets of the upper air.

“I only hope the weather is just like this on that same Old Home day,”
he was saying to himself, as he pushed on the pedals and went spinning
along the road to town. “Not a breath of air stirring around and just
a few clouds lazily floating up yonder above the crown of Old Thunder
Top.”

He turned to cast a glance toward the peak that hung over the waters of
peaceful Lake Sunrise, and memory carried him back to several occasions
when he had been baffled in trying to scale the upper tier of frowning
cliffs, that up to now had made the top of the peak inaccessible to
climbers.

It was a positive fact that so far as was known to the oldest
inhabitant of Bloomsbury no one had ever attained that summit, though
many had tried. The upper cliffs made a complete circle around the
crown and were something like eighty feet in height.

It had long been the one desire of Frank’s boyish heart to find out
some method of surmounting the difficulties that had thus far debarred
any one from planting a flag up on that lofty summit.

And to think that the idea had also come to Old Colonel Josiah, who
possibly in his younger years may have climbed the Matterhorn or scaled
some of those awful peaks in the northern Himalayas.

It would indeed be a proud day for Frank if he were ever allowed to put
foot on that elevated plateau of solid rock, up to now only the lonely
eyrie for the eagles that sailed through the blue vault of heaven.

And strangely enough at about that same moment Andy was standing
outside the shed that sheltered the idol of their hopes, with his eyes
also glued upon the indistinct crown of Old Thunder Top.

In imagination doubtless the sanguine bird-boy was seeing their
monoplane gently dropping like a feather on that hitherto inaccessible
rocky fortress, soon to yield its secrets to modern, up-to-date methods
of exploration.

And again would the honored name which his late father bore be crowned
with a measure of success.

“I’d just be as happy as a clam at high tide,” muttered Andy, “if it
wasn’t for that measly monkey wrench getting away from me. Never had
such a sad thing happen. And just when I had saved enough money to get
out a patent, too. But, as Frank says, there’s no use crying over
spilt milk. I can make another model if given time. And then who knows
but what it might pop up again in some unexpected place. Sometimes I
am a bit careless, I admit. But better that than to believe it went in
that mud to land in China, as Larry Geohegan said.”

From the contemplation of the mountain peak he allowed his thoughts to
slip off to that other subject which was never long out of his mind.

“If we can drop down on that plateau so easy,” he said to himself,
Colonel Josiah having betaken himself back to the house and his book,
“what’s to hinder our scouring the whole range of the Andes in the hope
of finding some trace of any one who might have been lost there? I
haven’t said much to Frank about that, but it’s the dream of my life.
If I only could know how he died--oh, if I could only learn where his
poor body lies! That uncertainty is what hangs like a load on my soul.
But some day, please Heaven, I mean to go down there were he was last
seen and devote my whole energies to solving the riddle.”

When Frank came back, which was shortly, he found his cousin tinkering
at the planes and getting the last remnant of old canvas off in
readiness for the new material soon to be fastened there.

“I see you got it all right, Frank,” remarked Andy, cheerily, for it
was not in his nature to remain for any length of time in the dumps.

“Yes, it came in yesterday after all. But then we haven’t really lost
any time, you know. And by tomorrow morning I calculate we’ll be in
good trim to make the first real test of our ship in her natural
element, the air. I tell you, Andy, the prospect looks mighty good to
me.”

“And to me,” promptly said the one addressed. “Given two days to make
little flights around our field here, and we ought to be able to rise
to higher things.”

“Well, I learned something just now that rather took my breath away,”
Frank went on saying.

“What was that?” asked the other, curiously.

“You remember that Puss was off somewhere a week ago. I heard that he
was down in the city, but no one knew what for. And now it develops
that he spent two days around the aviation field over on Long Island,
watching the way they ran the aeroplanes. And it is said that he went
up several times with Curtiss in one of his biplanes, so as to learn
how to handle the wheel!”

“You don’t say?” ejaculated Andy, his eyebrows denoting the most
intense astonishment. “Well, in that case he has got the bulge on us,
for a fact. Why, if he had such an experienced aviator for a teacher
Puss must be in the swim right now. And we’ve just got to dig for all
we’re worth to get on even terms with him.”

“Don’t worry,” said Frank, composedly. “In the first place I don’t
believe the story. If he went up with any one it was a man less famous
than Curtiss, who certainly wouldn’t bother taking a boy up with him
while exhibiting his machine and what tricks it could do. Even if Puss
did go up, that doesn’t make him an aviator. We’re going to learn our
little lesson by slow degrees and without the help of any outsider,
too.”

They were soon busily employed in cutting out the wings and starting
to secure them to the planes. It was a particular job, for upon those
essential parts of the monoplane almost as much depended as on the
engine itself. If the latter broke down while in flight or stopped
while “banking” the aeronaut could save himself by volplaning down
toward the earth; but should his planes suddenly give way, he would
drop like a plummet!

Frank was a cautious lad, who never forgot that a chain is only as
strong as its weakest link. And he would certainly omit nothing that
could add to the safety of himself and his chum.

They had just concluded it must be time for dinner, when Andy, who had
started for the house to wash up and be the first to partake, uttered a
loud cry that brought his companion hurriedly forth.

“I guess it’s all true, Frank,” the other was crying, as he pointed
his finger at some unwieldy object that seemed to be moving unsteadily
along just over the tops of the trees where the balloon had vanished;
“because there’s Puss and Sandy in their new biplane, starting out to
make their first little flight. Oh, my! look at that dip, would you? I
thought it was going to smash that time, but they lifted her all right.
You see, Frank, they’ve got us beat a mile in being first afloat!”




CHAPTER VIII.

THE NOVICE FLIGHT OF THE BIPLANE.


There no longer existed the slightest doubt in the mind of Frank Bird
that their rivals had indeed stolen a march on them and were the first
of the Bloomsbury brand of aviators to mount upward in the realms of
space.

“It’s Puss Carberry beyond a question, and he’s flying all right,” he
said.

Naturally there was a trace of disappointment in his voice, for he had
never dreamed, while working at the monoplane, but what he and his
cousin would be the pioneers along these lines in that part of the
state.

Still, Frank was a good loser. He knew how to fight down that feeling
when it threatened to grip him.

“They certainly deserve a lot of credit,” he continued.

“What for--stealing our thunder?” demanded the indignant Andy.

“Oh!” Frank remarked, laughingly, “I guess they had as much right as
any one to build an aeroplane. And if they managed to keep the secret
it was to their credit. Perhaps we’ve been doing a little too much
talking. And it looks as if Puss did pick up some points down at the
aviation field. He seems to be managing the biplane fairly well for a
new beginner.”

“Well,” admitted Andy, grudgingly, “he is going around after a fashion;
but lots of times it makes a swoop down at the ground like it meant
to whack them into a cocked hat. But somehow the fellow at the wheel,
which I reckon must be Puss, manages to recover just in time.”

“And he’s doing better all the while,” Frank pursued, still watching.
“When he gets used to it that fellow will run an aircraft decently, and
we’d better make up our minds to that. I only hope we come out as well
when our turn arrives to make the trial spin.”

Indeed, the biplane seemed to be behaving quite handsomely. Its
evolutions, as it was sent around the field where Puss must have taken
it for a trial, were by degrees assuming a more positive form. It no
longer dodged and shot sideways, but acted more like a wild colt that
has recognized the hand on the bridle rein.

So deeply interested were the Bird boys in watching that they even
forgot how the lunch hour had arrived. The ringing of a bell from the
back stoop of the Whympers domicile aroused them, and Andy, with a
look of disappointment on his face, trotted off to eat first, since
they would not leave the hangar together.

“I wonder,” said Frank to himself, noticing his cousin’s downcast
appearance, “whether that boy is really disappointed because we’re not
the first in the aviation field here at Bloomsbury, or if he feels a
bit sore because the Carberry biplane failed to get in trouble on its
novice flight. But I’d better get to work on those planes. We must have
our machine ready today and if tomorrow looks good, try it out.”

So he went energetically to work, trying to put the other aeroplane out
of mind for the time being. And yet it might have been noticed that
several times Frank found an excuse to issue forth from the shed on
some errand, and that on every occasion his eyes naturally sought that
region where the strange bird had been so lately soaring.

On his last trip it had vanished and he supposed that the boys,
satisfied with having shown what they could do, had alighted again.

Just then Andy came hurrying forth, devouring a wedge of pie as he
advanced and crooking his neck in the vain endeavor to locate the
biplane.

“Where did she go to?” he exclaimed. “Don’t tell me they took a
cropper and that it’s all off? That would be a big disappointment, for
I’ve made up my mind that I don’t want to see Puss and Sandy get hurt.
Because, in that case there couldn’t be any race on Old Home day. And
I’ve just set my heart on beating ’em to the top of the mountain.”

Frank laughed.

“I must say your heart has become mighty tender of late, Andy,” he
remarked, as he washed his hands at the tin basin they kept at the
shed. “But make your mind easy, for I reckon they only dropped down to
get dinner. You’ll see them enough this afternoon. And ten to one they
fly over us here, just to laugh.”

“I’ll make sure to be inside then,” grumbled Andy, dejectedly. “But
get along with you, Frank. Colonel Josiah is dying to ask you a whole
lot of questions. He tired me out, and besides, I wasn’t feeling like
explaining just how we came to play second fiddle to those sneaks.”

Evidently Andy felt pretty “sore,” as he expressed it. When Frank later
on came out of the house he found that Elephant Small had arrived,
being deeply interested in the construction of the monoplane.

Elephant had, of course, seen the biplane in the air. He had even
increased his customary snail’s pace in order to reach the field of the
flight before the boys came down.

Andy had evidently been pumping him for all he was worth, because just
as Frank arrived the newcomer was saying:

“Why, yes; they did come down with something of a bump, but nobody was
hurt, and Puss said he’d know how better next time. She’s a dandy,
too, boys, I tell you. Of course, not any finer looking than the one
you’ve got here, but built along entirely different lines. Ginger! I’d
be tempted to go into this flying business myself, only I’m afraid the
pace would be a little too hot for me.”

Those who knew Elephant’s slow ways and habits of procrastination
would have certainly agreed with him. He could never keep up with
the procession. Aviators must necessarily be built on the order of
athletes, for their very lives may depend on instantaneous action and
speedy thought that springs from intuition. It is not the profession
for a lazy or clumsy individual.

Soon the two were hard at work, with Elephant looking on, crouched in
his favorite attitude of sitting on his haunches and encircling his
knees with both arms.

The talk, of course, soon turned upon the great race of such aircraft
as had been fashioned by enterprising sons of Bloomsbury.

“It’s going to be a pretty race,” ventured Elephant.

“Huh!” grunted Andy, without looking up, “that remains to be seen. I’ve
got a hunch right now that it will be a clean walkaway; if a fellow can
say that about an aeroplane that makes circles around another aircraft.”

“I was just thinking, Andy,” continued the other, reflectively and
soberly, as if he really meant every word, “that when you do make that
landing up on the little plateau crowning Old Thunder Top, you can
satisfy yourself of one thing anyhow.”

Andy did raise his head at that.

“Now, what in the dickens do you mean, Elephant?” he asked.

“Why,” went on the other, to the secret amusement of the listening
Frank, “don’t you recollect what I said yesterday when we were talking
about your missing that cute little aluminum monkey wrench you
invented--and how I believed that old robber of a bald eagle might have
grabbed it, because it was shiny. Well, you know that pair have a nest
somewhere on the cliffs up on Thunder Top. What’s to hinder you taking
a peek to see if I wasn’t right?”

“Oh, rats!” said Andy, with a shrug of his shoulders. “You know I don’t
take any stock in that yarn, Elephant. I’m only afraid Larry hit closer
when he said I might have dropped that jewel out of my pocket at the
time I was hanging from that limb over the sink hole.”

Frank put down his knife which he had been using.

“Now that the subject has come up again,” he said, quietly, “I might
mention something that occurred to me while you were in at dinner,
Andy.”

“About my lost wrench?” demanded the other, quickly.

“That’s it. Stop and think now--do you remember laughing at me for
trying my big tool on that tiny nut that holds the main guy of the
rudder?”

“Sure I do,” replied the other, promptly.

“And you did the job like a charm with your little wrench, for I
complimented you on the way it worked. You remember that, of course?”
Frank went on.

“Sure I do,” repeated Andy, his eyes beginning to glow with
anticipation.

“Well,” Frank continued, “it wasn’t last Friday that happened, nor yet
Saturday. I’m positive it was on Monday of this week, just the day
before the glorious Fourth, and if you doubt it I can prove the same.”

Andy sprang up, cracked his heels together, and gave a shout.

“You’re right, Frank; it _was_ Monday!” he cried.

“Say, what’s all this row about?” demanded Elephant, looking puzzled.
“I don’t see what difference it makes whether it was Friday or Monday,
so long as the little wizard wrench is lost, dead sure.”

“Why, you slow coach!” cried Andy, “don’t you understand that if I sure
had it right here in the shop on Monday it never could have been lost
on Saturday. So both you and Larry guessed off the hook. It didn’t drop
from my pocket into that blessed old muck hole.”

“And then the old eagle couldn’t have lifted it either!” observed
Elephant, with a look of disappointment on his face, as he saw the one
bright idea of his life vanishing in smoke.

“And if I had it here it ought to be around somewhere!” observed Andy;
whereupon he started overturning everything that chanced to be lying
on table or floor, until Frank begged him to desist or else they would
find themselves in a peck of trouble regarding other things that could
not be found.

“But hope has revived, anyhow,” asserted Andy, doggedly, “and I’m
never going to give over the hunt. That invaluable little tool has just
_got_ to be found. And I’m the Peary that will get there sooner or
later.”

“All right,” said Frank; “but I can see Larry coming whooping along the
road out yonder on his wheel, and he looks as if he had something to
tell us. Yes, whenever Larry grins like that all over his face he is
bursting with information. So get ready to be surprised, fellows.”




CHAPTER IX.

THE NEWS LARRY BROUGHT.


“Don’t you take too much stock in Larry bringing news,” observed Andy,
still letting his eyes rove all around the walls of the shed, as though
striving to discover somewhere the object of his dearest wish.

“Oh, come!” said Frank, “you’re going to run him down just because his
guess about your wrench falling in that mudhole turned out bad. Why, at
the time I thought it must be the truth.”

“But Larry is always a false alarm,” declared Andy. “Like as not now he
thinks we don’t know a thing about that plagued old biplane, and he’s
just bursting with importance.”

The object of this conversation now came wheeling up to the door of
the shed. He did seem to be trembling from some cause or other. It
might have been his rapid pedaling over the road from town or else the
immensity of the news he was bearing.

“Hey, fellows!” he cried, as he came puffing inside, “don’t suppose
you’ve heard about it.”

“Punk! You’re a back number, Larry,” exclaimed Andy, quickly. “Why,
we watched ’em circle around the field from here; and Elephant saw ’em
come down. You can’t tell us anything new about Puss Carberry’s new
biplane, I guess!”

Larry looked surprised.

“Why,” he said, “I hadn’t heard anything about that. Do you mean to
tell me they’ve been and beat you up? And actually got back to solid
earth again without breaking their necks? Well, that is news!”

“But look here,” said Frank, “you were going to tell us something. Has
there been another prize offered? Perhaps there may have cropped up a
dozen other aeroplanes that are being built for the competition. Seems
to be the rage around Bloomsbury just now. What is it all about, Larry?”

“Oh! what I had to tell don’t seem to have any connection at all with
airships,” said Larry. “The funny thing about it is how they ever
managed to keep it a secret all morning, up to noon. And Chief Waller
has been working hard all the time. Possibly now, you may have seen
some of his men passing along the road here, mounted on motorcycles?
They’re scouring the whole blessed county for the rogues!”

“Rogues!” exclaimed the impetuous Andy; “now you have got us wondering
to beat the band! What’s going on in Bloomsbury? Sure the old town is
waking out of her Rip Van Winkle sleep with a rush.”

“You just bet she is,” affirmed Larry, with a grin. “And when Old Home
Week comes along, everybody in the whole U. S. will be talking of the
great doings here.”

“But get along with you, Larry. Sure, you’re slower than molasses in
winter. Do you want to have us drop in a fit? Can’t you see we’re just
trembling with anxiety? No more chaff now, but put us wise!” and Andy
shook the newcomer, as though really believing he ought to be aroused
from a trance.

“There was a robbery last night!” began the other.

“What! in Bloomsbury?” asked Frank, surprised, for such a thing was
seldom known in connection with the town on Lake Sunrise.

“Leffingwell’s jewelry store was entered, and cleaned out! They say
the thieves must have taken thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff. They
carried it off in two suit-cases, too; though I don’t know just how
the police found that out. It was kept quiet up to noon in the hope
that the rascals might be apprehended. Every neighboring town has been
informed by ’phone or wire. Police are on the lookout everywhere,
trains are being watched, and it is believed that the thieves are still
hiding somewhere near Bloomsbury, waiting till the chase cools down to
make their escape.”

Larry got this off much after the manner of a small boy at school. He
had evidently rehearsed his speech while booming along on his wheel.

The three boys stared at each other.

“Why,” remarked Frank, “seems to me they’re beginning early. We had
warning that the chances were there would be a raft of thieves wander
this way next week, on account of the big crowds expected. Everybody
was told not to leave things around loose, and to lock their houses
when out on the streets. But these sly fellows knew enough to slip in
ahead of time, when folks were napping.”

“My! but they must have made a great haul,” observed Elephant. “I’ve
often looked in at that window display of diamonds and bracelets and
watches, thinking that it must be worth a heap. And do you mean to say
they’re all gone up the flue?”

“Cleaned the safe out. They were experienced crooks too, because
they knew how to open that big safe without the police hearing the
explosion!” Larry went on.

“Explosion!” echoed Andy, his mouth opening in astonishment.

“Sure. They blew the doors off with dynamite, covering the safe with
blankets in the most up-to-date style. Must have timed it to go off
just when that freight puffs up the hill, and makes such a big row.
It’s waked me many a night.”

“I know,” declared Andy, “it goes along at half-past two in the
morning. Then it must have been at that time the job was pulled off.
And there isn’t any train until six. Are they sure the robbers didn’t
go on that?”

“Yes,” Larry continued, “because Chief Waller happened to be at the
station then, and nobody got on that he didn’t know. Besides, they have
found out several other things.”

“Tell us what they were, please?” asked Elephant, edging closer.

“Well, a little runabout of an auto was found broken down and abandoned
not more than half a mile away from here. It was headed out of town.
No owner has turned up for it as yet. And the Chief says he is sure it
must have belonged to the two robbers. Something happened just when
they were leaving town with their boodle; and they had to duck into the
woods to hide.”

“Well, I only hope they find ’em then,” said Andy. “Because I don’t
just like the idea of having such fellows hanging around. Makes you
have a queer feeling if you happen to be out late on the road. Ugh!
guess I’ll stick close till they get some news about that bunch.”

“I heard the Chief had a clue that may turn out valuable,” Larry
went on. “On the floor of the back room where the safe was located
they picked up a crumpled paper. It didn’t belong to anybody in
Leffingwell’s, and is believed to have fallen out of the pocket of one
of the robbers while at work. You know that could happen, boys.”

Whereupon the Bird cousins exchanged glances, and smiled; for they
remembered the card which had been found on the floor of the shed, and
which they felt positive had been carelessly dropped by one of those
vandals to whom they owed the destruction of the canvas covers of the
planes.

“But what was the paper?” questioned practical Frank.

“Oh! yes,” Larry replied, “and that ought to interest you boys,
because, you see, it was a pilot’s license, granted by some French
Society of Aviators to a Jules Garrone. So it looks like the owner
might have been reduced to robbing a store. Of course, when they
find out who he is, and where he stays, he’ll have to explain how his
license happens to be lying around loose in a place that has been
robbed.”

“What beastly luck,” grunted Andy. “Here we’re just breaking into the
honored ranks of air navigators, when some scamp has to go and disgrace
his calling. Don’t I hope they get him, though, and send him up for a
good term.”

“You blood-thirsty chap,” laughed Frank. “Just as if it had anything
to do with the honor of the calling we’ve adopted as our own. Every
profession has its black sheep--ministers, lawyers, doctors, all alike.
All we have to do is to make good, and leave the rest. But let’s get
busy, Andy. If we expect to have everything in apple-pie trim by
tonight, we have little time to lose discussing things, even if they
are thrilling.”

Frank seemed to be a trifle more thoughtful than ordinary as he
continued his interrupted labors. Andy kept up a running fire of
comment with the other boys as long as they remained. Finally both
Elephant and Larry went away, and the cousins were left to their work.

Although they stepped outside about every half hour religiously during
the afternoon, and each time scanned the tree-tops over in the quarter
where the biplane had appeared just before noon, they saw no more of
the flier.

Frank was of the opinion that, having tested it out, Percy Carberry had
discovered certain weak stays that needed strengthening; and that the
owners of the new air craft were putting in their time doing this.

Andy showed his gratification plainly.

“I was afraid they’d just come hovering over us here,” he said, as the
sun drew closer down toward the horizon, and the biplane had not been
sighted. “And it would have badgered me some to have the guys mocking
us, and taunting us. Now they can’t go up, because there’s too much
wind for greenhorns to buck against. And by tomorrow we’re just going
to be on the map ourselves, mark me.”

“We certainly are,” added Frank, “if nothing happens to prevent it.”

“Why,” said the other, “what could happen to break us up?”

“Oh! I don’t know, but there’s many a slip between the cup and the
lip.” And that was all he would say; but Andy felt that his cousin must
be thinking of something definite, to have spoken as he did.

Evening arrived. As before the boys took turns going in to meals. This
time Andy insisted that his cousin be the first to break his fast.

“I’m as hungry as a wolf,” he admitted, “but all the same you’ve just
got to go in first this time. We’ve got gasolene in the tank, the
planes are finished, and if it was tomorrow, there’s nothing to prevent
our shoving the little beauty out into the open right now, and taking
a slant off over the field. However will I manage to sleep tonight, I
don’t know.”

Frank, knowing the stubborn nature of his cousin, did not waste time in
trying to combat his wish, but started for the house at once.




CHAPTER X.

SIGNS OF TROUBLE.


“I just knew how it would be!” said Andy, as he came in an hour later,
after having eaten his dinner at the house.

Frank, who was still pottering around the aeroplane, though careful
about having the lamp anywhere close to the gasolene tank attached to
it, looked up.

“What’s ailing you now?” he demanded. “Got a line on that disappearing
monkey wrench yet?”

“Shucks! I only wish I had,” replied his cousin. “But I was referring
to what Larry told us about those bold, bad men, who cleaned out poor
Leffingwell. You know he said they must be hanging around somewhere not
many miles from Bloomsbury, and that the police were hunting everywhere
for traces of their hangout?”

“Why, yes, I believe he did say something like that,” Frank went on.
“But what’s that worrying you for? Have you got an idea you know where
they’re hiding? If so, why not call police headquarters up on the
phone, and let the Chief know? I’m sure he’d thank you, Andy.”

“It wasn’t that at all, you see,” explained the other. “But what Larry
said has got on my nerves, just as I expected. I’m seeing things,
that’s what!”

“Things that don’t happen to exist, you mean, I reckon?” asked Frank.

“Well, I suppose so. That’s always the way with me when I get anything
on my mind. I just imagine I see it everywhere. Now, would you believe
it, when I was coming across the field just now in the dark, for the
old moon is just peeping up over the trees, I thought I glimpsed a
figure that scuttled out of sight.”

“You did, eh?” said the other, eyeing him closely.

“Sure,” replied Andy. “Of course it was an optical delusion, as
Professor Jarvey at high school would say, and there wasn’t anything
there at all. But it gave me some start all the same. Hope I don’t
dream about those desperate chaps tonight. If I wake you up by
shouting, you’ll know it’s only a mild attack of nightmare. Just douse
me with the contents of that water pail, and I’ll come out of it all
right. I always do.”

“I’ll remember,” grinned Frank. “And as the bucket is nearly full just
now, make up your mind, my boy, that you’re in for a jolly good swim if
I’m compelled to upset it over you. I’d advise you to go slow about
dreaming such things.”

“I will,” remarked Andy. “You give me cold feet already; but that isn’t
a circumstance to what a beaut of a chill I’ll get if you douse me
tonight.”

“But see here, perhaps you _did_ see something?” observed the other,
seriously.

“Nope,” said Andy. “The more I think of it the more I’m inclined to
believe it was just my imagination that made me think I saw a fellow
duck down behind that fence corner.”

“Did you go over to investigate?” continued Frank.

“Nixey. That would have been your way, I know, old fellow; but I don’t
happen to be built along the same plan. If it was one of those crooks
I didn’t want to meet up with him; and if my brain was only working
overtime why, what was the use bothering.”

“You can argue yourself out of any hole, Andy. But I think I’ll just
take a little walk out, to see if I can glimpse anything,” and Frank
picked up his cap.

“Be careful, Frank,” said the other, a little alarmed. “Just remember
Larry said the Chief called them desperate characters. So if you do run
up against the precious pair, let ’em have the better part of the road.
We’re not looking for any share in that reward, you know.”

“Oh! I’ll take care,” smiled the other, as he passed out.

Left alone, Andy grew nervous. He would go to the door and listen
every minute or so; for he had taken the pains to close the means of
entrance, and put up the long heavy bar that secured it from the inside.

Finally, unable to stand the suspense any longer he picked up the big
monkey wrench.

“I think I’d better step out myself,” he muttered. “Perhaps Frank may
run across those scoundrels, and need help. There, was that a call? Did
he mean to signal to me then?”

His heart beating wildly, Andy halted just back of the doors. If there
came a repetition of the sound he meant to throw them open and rush
out, regardless of everything.

Instead there came a faint tapping, just as though some little
woodpecker were getting in his work, boring holes in which to hide
grains of corn. Andy listened.

“It’s our code,” he whispered, with a sense of relief. “Frank is there,
and he wants me to open up. Yep, there it goes again--‘open the door!’
Hello! Frank, is that you, and are you coming in?”

“It’s all right, so open the door, Andy,” came the voice of his chum.

“Did you find anything?” demanded the keeper of the fort, as Frank
glided in through the opening.

“No, not exactly,” replied Frank, dropping into a seat.

“But you say that as if you weren’t quite sure,” expostulated his
cousin.

“I went over to the place you mentioned. There was certainly nobody
there,” continued the late scout, positively.

“Just as I said,” declared Andy, “it was one of my freaks. I’ll just
have to put a brake on that imagination of mine. It’ll get me in
trouble one of these days.”

“But the grass seemed trampled down, and in one place I found where it
looked as if somebody might have been stretched out looking through
between the bars of the fence. I struck a match, and picked up this
thing.”

Frank held up a partly burned cigarette.

“Which shows,” he went on, “that after all perhaps some one _was_
hiding in that corner, watching the hangar. And when you stopped to
look, it alarmed him, so that he scurried off.”

“A cigarette, eh? Well, we know who uses that sort of thing all the
time. And his name is spelled Sandwith Hollingshead, too,” Andy
declared emphatically.

“Perhaps,” admitted Frank; and he would not continue the discussion
further.

Andy knew from the signs that his chum must be thinking about something
connected with this matter; but if so, Frank kept his suspicions to
himself. He really had nothing sound on which to base them, and did not
wish to alarm Andy unnecessarily. Andy was an explosive sort of fellow,
and at times only a spark was needed to set the magazine off.

Both the boys expressed their intention of getting to bed early, being
tired, and not having slept any too well on the preceding night.

Frank took to his board pile again, though Andy had fetched out more
blankets so that he could stack a lot beneath him to relieve the
hardness.

He heard the regular breathing of his cousin close by, long before he
could get to sleep himself. The moon had begun to mount quite high, and
sent more or less light through the little window. Frank several times
raised himself on an elbow, and looked around the dim shop; but nothing
seemed amiss.

Finally he must have dropped off, nor could he imagine how long he had
slept, when he opened his eyes suddenly. It was no loud bang, as on
the preceding night, that aroused him this time. Indeed, he did not
believe he could have heard any sound at all, and that it was only some
intuition that made him awaken.

He seemed to just be possessed with a conviction that some sort of
danger was hovering over them. There was no tangible reason why he
should believe this; but the fact seemed to be impressed upon his
sub-consciousness as he lay there and listened, almost holding his
breath with suspense.

Had there come no sound, doubtless, after lying there for five minutes,
Frank must have become sleepy again, and laughing at his fears, turned
over on his rude bed to drop off again.

But he did hear something. It sounded like a whisper, too, and
positively came from over toward the doors. Frank looked closely, but
so far as he could see, they were closed and barred, just as the boys
had left them.

There it was again. Could it be Andy murmuring in his sleep? He was
sometimes given to talking at such times; but Frank felt sure the sound
did not come from the cot at all.

He slipped quietly off his bed. Fortunately the night was warm, and
not like the preceding one, when they had shivered in their pajamas. So
he crept over toward the double doors.

As Frank bent his head close to the rough wood in order to listen he
felt the door quiver. It went through him like a shock of electricity
that some one was trying to see if the entrance to the hangar was kept
locked, since there was nothing in sight outside to indicate the fact.

Could it be Puss Carberry and his shadow, coming back again to attempt
further destruction? Frank had another suspicion flash through his
brain that gave him more of a shock than this first thought. The two
robbers who were said to be in hiding somewhere close by--might they
not have conceived the idea of stealing the completed aeroplane of
the Bird boys, and in this fashion making an escape, outwitting the
officers of justice, who would never dream of a flight through the air?

He listened further. They seemed to be whispering together again,
though he was quite unable to catch a single word of what was said. But
he fully believed that if his last thought proved to be the truth these
desperate men would not give up a cherished scheme because of such a
little obstacle as a barred door.

Then his first duty must be to arouse Andy, and without making any
noise, if it could be accomplished. After that they would have to adapt
their movements to circumstances.

So Frank cautiously made his way back to the cot where his cousin was
peacefully slumbering, possibly dreaming of future triumphs that would
fall to the portion of the Bird boys when they became masters of the
air.




CHAPTER XI.

THE AEROPLANE THIEVES.


“Sh!”

Andy would have undoubtedly cried out on being so suddenly aroused by a
shake, only that Frank hissed in his ear; and also held a hand over his
mouth, so that he could not utter a sound.

He immediately put out a hand and touched Frank on the arm. It was
intended to reassure the other, and convince him that the sleeper
understood.

“What is it?” whispered Andy, as soon as the hand was removed from his
mouth.

“Keep still! There are some persons outside. They tried the door, and I
believe they’ll soon find the open window.”

Frank said this so close to Andy’s ear that any one five feet away
could never have caught a sound.

“Oh!” gasped the other, as he began to get up. “Whatever will we do,
Frank?”

“Sh! don’t speak again. Listen to me. We must try and hide behind
something, or under the work bench. Come, there’s no time to lose, and
be careful not to stumble.”

Frank drew his cousin on. Still, Andy had sense enough to stoop over
and lift the big monkey wrench from the place where he had carefully
deposited it before taking to his cot.

They crawled across the shed to the work bench, avoiding the extended
wings of the aeroplane.

Just as they gained the shelter of the bench, and were pushing under
it, there came a crackling noise from the further end of the rough
building. Frank instantly knew what it meant. As the shed had only been
intended as a cover from the elements, in the building no great pains
had been taken, so that there were many cracks, each fully an inch in
diameter.

Some one had taken pains to insert an iron rod, possibly, through one
of those apertures, and was now engaged in prying off a board. Once
that was accomplished it would be easy to gain an entrance.

Frank wondered what the intruders might think when they found evidences
to the effect that some one had been sleeping there? And the bar across
the wide double doors must also tell them the same fact. Would they
look around to find the hidden lads, and injure them in some way; or
might their desire for a hurried departure cause them to ignore the
facts?

Again came that crackling noise.

“What are they doing?” whispered Andy.

“Breaking in by ripping off a board,” came the answer, accompanied by a
warning pressure on the arm.

“Then I don’t believe it’s Puss and Sandy!” said the other, positively.

Frank did not attempt to convince him otherwise, for truth to tell his
mind had been made up on that same score several minutes before. Those
who were going to all this trouble to effect an entrance to the hangar,
must have some more important reason urging them on than a mere desire
to do mischief.

What had they better do? Frank could not decide on the spur of the
moment. Afterwards he realized that their best course would have been
to set up a great shouting, and make all the noise they could, which
would have undoubtedly frightened off the marauders, who shunned
publicity above all things.

And before Frank could collect his thoughts enough to decide upon any
course, he knew that the board had yielded to the efforts of those who
wielded the object that was being used as a crowbar.

Then he could hear some party crawling in through the opening. Andy
too understood. He was quivering at a tremendous rate, so that Frank
actually feared lest he might set the bench to rattling, and betray
their hiding-place. So he kept nudging him, in the hope of bolstering
up his courage.

Whoever it was creeping along over the littered floor of the shed, he
kept advancing. Presently they heard him mutter to himself. Then there
came a scratching sound that told of a match being struck.

A faint light sprang up. The two lads, crouching there under the work
bench, and clad only in their pajamas, saw the figure of a man kneeling
not twelve feet away from them.

He happened to be in a position where the side of his face only could
be seen; but Frank knew instantly that the intruder was an utter
stranger to him.

Apparently the man had eyes only for the precious monoplane; for
bending forward he stared at it eagerly, the while saying low words to
himself that seemed to be expressions of exceeding rapture.

Evidently the sight of the air craft quite tickled him. Perhaps it
reminded him of old times. Frank might have felt complimented that
his work was appreciated so highly; but the only sensation he really
experienced was alarm lest the result of all their labor be stolen.

The match went out. About the same time there came a low call from
beyond the doors. The man outside was getting impatient, and wanted
his comrade to open up. Undoubtedly he had seen the light through the
cracks, and knew his pal was safely inside. And he may also have had a
glimpse of the aeroplane that was, of course, the main object of their
regard.

Frank felt a new thrill. He had caught some of the low words, and while
they were as so much Greek to him, he knew that the speaker must be a
Frenchman! Like a flash he remembered what Larry had said about the
aviator license which was found on the floor of the looted jewelry
establishment being granted by a French society.

Then, this was Jules Garrone and his fellow desperado. All doubt was
settled by that voice speaking in a foreign tongue.

Now the man inside was creeping over to where he knew the doors lay.
Frank heard him fumbling with the bar. Surely he must guess from this
that the shed was not untenanted. The boy’s wandering hand had come
in contact with a piece of wood, and almost unconsciously he gripped
it. If the worst came, they might put up some sort of fight, meanwhile
trying to hold on to the precious aeroplane, and balk the wicked
designs of these law-breakers.

Then the doors opened, and were shoved far back. This alone must have
told what the designs of the two intruders were. They needed room to
wheel the monoplane out of the hangar; and the wide doors had been
fashioned to admit of its passage when necessary.

More whispering followed. Then a second match was struck, and
discovering a lantern hanging from a hook, it was eagerly seized upon
by the smaller of the two.

They seemed to be deeply interested in the machine, and walked around,
closely examining its construction, and exchanging eager sentences, as
though becoming more and more pleased the further they looked.

Twice they were so close to the hidden lads that Frank could have
stretched out a hand, and gripped one of their legs. It need hardly be
said, however, that he did nothing of the kind. Larry had declared that
according to the police chief the two jewelry robbers were desperate
criminals; and if this were so it would be folly for two unarmed boys
to think of grappling with them in the hope of detaining them until
help came.

The two intruders seemed to have arrived at a satisfactory conclusion
with regard to the monoplane. Frank had heard them talking now in
English, and could understand what was being said.

“It ees very good indeed,” said the smaller man, with a laugh. “Zese
boys, zey haf made one clever job. I believe it will go, and carry us
both.”

“Then the sooner we make a start the better I am pleased, Jules. At
any minute right now we might be detected and stopped. Shall I get the
things, and strap them on the machine?” asked the other, anxiously--he
had been moving over and looking out of the doors several times, as
though afraid of an interruption.

“_Oui!_ It ees just as well,” replied his companion. “Once we get up
in ze air we can give zem all ze laugh. It haf please me exceedingly.
I am much oblige to zese boys. I shall pleasure take in renewing my
acquaintance with a Bleriot monoplane. It is like old times quite.”

Jules, then, was the aviator who had won his spurs across the water.
Why he had deserted such a profitable calling to become a common thief
doubtless had a story back of it.

Presently the second man came back after going outside. He carried some
object with either hand. Frank held his very breath when he saw what
these were. Nothing more nor less than a couple of suit-cases, just as
the Chief had declared had been used in the jewelry robbery.

It afterwards developed that these were the property of the cashier,
and one of the salesmen in the establishment. They were in the habit of
carrying their laundry to town in this fashion; and at the time of the
robbery the two bags had been in the store. As they were missing in the
morning, it was plain that the thieves had appropriated them in order
to accommodate their plunder. And this was how Chief Waller had known
the fact.

Frank realized that he was within reaching distance of all the proceeds
of the late robbery. How he would have liked jumping out and snatching
those suit-cases away from the taller man. But Frank was too discreet a
boy to think of attempting such a foolhardy thing. Besides, he must be
concerned principally now in saving his beloved aeroplane from sharing
the fate of the jewelry.

The bags were being fastened to the skeleton framework of the
monoplane, so as not to interfere with the working of the motor, or
the steering apparatus.

“Make zem tight, Jean. It would be a catastrophe, should we escape, but
drop our prizes,” said the smaller man; who was standing close to the
propeller of the aeroplane, and giving it a few trial spins.

“It is fixed,” the other replied, as he came back to where his
companion stood. “And now, shall we not push it out in the open.”

“Zat will not be hard,” replied Jules, bending his shoulders to the
task.

The aeroplane had been nicely balanced on the three bicycle wheels, and
upon being started immediately began to pass out of the hangar.

Frank could feel Andy quivering with indignation and resentment, and
knew that the other was almost on the point of an explosion. Unless he
were checked, he was apt to rush out, and try, single-handed, to hold
the robbers back.




CHAPTER XII.

HELD BACK.


“Hush! Don’t make a sound yet!” was what Frank whispered.

“But look at them, Frank! The skunks are stealing our neat little
trick! They mean to fly away in her!” answered Andy. And perhaps his
husky voice might have been heard only that just then Jules happened
to have started the engine, and the noise of its throbbing pulsations
drowned all other sounds.

Evidently the skilled aviator was bent on making sure that everything
was correct before starting aloft. It was dangerous business under even
the best of conditions; and certainly when they were about to risk
their lives in a craft made by a couple of green-horn lads.

Still, Jules was voicing his surprise and gratification. He had
certainly never expected to find a machine so nearly perfect as the
result of inexperienced lads.

“Marvelous! superb! excellent!” he was saying with his French
extravagance of speech. “I take off my cap to zese boys. Zey are
surely bound to make zare mark in ze profession. Jean, it ees no longer
a chance we take. It ees a certainty. We sall laugh at ze gendarmes
as we soar over zere heads in ze sky. Pouf! a turn of ze hand, and ze
propeller it will buzz. Zen we are off wiz a rush. Get aboard, Jean!”

The taller man did not seem to have quite so much confidence as Jules.
Doubtless he feared that they would be accepting unusual risks in thus
trusting their lives and fortunes to a contraption made by mere boys.
Still, the situation was such that he had to yield to the opinion of
his comrade. And if all went well, it was an ideal method of giving
their enemies the slip.

So, after giving a last look around him, with somewhat of a sigh he
started to attach himself in the position which Jules had pointed out.

The new monoplane had been built especially for two. Frank and his
cousin had that in mind when starting in to construct the machine;
since neither of them wished to cruise through the air alone.

Hence, there was a place for the second man, where he would just
balance matters nicely. And Jules had himself marked out where the two
heavy suit-cases should be tied fast. In this, his former experience
stood him well, since he was aware of all the little tricks developed
by gliding aeroplanes when at work.

“You stay inside here, and when you hear me shout just whoop it up at
the top of your voice. I’m going out to see if I can play a trick on
them, and prevent an ascent,” whispered Frank.

Immediately he was gone, and Andy, feeling mighty shaky, as he
afterwards frankly confessed, succeeded in crawling out from under the
work bench. Still clutching his wrench weapon he tiptoed over to the
vicinity of the open doors, where he stood almost holding his breath in
his desire to have a full supply in his lungs when the signal came to
let loose.

Frank had meanwhile crept softly outside. The shadow cast by the hangar
served to hide him more or less. And besides, both men seemed to be
completely taken up with what they were doing, for they certainly
failed to look his way.

It was apparent that Frank had conceived some sort of idea. These
things often came to him like a flash of light. It was fortunate in the
present instance, for time was of considerable value. At any moment
now, Jules, finding that his companion had settled himself, was apt to
switch the power on to the shaft, and start the propeller to whirling
around.

When that occurred it would be too late for any one to think of
stopping the monoplane, which must begin to move off on its wheeled
base, increasing in momentum with each yard of progress, until finally
it would take gradually to the air, if all went well, in a graceful
upward curve.

Frank had picked up the padlock belonging to the doors, and which was
hanging, open, on a convenient nail. He knew that just outside there
was a long and stout chain, which had been used somehow with the lumber
brought from the yard, and forgotten when the wagon pulled out.

It was in connection with that same chain that his thoughts ran just
now. And he had faith to believe that, if given just half a minute
of time, he could fix it so that the bold thieves would find some
difficulty in breaking away from old Mother Earth when Jules chose to
set that propeller whizzing.

Again was Frank indebted to the noise of the churning engine, for it
effectually deadened what clanking sounds the chain made when he took
hold of its ends, and crept forward.

He kept as low down as he could. Even the moon seemed to be in full
sympathy with the boy’s mission. She had very conveniently hidden
her smiling disc behind quite a dark cloud just then, and brought a
shadow across the face of the land. Perhaps Jules had noticed this
fact. Perhaps he was waiting until it grew light again, so he could
see what lay ahead of them. This ascending from an unknown field must
have all sorts of dangers attached to it, which an experienced aviator
understood.

And so Frank was allowed to reach the rear of the aeroplane without
being detected. His perfect knowledge concerning the build of the
machine served him well at this crisis, for he knew just where to go in
order to find what he sought.

Fortune favored him to a most remarkable degree. Why, if he had the
ordering of the whole affair he could hardly have improved upon the
arrangements. They had pushed the aeroplane out possibly a score of
feet beyond the doors of the hangar. And in so doing the wheels just
avoided a weighty object which Frank had had dumped there, intending
to use the same as an anchor, to which the monoplane could be fastened
when they came to trying her propeller at full speed.

This was a large iron post, that must have weighed all of three hundred
pounds. It had a large ring attached. Once upon a time it stood in
front of the Whympers domicile, and horses were tied to the ring; but
lately it had come to be a nuisance, so that the colonel had ordered
it uprooted, and taken to the dump in the rear, from which the young
aviators had rescued it.

And through that same ring Frank now slipped his chain. His purpose was
plain. Instead of keeping restive horses from taking to their heels,
the old post was now intended to act as a restraining power to a steed
of the upper air currents, and curb the ambition of the monoplane when
the propeller started to turning.

When Frank had managed to pass his chain through the frame of the
rudder he brought the two ends together, and snapped the padlock shut.
Its jaws held the ends of the chain fast, forming an effectual brake.

Satisfied that he had managed to anchor the aeroplane to the ground,
the boy next crept back toward the shed. He knew that the explosion
must come in a brief time now, and wished to be as far away from the
two robbers at that critical moment as possible.

Andy saw some one creeping toward him. The moon was still behind
the cloud, although just about to appear again, having given Frank
all the time he needed. At first Andy thought it must be one of the
robbers coming back to finish him, or else get something that had been
forgotten. And he had even mechanically half raised the big monkey
wrench before he caught a low sign that told him the truth.

What Frank had done he could not even guess; but he had faith in the
other, no matter what the circumstances might be, and believed now that
in some way his chum must have managed to block the game of grab.

“Did you fix it?” he whispered, as the other joined him.

“Watch and see what happens,” came the low reply. “And when I let go,
shout like a house afire. If there’s a policeman inside of half a mile
he’ll come here on the tear.”

The face of the moon began to appear beyond the dark curtain. That was
to be the signal for the start. Jules was bending over even now.

“Hold tight, Jean! It ees to go!” they heard him say, in a thrilling
tone.

“I am ready. Let loose!” answered the other, recklessly, as he clung to
the upright, close to which he had taken his position.

Andy held his breath. Both boys were staring hard at their beloved
monoplane, seen there in the moonlight. How brave she looked; and to
think that two rascally law-breakers were occupying the seats they had
fondly hoped should be their portion when the maiden flight was taken.

The engine still worked steadily, with a series of little explosions
that denoted an expenditure of only a part of its capacity. Suddenly
the propeller commenced to turn swiftly around. Jules had made the
shift!

The monoplane began to move forward on its padded bicycle wheels; and
Andy could not repress a cry of chagrin, as he saw his darling machine
start off.

But his outburst was as nothing compared to the startled exclamations
and angry shouts that arose from the two occupants of the monoplane,
when, after going a dozen feet, it suddenly brought up with a round
turn that almost sent them backwards from their seats.

And with propeller whizzing aimlessly, and engine working steadily,
the trapped aeroplane refused to budge another foot, being held fast by
the lumber chain, and the ground anchor that had once been a massive
hitching post!




CHAPTER XIII.

THE BIRD BOYS IN LUCK.


It was certainly an exciting moment all around.

Even the usually cool Frank felt a thrill pass over him, as he
contemplated the frantic efforts of the aeroplane to leave its
anchorage, and take a maiden spin through the balmy atmosphere of that
July night.

Both the Frenchmen were spluttering with dismay and rage. One of them
believed that something must have happened to the machinery of the
monoplane, and his outcries were hurled against the “fool boys” who had
believed they could produce a flier capable of making good.

But Jules, who had had much experience with such things, knew
differently. He easily recognized in those tugs and jerks a willingness
on the part of the little air craft to mount upward, if given a fair
chance.

So Jules, having shut off the futile power, was now climbing down
from his seat bent upon investigation. Of course he must speedily
discover the smart trick that had been played upon them, whereby the
“sky-lofter” had been pinned down to earth by a mere lumber chain, and
a castoff hitching post.

What then? Would he endeavor to break loose from the anchor; or on the
other hand might they expect that he would dash toward the shed where
two boys were giving tongue by now at the top of their strong voices,
calling for help?

Andy still gripped that big monkey wrench. In a pinch he believed it
would not prove a bad thing to cling to, and might make an effective
weapon of defense. And Frank had groped around until he once more found
the billet of wood which he had laid down upon issuing forth upon his
recent errand.

They saw Jules finally land upon the ground. Thanks to the moon for
being so accommodating, there was now an abundance of light, and they
could see everything.

So could Jules. He immediately discovered just why the sturdy little
engine of the aeroplane, which had excited his ardent admiration a
short time before, proved unable to break away from the near vicinity
of the hangar.

He was evidently so excited, and “flustrated,” as Andy afterwards
termed it, that he came near having a fit. The boys indeed thought
he was choking, from the many strange sounds that broke forth from
his throat; but this was only Jules’ way of trying to jumble every
expletive he could think of into one solid mass.

No need to tell him to whom they owed this failure of their brilliant
scheme for slipping away from those who were searching far and wide to
find them. The series of outcries from the open doors of the hangar
gave the secret away.

The second robber had by this time managed to release himself from
his seat; for being in fear lest he should topple out of the reeling
aeroplane Jean had apparently fastened himself in by means of a handy
rope.

He, too, showed signs of tremendous excitement, nor could he be blamed,
since by this time there were symptoms to indicate that the entire
community had been aroused by the whoops of the two boys. Lights
flashed in various windows of the nearest houses, and the hoarse voices
of men could be heard calling to each other.

Apparently, unless Jules and his companion made haste to vanish, they
were apt to be surrounded, and their escape cut off.

A light that had been moving speedily along the road suddenly made a
swerve, and turned into the field at the gate. It had the brilliancy
of electricity, and was undoubtedly the acetylene searchlight on a
motorcycle.

“The police are coming!” shouted Frank several times, at the top of his
voice. Of course this was only a mere guess on his part, but he thought
it would do no harm to add to the alarm of the two rogues, and confuse
them more than ever. There was no longer a possibility that they would
attack the boys, for the time would not allow of such a thing. Nor
could they by any means manage to detach the coveted monoplane from its
secure anchorage. Hence, the only thing left was for them to run while
the chance remained.

The man on the motorcycle was coming straight toward the shed. Though
possibly his machine wobbled more or less on the far from smooth field,
he knew how to keep his seat. More than that, he even managed to
discharge a pistol in the air, for the purpose of assuring those who
called for help that assistance was near at hand.

That finished the panicky condition of Jules and his confederate. They
knew now that it was indeed an officer of the law who had happened, so
fortunately for the owners of the aeroplane, to be passing when the
alarm was given. Doubtless, in their excited imagination, they could
picture a dozen similar guardians of the peace surrounding the field;
and they may even have believed that they had walked into a trap, of
which the wonderful little airship was the bait.

Everything was forgotten but the fact of their peril. Jules shouted in
a voice as shrill as a siren that his comrade was to take to his heels,
and run for all he was worth. And so they made off, running like a pair
of foxes with a pack of hounds in full cry.

As if by some prearranged system they separated in making their flight.
Doubtless this was done to confuse pursuit; and they could meet again,
if lucky enough to get clean away, at some appointed rendezvous.

Frank stopped shouting. There was quite enough racket already, he
thought, and the one aim of their combined chorus had been attained,
since the thieves were in full flight. Besides, he was rather short of
breath.

“Shucks! they’ve got away!” declared Andy, visibly chagrined; as if he
had begun to cherish a hope that the pair of precious rascals might be
captured through a combination of all forces, some of the glory falling
to the Bird boys.

“Yes, but the police will be hot on the track after this exposure,”
said Frank. “You see, they will know now just where to take up the
trail. If they had a pair of good dogs they could easily run those
fellows down now.”

“What’s all this racket mean?” asked the man on the motorcycle, as he
jumped out of his saddle, and leaned forward to stare at the two boys,
who must have presented rather a strange picture just then, seeing that
they were clad only in their striped pajamas, and barefooted.

“It was those two robbers who cleaned out Leffingwell’s place!” replied
Andy, with his usual impetuosity. “They wanted to steal our new
aeroplane in order to escape. One of them is Jules, the French aviator,
who knows all about airships, and can tell a good one when he sees it.”

By this time other men were beginning to come panting to the spot.
They were neighbors of Colonel Josiah’s, hastily clad, and bearing all
manner of arms, from an old double-barrel shotgun to an up-to-date
Marlin repeating rifle. A stableman even carried a two-pronged hay
fork, with which he was making wicked lunges in the air, as in
imagination he speared desperate foes.

“Don’t you know us, Joe Green?” asked Frank, recognizing the officer.

“Why, bless my soul,” said the man, “if it ain’t Frank Bird, and
Andy, too! Is this your aeroplane, boys? And you say those slippery
rascals were trying to get away with it, meanin’ to slip out of the
county by the air route? No use chasing after ’em now, because they’ve
disappeared from sight. But I’ll get in touch with the Chief over the
phone, and have him come out here with more men.”

Even Colonel Josiah put in an appearance, clad in a wonderful Japanese
dressing gown of gorgeous colors, and waving in one hand a tremendous
sixshooter that no doubt had a history of its own.

“What happened?” he cried, as he limped, crutch and all, into the
little circle surrounding the two boys. “Let me get a chance at the
rogues, and I’ll settle their hash! Who are they, and what have they
been trying to do, Andy, my lad?”

Half a dozen voices tried to explain at once.

“Stop!” shouted the old man, waving his crutch like the baton of a
band master. “Let Andy speak. He was on the spot, and ought to know.
We don’t want hearsay evidence in this court. Now, lad, what’s all the
blooming row?”

So Andy had to once more tell how they had been aroused by the sounds
of some one trying to get into the shed; how they crouched under
the workbench while the two bold robbers examined the monoplane, and
determined to sail away in it, so as to leave no trail behind that
could be followed--and finally how Frank had conceived his brilliant
scheme for balking this evil intention.

Every eye was of course turned upon the chain and anchor, and men began
to even chuckle when the full force of Frank’s design was understood.

“A clever dodge, my lad,” said Colonel Josiah, after he had bent down
and examined the novel method of holding a runaway monoplane. “I never
knew a smarter trick to be turned on the spur of the moment. It does
you credit, hanged if it doesn’t. And are you sure they did no harm to
your machine?”

“I am confident that they had no time to think of that, sir,” replied
Frank, who was now beginning to think of getting more clothes on him,
if this audience were to be prolonged.

“That’s lucky, yes, deuced lucky,” declared the anxious colonel, who
seemed to be about as much concerned over the safety of the monoplane
as the builders themselves. “But what is this you’ve got here, boys?
All ready to make a journey, were you, and take your grips along?”

Frank and Andy sprang forward. Apparently up to now they had quite
forgotten a very important fact, until it was thus forcibly brought to
their attention by the words of the veteran traveler.

One look they gave into the body of the air craft. Then they reached
out their right hands, as if governed by some mutual inspiration.

“Shake!” said Frank, with a laugh; “sure we’re in great luck after all,
cousin!”

So they were; for in their great haste to depart to safer regions the
two robbers had quite forgotten to carry off the suit-cases containing
their plunder!




CHAPTER XIV.

A GOOD NIGHT’S WORK.


“Ain’t this the greatest thing ever?” cried Andy, as with trembling
fingers he started to unfasten the cords by which the suit-cases had
been secured, so they might not drop out, should the sailing aircraft
wobble in space.

“It certainly does takes the cake for dumb luck!” observed Frank,
hardly less excited himself and forgetting all about his lack of
clothes.

“Suppose you explain then?” suggested a neighbor. “We’d like to join in
congratulations if we only knew what it was all about.”

“Why, you see,” began Andy, “these ain’t our bags at all.”

“They belong to the two gentlemen who thought to borrow our machine for
a little moonlight spin across lots to the next county,” Frank went on,
his face covered with a wide grin, as he hefted one of the suit-cases,
and found it mighty solid.

“What!” exclaimed Joe Green, the officer, as though suddenly waking up.

“Feel the weight of that bag, Joe!” remarked Frank. “Strike you it’s
quite hefty for a lot of soiled linen? Well, it’s strapped nice and
secure, and we’ll let it stay so till Chief Waller comes to take
charge, but I rather guess these two bags hold all the stuff that was
grabbed out of Leffingwell’s jewelry store!”

His word produced another spasm of excitement. Men crowded around to
gaze at the suit-cases and exchange remarks.

“It’s so, I reckon,” remarked one; “’cause here’s the letters A. N.
S. on the end of this bag, and they stand for Arthur Nelson Sage, the
cashier of Leffingwell’s store. Did you ever hear of such luck? Sure
these boys are in clover!”

“I should remark they were,” observed another, enviously. “With a
reward of five hundred falling to ’em for the recovery of the stuff.
Some people just tumble head over heels into luck. I never struck such
a juicy thing in all my life.”

“Well, they deserve it, all right,” declared Colonel Josiah, defiantly.
“What d’ye think of boys who could build such a trump outfit as that
ere? And then stick by it through thick and thin? And wasn’t that a
cute dodge, holdin’ the aeroplane back with a hog chain and my old
hitching post? Why, Si Clapp, you’d never have thought up such a game
as that in a thousand years, let alone in ten seconds. So I say
again they deserve it. What they get they’ve won fair. Ain’t it so,
neighbors?”

A rousing cheer answered him. And leaving the two bags in charge of
Colonel Josiah, the Bird boys scurried inside to pick up a few more
clothes and get shoes on their feet, since it was apparent that they
were in for a couple of hours’ siege.

Andy’s teeth fairly rattled with excitement. Had he been in a freezing
atmosphere he could not have shivered at a greater rate.

“Say, Frank, looks like this being broke up in our sleep was going to
be a regular thing,” he remarked, while dressing.

“That’s right,” replied his cousin, laughing. “One night it’s a sandbag
from a passing balloon that lands with a smash on our pile of boards.
Then we are awakened by a couple of prowlers, who want to steal our
dandy little airship. Wonder what it will be the next time?”

“Yes,” said Andy, quickly; “but you forget that two nights ago we had
visitors here, even if we didn’t know it at the time. That makes three
in succession. The first may have been along the order of an accident.
The second was what Professor Gregg would call a coincidence. But I
declare the third time makes it a _habit_!”

“Well, Andy, we’ll get used to it in time, perhaps. Though if this
thing keeps going we’ll have to take a nap in the daytime to make up
for lost sleep. Did Joe go with Mr. McGovern to ’phone headquarters?”

“Yes, that was what he said he meant to do,” replied the other, as he
finished lacing his second shoe. “And so I reckon we’ll have a squad of
the police out here as soon as they can get the patrol wagon moving to
take charge of those bags and ask all sorts of fool questions. Do you
think they’ll find Jules and his pal?”

“Not unless they show more smartness than they have up to now,” replied
Frank. “Of course, the two men will be as mad as hops to think they
allowed the bags to stay. But since the whole county is aroused by now
and every day makes it harder for them to get away, they’ll be thinking
only of escape. And you know there are plenty of fine hiding places in
the woods bordering the lake, where they can stay for a week if they
only find some way to get grub.”

By this time the boys were dressed. Upon going out again they found
that the group had been increased by the arrival of several more
belated neighbors, who, having heard of the row, could not resist the
temptation to get out and investigate.

All sorts of questions were asked and the boys replied good naturedly.
Indeed, they had reason for feeling genial just then. Fortune had been
very kind to them, since not only had they been able to save their
valuable aeroplane without its suffering the slightest damage, but here
the alarmed rascals had actually presented them with their bags of
plunder.

Presently a wagon was heard coming furiously along the road. Of course
this was the police, headed by the chief himself, clad in a resplendent
uniform, with a glittering silver star on his broad and manly chest to
designate his official importance.

“Oh, say! Do we have to go over all this stuff again?” groaned Andy.

“Well, you see, they have to know how we came by this loot,” laughed
Frank. “Otherwise we might get pulled in for receiving stolen property.
So make up your mind to stick to the statements you’ve already given.
After they’ve taken the plunder away perhaps we can shoo these good
people off, trip our machine back in the shed and once more try to get
a little nap before another day comes.”

So when the chief came up, asking questions and examining the
suit-cases, both of the boys were ready to tell all they know.

Chief Waller was a big man, in point of size; and, according to his own
mind, a brainy one in addition. He had a self-important air about him,
but that never deceived Frank an iota. The boy knew that just now the
chief envied them their good fortune and was only too willing to share,
even in a small degree, the glory that must come in connection with the
recovery of the stolen property.

“You boys are justly entitled to the reward,” he said, pompously, after
a time. “And I’ll see that you get it. I can appreciate the clever
nature of the game you played, Frank, for that is exactly what I would
have done under similar circumstances.”

Neither of the boys allowed even a smile to flicker across their faces,
though it was almost ludicrous, the idea of Chief Waller _ever_ having
a brilliant idea. He had been at the head of the force three years or
more, and while he did his duty decently and impressed tramps with a
fitting sense of the majesty of the law, no one had ever known him to
make a clever play.

The boys were only too glad to see the patrol wagon depart, bearing
the two recovered suit-cases, filled with plunder, and the several
officers.

“We’ll get to work in the morning,” the chief had promised ere
departing; “and run the rascals to earth. They’re in the last ditch
now, and the hour is not far away when they’ll be in the clutches of
the law!”

But Frank and Andy had their own opinion about that. They chanced to
believe that if the matter depended solely upon the smartness of the
police head, Jules and his confederate would prove too cunning to fall
into any trap.

“Come, let’s push the aeroplane back into its quarters,” said Frank.

“That’s the ticket,” remarked Andy, promptly. “Just unlock that chain
and give us a chance. Hi, careful there, Phil! Don’t knock up against
that plane again that way. They don’t like rough handling, even if they
are keyed up with stanch wire cables. Now, push easy like. Away she
goes back. Take care of that left plane against the door jamb! Here
we are, and thank you all. And now to get a little snooze before day
comes. Why, Frank, it’s two o’clock!”

Taking the hint, those who had remained to give a hand and stare a
little longer at the strange machine, the likes of which few had ever
before set eyes on, betook themselves off, returning to their several
homes.

So the two Bird boys, finding the coast clear, closed the doors of the
hangar once more and secured them with the bar.

Frank had managed to replace the board that had been taken off the end
of the shed at the time Jules made his entrance.

“Say, you don’t think now for a minute those chaps will come sneaking
around here again tonight, in hopes of getting this little daisy of a
cruiser, do you?” Andy asked, as they prepared to retire once more.

“Well,” replied his cousin, “I don’t believe they’ve got the nerve.
They know the police have been here and will expect that some of the
men in blue are hanging around still, in hopes of picking them up. Oh,
no! This is the last spot about Bloomsbury they want to visit. Make
your mind easy on that score, Andy.”

“How d’ye suppose they picked out our machine, Frank, rather than the
other? The biplane has been up in the air and tried out, you know.”

“They may never have known there was another. By some accident they
discovered our hangar here. The thing that puzzles me most is how they
came to believe the shed was deserted, when they saw a light here
and you coming. But perhaps the one who watched supposed you would
return to the house later. And being in a hurry to get back to his pal
and tell the good news, he didn’t investigate further. Anyhow,” Frank
went on, as he yawned and stretched, “I’m just too sleepy right now to
bother my head any more about the whole business. Ready? Then out goes
the lantern. Me to hit the pillow hard and get rested up.”

And after that silence reigned profound in the shed that covered the
aeroplane.




CHAPTER XV.

“IT IS FINE!”


“Wake up, Andy! It’s long past sun-up!”

“How’s the weather out there?” asked a sleepy voice from under the
blanket that covered the cot.

“Fair enough, but from the little fleecy white clouds I see I’m afraid
we’re going to have a lot more breeze than yesterday,” replied Frank,
who was washing his face in the tin basin outside.

“Shucks! that would be too mean for anything, just when we’ve got
everything tuned up for our great trial spin,” and the grumbler rolled
out of his bed, after which he disentangled himself from the blankets
and made for the door, to take an observation on his own account.

“It’s quiet enough just now to go up,” he announced, eagerly.

“All right, suppose you make the try. Reckon you’d wish you had some
more clothes on before you got very high. This traveling through the
air is hardly suited to pajamas as a regular thing,” jeered Frank.

“Oh, well!” Andy went on, his natural good nature coming to the rescue;
“there’ll be plenty of chances for our first voyage over the fields.
And meanwhile I’ll have an opportunity to look in several places I’ve
thought of.”

“For that wrench, I suppose you mean?” said Frank. “Well, I hope you
find it soon or there’ll be no living with you. I never saw such a
fellow to harp on one tune. You must have been dreaming about it.”

“I have,” replied the other, promptly and unblushingly. “That’s what
gave me an idea. It wouldn’t be the first lost thing that was found
through the medium of a dream, either. I was reading only the other
day----”

But just then he had to duck, when Andy tossed the contents of the
basin in his direction, so it was never really known what strange thing
he had read.

After they had partaken of breakfast the two boys pottered around.
Frank’s prediction had proven only too true. With the advancing sun had
come a breeze that, while at no time bordering on the character of a
hurricane, still dampened the ardor of the young aeronauts.

An experienced aviator might have found little trouble in guiding his
machine while such a wind was in evidence, but it would be next to
foolhardy in novices taking such chances.

Bold though he could be on occasion, as he had proven when he fastened
that chain to the monoplane in which the two scoundrels were seated,
ready to fly away, at the same time Frank could show wonderful
discretion.

It was just as well that this were so, for it balanced the team. Andy
was an impetuous fellow and apt to rush things without ceremony.

“Don’t you think we might take the chances?” he had said several times
during the morning, as he looked up anxiously into the heavens like a
bird that longed to be soaring aloft.

“Not at all,” answered the other, decisively. “I’ve got a hunch that
along about noon there’ll come something of a change, and this wind die
down. Then will be our chance. Think how silly we’d feel if we made the
try now, broke some of the parts of the aeroplane, even if we didn’t
our precious necks in the bargain, and then when helpless, saw a dead
calm settle down.”

“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. But it’s tough waiting. Oh, yes!
There was that drawer in the work bench; I dreamed I found my wrench in
there,” and he hurried back into the shed, filled with new zeal.

As he once more reappeared five minutes later, scratching his head, and
with a look of gloom on his usually merry face, Frank decided that the
great puzzle had not yet been solved. Dreams, then, were not always to
be relied upon when searching for things that had gone astray.

It was about eleven o’clock and the breeze certainly did show some
signs of going down, when Frank heard his cousin give utterance to an
exclamation.

“There! you see some people don’t seem to be afraid to take chances!”
Andy was saying, with a touch of discontent in his voice.

Looking up, Frank saw the biplane rising above the trees again. Both
boys were plainly noticeable and it was Puss who was piloting the
aircraft.

The biplane made several furious dashes this way and that, as slants
of wind caught her extended planes. Puss lacked the experience of
a skilled aviator and apparently hardly knew how to avoid the full
force of those gusts. Again and again Frank caught his breath, fully
believing that the biplane was doomed to make an ignominious plunge
back to the earth, for the gyrations through which it went seemed to
point that way.

“Good for Puss!” he said, after one of these wild exhibitions, from
which the airship managed to recover and move along fairly decently.
“He’s learning, all right. But I tell you, Andy, they’re taking big
chances. I’d rather go a little slow in the start until I’d learned the
ropes. Oh, look at that dip, would you? That was a near call. I hope
nothing happens to them. I’d hate, for lots of reasons, to see them
spilled out or the biplane wrecked so soon.”

“Well, so would I,” declared Andy. “And after all I guess you’re right
about taking unnecessary chances. I don’t think I’d like to be in that
craft right now.”

But the wind kept falling and as Puss Carberry learned better how to
meet each puff of air he manipulated his machine with more success.

“Look, Frank, he’s heading this way! I honestly believe they’re going
to fly over our heads! It would be just like Puss and his impudence. I
feel like going inside and cheating him out of his laugh.”

But nevertheless Andy did nothing of the kind. His curiosity had been
too highly excited, and he was also bent on watching all the crooks and
turns made by the advancing biplane, with a view to profiting by the
experience of others.

There could be no longer any doubt concerning the design of the two
young aviators. The machine was heading straight for the field where
Andy had had his hangar built. And presently the biplane was directly
over their heads. They could hear the engine humming merrily, while the
popping of the unused muffler sounded like the miniature explosion of
musketry on a battlefield.

“Hello! caught you napping this time, didn’t we?” called Puss Carberry,
as he looked down from his perch, fully eighty feet above their heads.

“Come on up; the sailing’s fine!” mocked Sandy, waving his hand
derisively at the two rivals standing there with uptilted heads.

Frank was not possessed of a small nature. He waved back and shouted:

“Fine work, Puss! You’re doing nobly so far; keep it up! We’re going
to make a try when the wind goes down. Your biplane looks immense and
seems to work in great shape, Bully!”

But Andy said never a word. Truth to tell, he was eating his heart out
with envy as he stood there and gaped. For it had been the ambition
of his soul that their airship should be the very first ever built in
Bloomsbury to navigate the region of the upper currents. And here were
the precious pair whom he detested, actually making himself and Frank
look like back numbers.

So, having no words to express his disgust, he dodged into the shed
again, and Frank heard him throwing things around at a great rate, as
he once more tried to get some trace of the mysterious missing tool.

Noon came at last.

The biplane had descended some little time before and apparently with
success, from what Frank, who was watching eagerly, could judge.

“Puss is getting a good grip,” he said. “I can see a big difference
already in the way he manages. And that is what every air pilot must
have--experience with all kinds of conditions.”

“Even when the wind blows!” suggested Andy, a bit maliciously.

“Sure, after he learns his business some,” replied Frank. “And now
let’s get lunch over with as soon as possible. Then we will be in
condition to make our ascent when the conditions are right. You go
in first, Andy. My people will think I’ve taken up boarding with you
over here, I reckon; it’s so long since I’ve eaten a meal at home. But
you’ve got a boss cook, all right.”

At one o’clock both of them had finished the midday meal. Colonel
Josiah, having learned that there was a good chance of a flight that
afternoon, had hobbled out to the “aviation field,” as he was pleased
to call his property now.

“Wouldn’t miss it for a big lot, lads,” he remarked, as they got him a
box to sit down on where he could see everything that took place.

“There’s that biplane bobbing up again away over yonder, colonel,”
remarked Frank, about half an hour later.

Of course, the old veteran was intensely interested in the movements of
the rival machine. He could not help admire it, even though loyal to
the workmanship of his two boys.

“Huh! he’s doing pretty well, I admit,” he said, grumblingly. “But
wait till you get going and then he’ll just have to take a back seat.
I believe a monoplane is more like a real bird than any of the other
types. Ain’t it nigh time, Frank, for you to get a move on? I don’t
reckon I can stand this much longer.”

Frank smiled. With two against one it began to look as though he must
speedily capitulate. There was Andy keeping a pair of hungry eyes glued
upon him and with a look of mute entreaty in his blue eyes.

Frank raised his hand to feel the air, gave one more look all around,
drew in a long breath and then turning to his comrade he nodded his
head.

“Do we start?” demanded the other, eagerly.

“It is time!” was Frank’s simple reply, as he stepped over to where the
little monoplane awaited the coming of its makers.




CHAPTER XVI.

SEVEN TIMES AROUND THE CIRCLE.


Frank knew full well that he was about to start upon the most risky
thing that he had ever undertaken thus far in his whole life.

Many a skilled aviator would hesitate to take up a second person with
him in a monoplane. True, in building the machine they had figured on
this matter. And there was now a dead calm, which made matters easier
for the novice. Then again, Frank was perfectly cool and not apt to
lose his head under the most trying conditions.

He had studied these things closely. He had visited the aviation field
more than once. And while thus far he had kept the matter a dead
secret, even from his chum, Frank had himself been up in an aeroplane
for a little swing around the field at the time of his visit to Long
Island. So that if it was true that Puss Carberry had passed through
this experience he was but following in the wake of his rival.

Frank knew what must be done. He saw that Andy was fixed in his seat
and gave him last words of advice. Everything was now ready for the
start. And Frank was secretly glad that the biplane had dropped out of
sight again, because he did not wish to have his attention distracted
from the work in managing his eccentric steed of the air.

The colonel had insisted upon having a hand in the start, nor would he
be denied, so Frank had instructed him just what to do in giving the
propeller an initial swing. Several boys were hurrying into the field,
possibly Elephant and Larry, anxious to be present at the launching of
the new craft intended to soar among the clouds.

“Ready!” cried Frank, presently, as he took a firm grip on the steering
wheel and prepared to start the engine.

“Ready!” answered the old man from the rear.

“Then go!”

The engine began humming musically and as the propeller whipped around,
the monoplane started to glide away on the three bicycle wheels
designed for this purpose.

Imagine the thrill that was passing over those two lads, seated there,
as their pace increased quickly until they were really speeding along.
But that was nothing compared to the delicious excitement that came
upon them when Frank altered the position of the rudder so that the
rapidly moving machine began to actually leave the ground and ascend
in a graceful upward curve.

“Oh!” gasped Andy, whose face was white, but more through sheer
excitement than anything in the shape of fear.

If they should live to the century mark neither of those lads would
ever forget the strange sensation that nearly overwhelmed them upon
feeling themselves moving through the air for the first time, with no
solid earth to depend upon--only that rapidly throbbing engine and the
broad pinions that extended out on either side to keep them from being
dashed to the ground.

As in a dream they heard the shouts from Colonel Josiah and the boys.
The one grand thing that impressed them was the fact that their
initial start had been a splendid success, and that they were now
launched on the sea of adventure in the wide domain of the upper air as
full-fledged aviators!

“Ain’t it just grand?” exclaimed Andy, when they had ascended to
possibly a height of fifty feet or more and Frank had brought the
airship on an even keel, so that they began to circle around the field
on a level with some of the tree-tops.

“The finest ever,” replied the pilot of the craft, shortly, for he did
not mean to have his attention diverted from his business thus early
in the game.

Later on, when sailing the monoplane became second nature to them,
doubtless they could take their eyes off the front of the machine and
look around.

Frank remembered his experience in learning to ride a bicycle, and he
believed he was even now passing through just such a similar episode.
It seemed as though the slightest movement on the part of either Andy
or himself caused the delicate airship to wobble frightfully, so that
his heart stood still with dread. But by degrees he found that it
instantly righted. And the faster they moved through space the less
chance there seemed to be of these eccentric antics.

They had already made two complete circuits of the field. Frank now
managed to actually tear his eyes away from his wheel and the fore part
of the aeroplane long enough to shoot a glance downward.

How strange things looked, although they were but such a short distance
up! And how queer the earth must appear to a flier who sails thousands
of feet aloft, with the rivers and hills marked below him as on a map!

“There comes the biplane again!” remarked Andy, in some excitement.

Frank took the alarm at once.

“Keep quiet!” he urged. “Don’t twist your neck around so, Andy! And
even if they do come, we want nothing to do with them today. This is no
time for racing or any monkey-shines.”

“Or monkey wrenches, either,” complained the other, instantly. “But
they’re headed this way, all right, Frank. They mean to watch and see
what we do.”

“Let ’em,” replied Frank, promptly, as he continued to keep the
monoplane curving in that one big circle. “The air is free to all, and
so long as they let us alone you bet I’m not aching to bother with
them. Now keep quiet, can’t you?”

“But what if they bump us, eh?” urged Andy, uneasily.

“Rats! Not much danger of that, because both machines would go down in
a mess. And Puss is too much like a cat to take such big chances. Never
mind them, I tell you. Just watch how we are doing and pick up points.
Ha! there’s Colonel Josiah waving his crutch and shouting. He’ll be as
hoarse as a crow soon.”

“They’re mounting up higher and higher, Frank. I bet they want to show
off and look down on us,” grumbled Andy.

“Let ’em, then. They won’t have the chance much longer, once I get the
hang of this thing,” commented the other.

“How does it work, Frank? And does she mind her helm all right?”

“Like magic,” came the pleased reply. “Why, the slightest touch changes
the course up or down or sideways. You see, that’s the advantage of
air travel. A ship can only go on a level, no matter how you point her
nose, but an aeroplane has the choice of ascending or descending.”

“Yes, sometimes descending too fast,” said Andy.

“Perhaps; but we won’t talk of that. Are they still coming this way,
Andy?”

“Huh! they’re almost over our heads right now,” declared the other,
stretching his neck. “Don’t you hear their motor fussing to beat
the band? It would be just like one of those sneaks to try and drop
something down on us and claim it was an accident.”

“Oh, punk! Let up on that. That would spoil their chance for a race;
and don’t you see Puss is just dying to beat us in that silver cup
run?” said Frank.

“Hey! Hello, down there!” came a hail from almost directly above.

“Hello yourself!” answered Frank, without looking up.

“Managed to get a move on, did you?” pursued Puss, as he held in his
biplane so that he could sail along not fifty feet away from the other
aircraft.

No doubt he was eagerly sizing the monoplane up the while and making a
mental calculation as to what chances there would be of her giving him
a stiff race.

“Why don’t you get up where you can see something?” called out Sandy,
when neither of the others had replied to the remark of his companion.

“Oh, this is good enough for us the first time. When we get used to the
feeling you’ll see us climb!” said Frank, pleasantly.

“Huh! guess you’re afraid, that’s what,” jeered Sandy.

“Perhaps you’re right Sandy,” replied Frank. “This is a queer business
for a green-horn, and I’m not anxious to break my neck in the start.
Give us a little time and we’ll show you what this machine can do.”

“Well, by-by then,” called Puss. “We can’t bother with such a slow
coach. But if you don’t get along better than that the race is sure
going to be a walk-over.”

“You just wait and see. The fellow laughs loudest who laughs last!”
shouted Andy, who could hold in no longer.

Floating back on the slight breeze that had started to blow again came
the disdainful laugh of the two reckless young aviators. Puss had
opened his throttle and the biplane was now sweeping onward like the
wind.

“My, they’re going some!” declared Andy, a bit awed by the venturesome
act of the rival crew. “Do you think we could hit up a pace like that,
Frank?”

“Don’t doubt it in the least,” replied the other. “But nothing doing
today, my boy. I’m satisfied to move around here in a steady fashion.
We’re learning all the while. I want to know this little machine’s ways
like a book. I want to feel that I’m just a part of the outfit and
understand her whims and capers. After that I’ll be ready to do stunts
in the way of speed and lofting, not before.”

And in his heart Andy knew that his chum was right. An aeroplane is the
last means of transportation in the world to trifle with, because of
the peril that is ever hanging over the head or lying in wait from a
fall.

Seven times had they circled the field now. The engine had thus far
worked with clock-like fidelity, never missing a stroke. Frank was
really charmed with its performance, for he had anticipated that until
the newness wore off and the parts got smoothed from use he might have
more or less engine trouble.

He was even thinking that it might be well enough to call the flight
off and see how successful a landing they could make, when, without the
slightest warning, the engine ceased working.

Something had occurred to stop the machine, whether his fault or not he
could not say, and they had already commenced to drop toward the earth!




CHAPTER XVII.

WHEN THE MONOPLANE FELL.


“Oh!”

Of course it was Andy who gave utterance to this startled exclamation.
He had noticed the abrupt stoppage of the engine and realized what that
must mean.

Frank never lost his head in this emergency. He had a faculty for
thinking out all these sort of things and planning his move in case
he ever found himself up against such a crisis. It is one thing to
deliberately stop the motive power of an aeroplane and quite another to
have it suddenly cease working.

The monoplane continued to move forward, under the impetus that had
been given while the propeller still swirled around. But they were also
descending and in a few seconds they would be apt to drop faster than
ever, unless something were done to relieve the situation.

The planes were holding firmly and their expanse would serve to keep
the little aircraft from going down like a plummet. But Frank knew
there was a means for quickly altering the position of his deflecting
rudder, so that the monoplane would glide gently toward the earth in
what from a higher altitude would be called volplaning.

He had seen experienced aviators do the stunt again and again, and
sometimes under circumstances that called for considerable nerve. So
like a flash he made the move and the little craft seemed to feel the
effect at once, floating softly down until presently the rubbered tires
of the two fore wheels came in contact with the ground, along which
they trundled for perhaps fifty feet.

Then the monoplane came to a full stop.

Andy broke loose with an ear splitting yell that was taken up by the
others nearby, who believed that this must all have been intentional on
the part of the novice air pilot.

Frank himself was satisfied and even pleased. He realized how easily
one could hold the reins with such a novel craft, if he only did not
lose his head in an emergency. There were ways to meet each sudden
difficulty, it seemed.

“That was a mighty fine idea of yours, Frank; but it needed a lot
of nerve to attempt it,” said Andy, as he climbed out and stretched
himself.

“Did, eh?” smiled Frank. “What would you think if I told you that I
never had any idea of coming down that way, just then, at any rate?”

The other stared.

“Say, you don’t mean to tell me that it was all an accident?” Andy
asked, his face growing grave again.

“It certainly was, so far as I know. I never intended to cut off the
power. The engine simply stopped dead. And I knew that we would come
down with a bump unless I did something that I’ve seen aviators do many
the time. In a little way that was what they call volplaning, Andy.”

“Gee! I bet those two guys stared like their eyes would jump out.
That’s something they haven’t dared try yet, bold as they are,”
observed the other, looking up toward the biplane, which had wheeled
and was coming back.

“And I wouldn’t have dared either,” laughed Frank; “only it was a case
of have to with me. But now that it’s over I’m glad it happened, for
I’ve learned something that’s going to be pretty valuable to us from
now on. We can always alight that way. But I’ll be sorry if our dandy
little engine has gone back on us.”

He bent over to examine and immediately uttered a snort.

“Found something?” asked Andy, while the other two boys drew alongside
and the limping colonel drew rapidly near.

“A fool play on my part, after all. The power is shut off! I must have
done it accidentally when I turned a trifle to watch the biplane.”

Andy threw the propeller gears into neutral and then started the
engine. It began working with an earnestness that was charming.

“That’s one on me,” said Frank. “And I give you my word I’ll fix it so
that it can never happen again.”

“There comes the biplane bothering around,” said Andy, who seemed to
have conceived a sudden violent dislike for the other aeroplane.

The machine piloted by Puss was indeed circling and dropping to a lower
strata, so that presently the voice of Sandy Hollingshead could be
heard calling.

“Bet you couldn’t do that again in a thousand years, Frank!” he said,
as though he had just received an unpleasant shock after witnessing the
feat of bringing the monoplane successfully to earth after the engine
had stopped short.

After a while he would realize that it was only a common way of
alighting. Puss had managed thus far in a clumsy fashion, avoiding
accidents more through good luck than management. For no aeroplane ever
could make a landing with the engine running full.

“Thought you were in for a smash!” Puss admitted.

“Oh, well, you see I didn’t intend to shut off power so suddenly. My
sleeve caught in the lever and I thought something had broken. But it
was easy after all,” Frank sang out, not wishing to accept laurels he
had not earned.

“Huh! thought it was an accident. You fellows will trust to luck once
too often, mark my words!” Sandy called back as the biplane sailed away.

Andy would have willingly gone up again, but his more prudent chum
advised that they let well enough alone.

“I want to do some little fixing to the engine,” he said, “and I reckon
you can think up a few more places to hunt for your pet tool.”

And secretly Andy had something to ponder over. He realized more than
ever that he would never be fitted to follow in the footsteps of his
father, insofar as this matter of aerial navigation went, unless he
put a sharp curb on his impatience.

Frank was the right kind of fellow to attempt these things. He had a
remedy for any trouble, and on the instant. The more Andy thought of
that incident and the clever way in which his chum had grappled with
the threatened disaster the greater his admiration for Frank grew.

Elephant, Larry and the old man were watching Frank tinker with the
little engine out there on the field just where they had alighted. Of
course, they talked the while, for boys can never keep silent any more
than girls.

“I saw you swing to the left as you came down, Frank; why did you do
that?” asked Larry, who had keen eyes that few things escaped.

“I did it because I knew we needed plenty of room ahead after we
landed, so the machine could run along the ground a bit, for I haven’t
yet quite got the hang of the brake,” replied the pilot, modestly.

“But how could you think of all that in a second and figure it out just
how you wanted to land?” persisted the other.

“I didn’t,” Frank answered, promptly, after his usual candid fashion.
“It must have been what you’d call instinct that made me swerve. I
realized it all just like you get an inspiration, in a tenth of a
second, they say. And my brain must have wigwagged it down to my hand,
for the thing was done in a flash.”

“Gee! that’s what an airship pilot has to do, does he?” observed
Elephant, shaking his head sadly. “Then I guess I’m not in the running.
Somehow the telegraph line between my brain and my fingers gets out of
working order right along. Then the news has to be relayed, sometimes
by way of another fellow. This here bully old earth is going to be good
enough for a fellow of my size for some time yet.”

“Yes, Elephant,” said Larry, “if he makes a little blunder here he
doesn’t drop a few thousand feet, turning over and over, and landing
with a sickening thud, as they say in the newspaper accounts.”

“Ah! let up on that, won’t you?” cried Andy. “You can’t scare us and
there’s no use trying. My father took the chances before me and it’s
sure in the blood. No matter what you say about risks, I’ve just got to
be an aviator. And I’ve laid out a trip that some day I hope to take.”

Frank could give a guess as to what he meant when he said this, for
that yearning look came upon Andy’s face, just as it always did every
time he was thinking about the father who had so mysteriously vanished
from the eyes of the known world so many months ago, when with his
balloon he started to cross the isthmus of Panama and was seen no more.

“Anyway,” asserted Larry, with an expression of genuine pleasure; “I’m
satisfied now that you fellows mean to have a look-in when that silver
cup is raced for. I had my doubts before, but after seeing the clever
stunt Frank just pulled off I’m not worrying any more.”

“Thank you, Larry,” said Frank; “it makes a fellow feel good to have
his friends express confidence in him. We mean to practice hard and
learn all the ropes we can. Then, if our fine little engine can develop
the speed I think she will, we’ll show a clean pair of heels to our
rivals on that big day of the race.”

“Oh, I forgot something!” exclaimed Elephant just then, and he
straightway began fumbling at his pocket as though trying to get a grip
on an object concealed there. “I found some property belonging to you,
Andy, and in the funniest place you ever heard of. Perhaps you remember
losing it?”

Andy turned pale, then rosy red and expectant.

“My little aluminum monkey wrench?” he exclaimed, eagerly.

Even Frank looked up, waiting to see what happened. But Elephant shook
his head in a disappointing fashion.

“Shucks, no!” he said; “but that tennis ball you lost last year, you
know, over in the lot back of our court. We hunted high and low for it
and gave the thing up. Well, would you believe it, if I didn’t come
on the ball stuck tight in a crotch of a tree, and here it is, hardly
worth anything, but I thought you’d like to see it again.”

But Andy groaned and waved him away.




CHAPTER XVIII.

A SCOUT, AND A DISCOVERY.


Several days passed.

With the exception of Sunday, the two wide-awake Bird boys put in all
the time possible in learning the ropes. Whenever the weather was
favorable they might be seen careering around the aviation field in
their gallant little Bleriot monoplane, now rising to greater heights
than they had ever dared venture before, and anon coming down in some
daring “spiral” that evoked loud cheers from those who, from below,
witnessed the new maneuver.

The biplane was also in evidence during these times. Puss Carberry
was wise in his day and generation, however. He had awakened to the
fact that in Frank and Andy Bird he had competitors worthy of his best
steel, and that if he hoped to outgeneral them as rivals on the day of
the race he must get busy.

So he and Sandy, instead of soaring aimlessly about, enjoying
themselves, began to study the humor of their airy steed. They found
plenty to do, for the vagaries of an aeroplane are numerous indeed.

Each pair of aviators had its particular little group of backers in the
shape of boys, who stared and cheered as they watched the evolutions
and stunts which were successfully engineered.

Frank was taking no unnecessary risks. There were numerous things which
of necessity they must learn, since at any moment during a flight such
knowledge might be the means of saving their lives. And he went about
the task of understanding just how volplaning down, boring up and such
maneuvers are successfully accomplished by expert airmen, just as he
did everything else he undertook, determined to be a master of the
science before he finished.

It was now Tuesday. The great day was to be Friday, when on account
of the attractive program laid out, it was believed there would be a
greater crowd present in Bloomsbury than at any other time during Old
Home Week.

By degrees the Bird boys had succeeded in mastering their machine, so
that now even Andy could run it successfully. He was proud of the fact,
and yet it might be noticed that he did not go around boasting.

Truth to tell, Andy had serious thoughts these days. In his mind he
was perhaps picturing the time when he hoped to be able to scour the
country down in that tangled wilderness of the isthmus, where his
father’s balloon had vanished from the sight of mortal man. It was a
solemn duty with Andy, and while he said very little about it, even to
his chum, Frank could tell pretty well what was engrossing his thoughts.

On this afternoon the breeze had died out altogether, as is often the
case in July. Although it was pretty hot, still the day was an ideal
one for flying.

They had been working on the monoplane most of the morning, installing
a searchlight, arranging a barometer close to the thermometer, so that
the pilot could observe the action of the mercury without turning his
head, and even fixing a new barograph in place. This last instrument
Frank had sent for lately and was much interested in.

“Pretty soon we’ll want to know how high we are flying, and this will
register the top notch,” he said, as they examined the instrument with
interest.

“Makes me think of the self-registering thermometers I’ve seen,”
declared Andy. “You put one out over night and the mercury pushes down
to a certain degree, which is marked as the limit. Then you can look at
it any old time and know, after which you set the register again for
another shy.”

“Well,” said Frank, “this does its work on the same principle, in
that it registers the highest point reached. When there is a contest
on for height, I believe these registers are placed so there can be no
tampering with them, and afterwards they are taken in charge by the
committee and examined.”

“Say, why not take advantage of this afternoon to make a little trip
over in the direction of Old Thunder Top?” suggested Andy, eagerly.

Frank shook his head as he remarked:

“You forget that one of the conditions of entry to that race is that
each contestant agreed not to go within a quarter of a mile of the
mountaintop before the time set for the trial. The idea is that the one
who succeeds may be the actual first person known to have ever set foot
on the summit of the mountain.”

“Oh, shucks! I haven’t forgotten that!” exclaimed Andy, impatiently.
“But we’ve stuck to our old field here, rising and circling, till I’m
sick of seeing it. To tell the truth, I hunger and thirst for new
pastures. There’s nothing to hinder us from taking a lively spin of
twenty miles, if we want, so long as we keep away from that plateau up
yonder. Say yes, Frank!”

Of course the idea appealed to his cousin with equal force and he
could not resist Andy’s plea.

“All right, then. I suppose it would be a good idea to take a little
spin somewhere,” he said. “We’ve mastered the machine pretty well for
novices.”

“Yes,” continued Andy, with a sly grin, “and it ain’t any harder off
there in the forest, in case we fall from five hundred feet, than here
in the open. Fact is, we might have a better chance by lighting in the
branches of a big oak or a chestnut.”

“Well, let’s get ready to make the venture,” said Frank, rising to
his feet; “but I hope all the same that we may not have to try that
drop you joke about. One thing we can do is to climb up so as to get a
line on how high Old Thunder Top really is. There’s always been a hot
dispute about that, you know.”

“That’s so,” observed the other, scurrying around in search of things.
“I’ve heard a high school teacher say it was not over seven hundred
feet, as distance was so deceptive. And on the other hand, a surveyor
who was used to judging distance told me he felt sure it would go much
beyond a thousand feet. Now we’ll get a line on it, and the day of the
race the facts will be known to a dead certainty.”

In a short time both air boys were ready for the flight.

“Put on your coat, Andy,” advised Frank, on seeing that his chum was
about to take his place in his shirt sleeves. “While it’s oppressively
hot down here, don’t you know that five hundred feet up the air will be
chilly. And if we are moving at the rate of a mile a minute, you’ll be
wishing you had your sweater on, mark my words.”

Andy smiled, but all the same he donned his coat. Frank knew, for there
was precious little that escaped him. And Andy, as a rule, was quite
satisfied to take pattern by his wide-awake cousin.

There were a few fellows hanging around. It was holiday time and on
such a hot day they cared precious little for baseball or any other
sport requiring exertion. In their minds it was much finer watching
what the Bird boys would do next, for by now all of juvenile Bloomsbury
had been seized with a severe attack of what Andy called “aviatus,” and
numerous projects for building aircraft were being discussed in homes
and on the commons.

As usual there was a whoop of pure delight from the gathered boys
when the little monoplane started upward. None of them had been
taken into the secret of what new stunts were to be undertaken, but
they anticipated that Frank and Andy must have something up their
sleeves--they looked so mysterious after that conference.

The aeroplane rose with not the slightest hitch. They were getting so
accustomed to handling the machine by now that it seemed second nature
to accomplish a successful rise. Indeed, as yet there had not been the
slightest serious accident to alarm them, since the engine was cut off
so suddenly on that first day.

After circling the field a few times at furious speed, “just to get his
hand in,” as Frank said, the pilot turned the nose of the little flier
straightaway in an easterly direction.

To their ears was borne the faint whoops from the cluster of envious
boys left on the aviation field, as they realized what sort of new
program the young aviators had on tap.

“How high are we now?” asked Andy, as he craned his neck and looked
down upon the country that lay far below, and which was spread out for
miles in all directions around them.

Frank laughed.

“Why,” said he, “you seem to forget that it isn’t necessary any longer
to depend on guesswork, when you’ve got that hunky little barograph
almost under your nose. Suppose you just take a squint and inform me.”

“Sure, pop!” exclaimed Andy, radiantly. “I had just forgotten all about
that new contrivance. Hey! what d’ye think Frank, we’re sailing along
right now about seven hundred feet up. Phew! that’s going some for new
beginners, eh?”

“It’s fine. I don’t think we’d better go any further just now, but drop
down to within a couple of hundred, and see how the lake and the woods
look up this way.”

“But before you begin to go down, Frank, I want you to take a squint
over toward Old Thunder Top. Just notice, will you, that while we’re
now up seven hundred, that summit is still higher--several hundred
feet, I reckon.”

“Which shows how little that teacher knew,” Frank observed. “Why, we’ve
been up to the foot of that big cliff many a time and if we’d only had
this little business along we’d soon found out that it was close on a
thousand there. Now sit close, for I’m going to spiral down a bit.”

They began to move around in circles in dropping, as the engine was
throttled down. By now Frank had this little trick down to a science,
though he refused to try and show off at any time and thus take
unnecessary risks.

When the aeroplane had reached a level of about two hundred feet from
the earth, the engine was once more accelerated and they resumed their
steady onward progress.

“It’s sure a treat to look down on the lake like this. Beats the view
from up on the side of the mountain all hollow,” presently remarked
Andy.

“Why, yes,” said his companion, as he swerved just a trifle to follow
the contour of the water lying below; “because in this way we can see
the shore line all around.”

“And now, as we’re at the head of the lake, which way shall we return,
Frank?”

“Let’s veer off and cover a few miles of country beyond the mountain,”
the pilot ventured. “It’s wild up here and as a rule none of us know
much about it. Look at the woods, how thick they are, with only a
little opening here and there. I remember once how we came up here to
camp and the snakes were so bad we soon tired of it.”

“That’s so!” Andy exploded. “I hate snakes worse than I do skunks.
Looky here! if that ain’t our old friend Baldy, skating around to
take a squint at the new-fangled bird that’s invaded his exclusive
territory. Hey! won’t he be surprised, though, when we land up there
on Old Thunder Top Friday? Perhaps the old chap may tackle us; we’d
better take a gun along to be prepared.”

But Frank laughed at the idea.

“That would hardly be according to the rules of the race. If we want to
make fast time we don’t want to load ourselves down with all sorts of
traps, Andy.”

“I guess you’re on,” the other remarked. “But say, this country is
pretty rough, all right. I was just thinking what a splendid thing an
aeroplane must be in wartimes. A fellow could soar over the enemy and
learn everything that was going on. I can see a big change in our ways
of fighting when the next war comes along.”

“Oh!”

“What ails you, Frank?” demanded Andy, as he heard his companion give
vent to this exclamation, for naturally his nerves were all on edge
with excitement.

“I saw something just then, that’s all. When you look down don’t bend
over and give the fact away that you’re looking. We’re just passing
over a little opening in the dense woods. I remember that it is close
to that old dilapidated cabin we found when camping up here. Used to be
occupied by charcoal burners once on a time. They had a scrap and one
man was badly hurt, while the other disappeared.”

“Sure, I remember,” said Andy; “but what of that, Frank?”

“Look in that glade and you’ll get a glimpse of two fellows hiding.
They dropped down in the grass at sight of the airship and are watching
us,” said Frank, quickly.

“I declare that’s so; but who are they, and why do you act that way?”
asked the puzzled Andy.

“Now we’ve passed over. Don’t turn your head back for anything,
because, Andy, that was Jules and his pal, the robbers Chief Waller has
been hunting high and low for so long!”




CHAPTER XIX.

HELPING OUT THE CHIEF.


“Wow! that’s some news, Frank!” cried Andy, doubtless thrilled by what
the pilot of the monoplane had just said.

“I’m positive about it,” the other went on. “Of course, it would be
hard to tell a fellow standing up when you were sailing over his head
and two hundred feet high, but in this case these fellows were lying
down. And I saw their faces, too.”

“Well, why not?” remarked his cousin, thoughtfully. “We’ve believed all
along they must be hiding out somewhere in the woods. And Frank, what
better place could they find than that old cabin? It’s lonely enough,
goodness knows. And there are farms not more than two miles away, where
they might forage for chickens, eggs and such things.”

“Just what they’re doing, I guess,” remarked Frank.

“And say, didn’t I just hit it right when I remarked about the value of
aeroplanes in wartime?” observed the passenger, with a self-satisfied
chuckle.

“You certainly did; but then, that has been recognized as a fact for
some time now. They’re even using flying machines down on the Mexican
border to locate the doings of the hostile forces. Our government has a
regular aeroplane corps, you know, Andy. And after this no nation dare
go without, for that would be putting them at a terrible disadvantage.”

“And so those rascals have been bunking in that old cabin all this
time?” mused Andy. “Like as not they went there right after missing our
airship that night. But if they’re hanging around here, Frank, don’t
you think they mean to make another try for this craft? Some fine night
they’ll break in again and give us a scare for our money.”

“Well,” said Frank, quietly, “you know since that time I’ve never
failed to fix it every night so that the engine could not be run. It’s
easy as falling off a log to hide some important little part and render
the whole thing useless. But now that we’ve got a hunch about their
hiding place, we must let Chief Waller know. He can come up here this
very night and grab the precious pair.”

“I agree with you,” Andy hastened to say. “To tell the honest truth,
Pard Frank, I’ll never be easy till Jules and Jean are safely in the
cooler. I’m afraid they’ve got it in for a couple of fellows I know.
And if they crept in on us some night they’d just _make_ you tell
where you had put that missing part of the engine, even if they had to
torture us. I know the breed. They’re a cruel, cold-blooded lot, and I
want to see ’em caged!”

“Oh, well,” Frank continued, “it’ll be up to the chief. Unless he makes
a foozle of the whole business he ought to gather them in easy. But
let’s turn now.”

“Are you going back the same way?” asked the other, burning with
eagerness.

“I think not, Andy. That might make them suspect we had glimpsed
something and were coming to make sure. We’d better fight shy of that
glade and take a wide sweep around. Besides, it’s a farming country
over yonder and worth looking down at.”

“Yes,” said his cousin, quickly, “and it’s sure a sight to see the
rustics breaking their blessed necks looking up. Everybody runs out of
the house like it was afire. I only hope we don’t come across such a
fool as one I read about the other day.”

“Why, what did he do?” queried Frank.

“Hanged if he didn’t blaze away with a shotgun at a poor aviator. Lucky
the man happened to be up too high, or he’d have been filled full of
bird shot. There’s no telling what some of these jay fools might do.
They think it’s a big hawk, perhaps one of those giant roc birds old
Sindbad the Sailor used to ride on. But look down, Frank; there’s the
first farm. See the men in the field shaking their fists at us! Now,
what in the dickens are they doing that for, d’ye suppose?”

Frank laughed as he replied:

“I’ve an idea that perhaps they’ve been missing poultry of late and
take it for granted we’re the up-to-date thieves. They believe anything
bad of people who ride in automobiles or fly in new-fangled airships,
you know.”

“Oh, you mean that Jules and his pal have been doing their little stunt
around here?” said Andy, jumping at conclusions. “And now we’ve got to
shoulder the blame of that bad business? Well, it’s one consolation,
then, that after the pair have been jugged we can drop down and tell
this family all about it. I’d like to clear my skirts of any such nasty
reputation.”

Frank gradually veered the course until they were heading for the home
field.

“All told,” he said, “I think our little excursion was a success.”

“A howling success,” grinned Andy; “especially the last part, where the
farmer and his family gave us a tongue lashing which was all a jumble
to us.”

“By the way, I don’t think we’d better say anything about those two
men while the boys are around. A little later, Andy, we can get on our
wheels and take a spin to town, where we will tell the chief all about
it.”

“Just as you say,” returned Andy. “I was thinking myself that one of
the boys might happen to leak and some friend of the fellows get wind
of it. Then he’d warn them and the police would have all their trouble
for their pains. But you really do believe they’re camping out in the
old Badger shack, don’t you?”

“Looks like it,” was all Frank would say.

Presently they came in sight of the field and the hangar. The boys were
still on deck to receive them and ask a myriad of questions.

“There goes the biplane off,” remarked Andy, as they started to wheel
their little airship back into its snug quarters, after Frank had
closely examined every part, machinery and framework, to make sure it
was in “apple-pie” trim.

“Yes,” returned his cousin, pausing to look, “and they’re going to take
something of the same trip we made. Puss evidently don’t want the Bird
boys to get ahead of him, if he can help it. And I must say he’s doing
far better handling that biplane of his than I ever dreamed he could.”

Ten minutes later they fastened the doors of the shed.

“Elephant says he’ll hang around while we go to town,” remarked Andy,
who did not want to miss the treat of seeing the pompous chief, when
he learned that after all his labor in trying to locate the hiding
rascals it was the two Bird boys who had found out where they were in
concealment.

“That’s all right,” Frank went on. “I was a trifle uneasy about leaving
things alone here, though, of course, it’s ridiculous to think any harm
could come to the shed in broad daylight.”

“Well,” remarked the doubting Andy, “there’s a crowd that has little
use for us, you know, and some of them are thick with Sandy and Puss.
I feel dead sure there are one or two among the lot so low down, that
if they had the chance they’d just like to throw a lighted match in our
shed and watch things burn from the woods over yonder. I hate to say
it, but that’s a fact.”

“Well, I’m not disputing you, because I’ve known them to do some mighty
mean things myself. But get your wheel, Andy. I’m glad now you brought
mine over yesterday when you dropped in to carry my message to father.
He thinks it just the boss thing for me to be sleeping outdoors every
night. You know his fad, though; and it’s pie for me.”

It took them but a short time to arrive in the heart of the town.
Dropping off at police headquarters they entered the building. The
chief was there luckily, and at sight of the Bird boys he showed sudden
signs of interest. Somehow, people had of late awakened to the fact
that things were generally moving when Frank and Andy were around.
There was “something doing,” so to speak. And so people began to expect
more or less of them.

“Glad to see you, boys,” said Chief Waller, unbending his dignity
enough to extend a hand to each and even smile. “Dropped in to have a
talk about those clever rascals who tried to do you out of your new
aeroplane? Sorry I can’t say they’re in the cooler. My men have several
clues they’re running down, and we hope to be able to report something
soon.”

It was always “something doing soon” with the chief. He had a way of
forever being on the point of making a grand coup, but singular to
relate, no one could remember of past successes that had rewarded his
vigilance. Still, he was useful in his way and had a pull with the town
fathers that kept him his job year after year.

“Oh!” burst out the impulsive Andy, “we just dropped in to say that we
believe we know where those bad men are hiding!”

“Have chairs,” exclaimed the chief. “Sit down and tell me all about it,
please.”

“Why,” Andy went on, Frank having motioned to him to do the talking,
“this afternoon, as we were taking a spin in our aeroplane, we happened
to pass over the woods up near that old Badger shack, and we saw two
men lying down in the grass, trying to hide so we wouldn’t notice ’em.
It was Jules and Jean, as sure as shooting, and we believe they’re
camping in that cabin!”

The police head showed signs of sudden animation.

“Why, boys,” he said, slapping his hand down on his knee, “would you
believe it, now. I was just thinking of that old shack when you came
in. See, here’s a chart of the whole county and that’s one of the
places I had my eye on. But all the same, I’m real glad you came to
tell me, boys. Now I’ll feel positive and we can surround the place.
Would you like to go along with us tonight, Frank?”

But Frank shook his head in the negative as he replied:

“Thanks, but I guess we’ve got all the work cut out for us we can
handle, chief. We believed you’d want to keep it a secret, for fear
that they had some friends in town who might carry a warning. But we’ll
move on now. Hope you have success and make a haul. Come on, Andy,
let’s get back home!”




CHAPTER XX.

THE AEROPLANE RACE.


“Frank, we’re in great luck!”

“I think so myself, Andy,” replied the taller of the cousins, as he
coolly bent down to adjust some little thing about the engine of the
monoplane.

“Here it’s past noon on the great day! Six thousand good people have
gathered on the field here and on the neighboring fences just to see
us fly, and there isn’t a mite of wind. I say it’s the greatest luck
ever,” and Andy, who was bubbling all over with enthusiasm, turned to
look around at the vast throngs.

The two aeroplanes had been taken to the field where the sports of the
wonderful Old Home Week at Bloomsbury were being carried out.

All through the morning there had been foot racing, athletic games,
and a host of similar amusements that gave the people many thrills and
made them glad that they were in the home town at such a time. But
the greatest event of the whole week was scheduled for that afternoon
at two, when, wind and weather permitting, two home-manufactured
aeroplanes, piloted by boys of Bloomsbury, expected to compete for a
silver cup, supposed to have been offered by the committee, but which
we happen to know had been purchased by genial old Colonel Josiah
Whympers, guardian of our hero, Andy Bird.

The conditions of the race were well understood. They had even been
printed, so that no one might rest in ignorance concerning their nature.

Both aeroplanes were to be started at the same time, so there would be
no advantage on either side. Then the first to successfully land on the
summit of Old Thunder Top mountain and plant an American flag where
the foot of man had, up to now, never touched, was to be declared the
winner.

There was to be no jockeying or trickery. The committee, again inspired
by the colonel, who understood the ways of boys and especially of the
Puss Carberry stripe, had made it plain that any attempt to interfere,
outside of an accident, would disqualify the guilty party from
receiving the fine prize.

Of course, there were few among the vast throng who had ever set eyes
on an airship, save as they may have seen either of the contestants
flying about Bloomsbury while trying out their machines.

The enthusiasm was intense. Everywhere people gathered in clusters to
compare notes. Of course, there were adherents of both contestants.
Sometimes this came through personal feeling, each pilot having his
circle of champions among the boys of the town, although four out of
five favored Frank, on account of his fine, manly disposition.

Nevertheless, there were many who believed that a biplane could easily
outdistance a monoplane in a race, and it was laughable to hear these
people, who were in reality so densely ignorant on the subject,
standing up staunchly for what they believed to be the better type of
air flier.

A rope had been stretched around the space where the two aeroplanes
rested and no one was allowed within this enclosure, unless at the
wish of the contestants. Chief Waller had all his force on the ground
and a number of temporary policemen had been taken on for the week of
hilarity, so that the crowds were handled fairly well.

At a quarter to two the people were to be pressed back all along the
line, for when the word was given the contesting air craft would
require a certain space in which to flash over the field before taking
wings and soaring aloft.

No wonder Andy trembled with excitement as he gazed upon the sea of
upturned and expectant faces that centered on the enclosure as the
time drew near for the start.

“It’s only wanting ten minutes now, Frank!” he remarked, trying to keep
his voice steady.

“Brace up, Andy,” said the other, with a frown. “You mustn’t allow
yourself to get in that shape. Remember all you’ve learned and how you
managed to keep your head cool yesterday in a trying time. Make up your
mind we’re just going to get up on that old mountain before the other
fellows have a chance to beat us. There’s Puss, just as excited as you,
but he never shows it. Don’t let them see that you are trembling all
over. It weakens our chances!”

Somehow it seemed to give Andy’s heart a new impetus to know that he
was not the only one who was in a quake.

“All right, Frank, I’ll be in trim once we get a decent start. But I’m
in a funk now for fear something will go wrong with the glide-off.
If they get a start of us we’re going to be in the soup!” he said,
anxiously.

“Oh, rats! Don’t you know they’re just as possible to have trouble in
making the start as we are? Just make up your mind both of us are going
to get away as neatly as we usually do, and that the race is going to
be to the swift.”

“But I’ve heard lots of people sing the praises of that Gnome engine
they’ve got in the biplane. It does its work with a rush!” observed
Andy.

“All right. We simply believe we’ve got a much better one in the new
and light little Kinkaid. And we’re just going to prove it!” continued
Frank, positively.

“Well, it hasn’t failed us even once so far, for a fact,” admitted
Andy; “and I guess I’m a fool for doubting it now. I’m hoping that
later on that same motor will be buzzing away down in a country where
there won’t be any crowd to watch how we get along. Five minutes now,
Frank!”

“Get in your place then and be ready. Seconds may count with us and
we don’t ever want to be caught unprepared!” said the pilot of the
monoplane, as he cast a last look over everything that would have to do
with the success or failure of the flight.

That was always Frank Bird’s slogan--_be prepared_! He hit the nail on
the head when he declared that readiness was almost half the battle.
That was what won the war for Germany, when France started operations
so suddenly away back in 1870. The army north of the Rhine was a vast
machine and every single member of it knew just what was expected of
him when the time came!

So wise Frank had carefully sized up the present situation. He had
mapped out in his mind just what sort of emergencies were liable to
occur in a race of this kind, and settled in advance how he could best
meet, and grapple with them in case of need.

He knew just how the wind was apt to strike them after they had risen
to a certain height, and also what sort of clever maneuvers would best
counteract the effect of a head breeze, that must increase as they
neared the mountain crest.

On the other hand, Puss Carberry never bothered his head about such
trifles. He expected the superior speeding capacity of his big biplane
to carry him to victory, regardless of anything his rival might attempt
in the way of aerial strategy.

Possibly, ere the competition came to a close, Puss might have learned
a lesson he would not be apt to soon forget--that often these same
trifles may win or lose a battle, whether on the field of war, or in an
aeroplane competition for a prize.

The five minutes was gradually growing less, and of course the
excitement increased in consequence, until it was at fever heat. Heads
were craned, and people pushed hither and thither, seeking new points
of advantage. For while they readily understood that both airships
could be easily watched, once they rose from the ground, everybody
wanted to witness with their own eyes the curious and interesting dash
along the field that would be a necessary forerunner of the flight.

All sorts of instruments had been fetched along, which might prove
useful when the contestants were nearing the summit of Old Thunder Top.
Here a lady had a pair of pearl-mounted opera glasses, that perhaps had
once been leveled at a Patti, perhaps dating back even to a Jenny Lind.
Beside her would be a farmer, who had a telescope of brass, one of
the ancient kind used on board ships many decades back, and which was
undoubtedly an heirloom in his family.

Then there were numerous up-to-date field and marine glasses; while
others depended on their clear eyesight to tell them which aeroplane
touched first the up-to-now never explored crown of the grim old
mountain, with its range of cliffs rebuffing would-be climbers.

Two minutes more!

A great hush had fallen on the throng. Every eye doubtless was glued on
the little enclosure, and the two distinct groups collected about the
rival air craft.

The master of ceremonies had assumed charge. He warned both contestants
once more to play the game fairly, telling them that the danger was
great enough without either taking unnecessary risks in making a foul.

Signals had been arranged whereby the discharge of cannon were to serve
as a warning against interference. One shot would direct Frank to
steer clear, while a double report meant that the biplane was cutting
dangerously across the path of its rival, and must sheer off under
penalty of being disqualified.

They knew Puss in Bloomsbury. His reputation as a lover of clean sport
was none too good. There were many who anticipated that if he saw that
his chances in the race were practically hopeless, Puss Carberry would
not hesitate to do some mean trick, and stoutly claim that it was
an accident--that his steering apparatus had fouled, causing him to
collide with the slighter monoplane.

Of course this was a most foolhardy thing to dream of doing, since
a foul in midair might not only send his rivals down to death, but
imperil his own life. And yet there were those among his own chums who
winked knowingly as they talked over things in low voices, and assured
each other that Puss was bound to win, or know the reason why.

Frank had his own private opinion on this subject. He had long made
Puss Carberry a study, and believed he had the other pretty well sized
up. He was a peculiar combination of a boy, bold at times almost to
rashness; and again cautious beyond imagination. And Frank knew that
there was constant war within him between the good and the bad, though
on nearly all occasions the latter predominated.

He had made up his mind that Puss was too shrewd to risk such a thing
as a collision in midair. If he attempted any of his customary dirty
work it would come in an altogether different way.

All who were not to have a part in the starting of the aeroplanes had
been pressed beyond the ropes. To have no advantage on either side,
and make the start exactly fair, a certain number had been limited as
assistants.

“Are you ready for the start?”

It was the master of ceremonies who called this out in a loud voice.

“Silence! silence!” went from lip to lip; and several groups of
giggling girls felt the rebuke enough to subside.

“Ready!” called out Frank, promptly, while Andy took a big breath, and
gripped the upright beside him nervously.

Both of them had their eyes on the course in front. Frank saw that it
was practically clear of people, so that the chances of any trouble
were reduced to a minimum. He was glad of this, because if the
contestants were recalled to try for another start the strain would be
almost unbearable.

He heard Puss answer “all ready, Judge,” after a trifling delay, as
though he might have thought of some slight change at the very last
second.

Then came a brief period of suspense. Perhaps it was only a few
seconds, while the starter glanced to right and left to make sure that
everything was as it should be, and the track clear. But to poor Andy
it seemed as though the delays were interminable, and that an hour must
have elapsed.

He was impelled to turn his head, and see what the Judge could be
doing; but remembering the positive instructions given by his cousin,
he resolutely shut his jaws, and refrained.

Would the signal never come? Those who were to assist in launching the
aerial craft had assumed an attitude of expectancy. Their muscles were
set, and they stood ready to give the initial push as the propellers
started whirling.

Suddenly the loud voice of the starter rang out, sharp and clear:

“_Then go!_”




CHAPTER XXI.

HEADED FOR THE SUMMIT OF OLD THUNDER TOP.


Instantly, as it seemed, there were loud exclamations, accompanied by
all signs of bustle and excitement. The engines began to snap, and both
aeroplanes started down the slight descent, which had been selected as
best suited for their initial forward movement.

Whether the boys who handled the biplane were more alert, or it was
really true that they started a fraction of a second before the signal
was given, as some afterward affirmed--no matter, the one result was
that Puss and Sandy left the ground just a trifle in advance of their
competitors.

Perhaps this trifling advantage might prove of great benefit to them
ere the end of the race came--no one dared prophesy just then.

But now both airships were rapidly rising, and heading in almost a
direct line for the distant mountain. A roar of shouts arose from all
over the wide territory, where thousands of intensely interested people
clustered. Hats and handkerchiefs were wildly waved in the air, and
some of the more enthusiastic boys threw their head gear as high as
they could.

There was no answer from either of the whizzing air craft. Those who
navigated the upper regions of space had learned long before now that
under no circumstances must they allow their attention to be diverted
for even a second from the business in hand.

Even Andy had his duties to perform. Frank had exercised his inventive
genius, and arranged some sort of pendulum contrivance underneath
the body of the monoplane, that in a measure did away with the dizzy
rolling motion of which his companion had formerly complained. It had
been tested on the preceding day, and appeared to work well; so that
Andy was now able to attend strictly to business, and not spend most of
his time trying to keep an equilibrium.

The biplane had kept on rising, even after Frank brought his craft on
an even keel. He wondered what the meaning of this movement could be.
At the moment all he could think of was that Puss believed he would be
able to make better direct time if he kept just fifty feet above the
line of flight adopted by his rival.

The shouts became dimmer as they left the aviation field further
in their wake. Still they knew that every eye was focused on their
movements, and hundreds of glasses brought into use to note every
little movement of the two rival craft.

Frank seemed just as calm and collected as though he had been going
off on an ordinary little trip, to give the engine a warming-up. From
where he sat he could watch the working of the wonderful little Kinkaid
engine; for in a monoplane it is always secured before the pilot. Some
aviators incline to call this an advantage, because with a biplane the
engine must of necessity be back of the navigator.

He and Andy could converse without trouble, should the spirit move
them. True, with the little engine doing its liveliest, and the muffler
not throttled in the least, there arose a necessity for raising the
voice a trifle in order to be heard even a foot away; but Andy had good
lungs.

“Frank, they’re holding the advantage!” he exclaimed, when they had
been moving along for another minute, and heading almost straight for
the summit of the high mountain.

Looking down, Andy could see the trees of the forest far below. A
thousand feet, yes, possibly twelve hundred, they had risen without
making use of the usual method of “boring” for altitude. It was really
higher than as yet they had dared venture. Still, strange to say, Andy
did not feel the least particle of fear in connection with any possible
tumble.

His anxiety was concentrated upon the chances of the biplane leading
them all the way along the journey, just as though it were a
procession, and Puss the grand marshal.

“I know it,” replied Frank, without showing any concern.

“But we must break into their pace better than this, if we hope to
win!” declared Andy, who had taken a look upward, to see the grinning
face of Sandy Hollingshead turned down toward them, just as though he
already scented victory in the air.

“Don’t you worry, Andy!” Frank simply said.

“Are you holding back anything?” demanded the other, eagerly.

“A little. We can do better. Just wait, and trust me!”

Andy breathed more easily. When Frank spoke like that it always gave
him a new lease on hope. That came of knowing his cousin so well, and
having such perfect confidence in his sterling abilities. When Frank
Bird said “Have faith, and trust me to pull through,” Andy was ready to
believe almost anything could happen.

So he once more turned his eyes on the cap of the great mountain which
they were approaching at a rapid rate.

Old Thunder Top was indeed an imposing spectacle as seen from a level.
Of course, in the eyes of real mountaineers, the elevation would have
been a trifle, and they might have spoken of it as a mere “foothill”;
but to all loyal Bloomsbury boys it was always referred to with
respect, as the “Mountain”! Perhaps the fact of those queer cliffs
preventing any one from reaching the summit added to the admiration
with which it was gazed upon. Had the boys been accustomed to
picnicking upon that top whenever they pleased, it must have lost much
of its grandeur.

Frank had judged wisely.

“We are on a direct line with the top, don’t you think?” he asked
presently.

“As near as I can say, we are,” replied the other, as the monoplane
veered just a trifle when a gust of wind, coming from beyond the peak,
met her, and Frank manipulated his aerial steed after a clever fashion
he had inaugurated.

“If anything, a little higher,” continued Frank.

“Yes, that’s a fact,” assented Andy, with another keen look.

“That’s what I wanted. Sure you’ve got that flag handy, are you?” went
on the pilot of the speeding monoplane.

“Just you get there, and you’ll see how soon I jump out and wave it!”
declared Andy, with a vim.

Frank looked up.

The biplane still led, though by a narrow margin. At the same time, if
the relative distance were maintained to the close of the race, Puss
and Sandy would be able to land on the level plateau of the mountain
top a few seconds before them, and that would win out.

And Frank had now to decide in his active mind whether the vital second
had not arrived when he meant to release the little extra speed he had
been so jealously husbanding ever since they started.

He believed that Puss had opened his throttle to its widest extent from
the beginning, and would not have any reserve force left. Knowing the
reckless nature of his rival gave him this idea. If it proved true,
there was nothing to be feared, and they could outdistance the biplane
without difficulty.

The mountain top was now near enough for them to see the formation of
the rock. It was a matter of considerable moment whether there was
a level space large enough to allow of a landing in safety; for an
aeroplane cannot stop in twenty feet of clear ground when going at
speed.

The sun was now starting down its western journey, and unfortunately it
interfered to some extent with a clear view. Frank had even thought of
this. It was of tremendous importance to him that he knew just what he
had to expect when he attempted to land on top of that pile of rock;
and in order to assist his eyesight he had fastened a pair of good
field glasses, so that he could glue his eyes to them for a couple of
seconds, while the monoplane was shooting along in a direct course.

The result satisfied him that his little scheme had paid, for he made a
mental photograph of the plateau, and noted just which side offered the
better advantage in the way of a landing place.

But now the decisive second was at hand when he must release his little
reserve speed, and send the monoplane on a trifle faster.

Much depended on the result. If Puss had been wise enough to do the
same thing he would be able to retain the advantage which he now
possessed, perhaps even add to the gap between them.

And so it was with more or less trepidation that Frank gave his
throttle its very last push.

“Oh!” exclaimed Andy, who of course felt the little jump which this new
impetus gave the already drumming motor.

Of course the ever watchful Sandy, from his eyrie above, would
immediately discover this maneuver on the part of the rival aeroplane,
and communicate the news to his companion.

What then? Would the pilot of the biplane simply follow suit, and thus
increase the speed of his craft? That would be the logical deduction,
if only Puss had any surplus in reserve.

Andy was on the watch, for that was a part of his business. Having
little else to do, since Frank managed the engine and the tail rudder
entirely, he was expected to discover, and report, everything that
might bear in the least on their chances.

And Andy immediately gave utterance to a low cry of delight. Even had
he not spoken a single word Frank would have known full well that
they were now rapidly closing the little gap that up to now had stood
between the monoplane and its larger rival.

“We’re going to run past them, Frank!” exclaimed Andy, doubtless
quivering with concentrated nervousness and delight. “Already we’ve
cut their lead down by half! Oh! don’t poor old Sandy looked scared
now! We’ve got them on the run, Frank, as sure as you live!”

But Frank made no answer. Perhaps a slight smile, as of pleasure, may
have crossed his set face. Only too well did he know that when Puss
Carberry was concerned, a fellow could never be positive of having won
until the line were actually crossed; and even then it was his favorite
stunt to claim “foul!”

To tell the truth, Frank would be very much easier in his mind when
once they were clear of that hovering biplane, whose Gnome engine
was banging away just above them as though scores of guns were being
discharged in rapid succession.

The suspicion that had flashed athwart his mind earlier in the race now
returned in double force; he feared lest those reckless rivals, ready
to take the most desperate chances rather than confess to defeat, would
attempt one of their customary mean tricks.

That may have been why, in the very beginning, Puss had insisted upon
keeping at a higher level than the other aeroplane! It gave him the
privilege of seeing how his rival might be coming on, without craning
his neck. It also opened up an opportunity for something to drop, of
course accidentally, just when the smaller air craft was forging ahead!

Frank drew a long breath. He knew that the crisis of the race was
now upon him. The speed of the biplane had not increased by even a
fraction, which fact proved plainly that Puss had not held anything in
reserve.

Then it looked very much as though Puss and his chum were bound to be
beaten, unless they adopted some underhand tactics, trusting to the
distance, and the little haze encountered at this height, to screen
their despicable action from the eyes of those who looked through all
those glasses.

And Andy too must have feared something of the sort, for he was keeping
his eyes fastened on the biplane, now almost directly overhead. Frank
knew that he must meet the sudden emergency, if one arose, with
quickness, if he meant to prevent a catastrophe. He was resolutely
determined not to slow down, and allow the others to gain a victory
they had not earned; that was not Frank Bird’s way.

“Oh! he’s going to drop something on us, Frank!” cried Andy, suddenly.

“Who is--Sandy?” demanded the other. “Give me a push as it leaves his
hand!”

Andy did not understand, but he was in the habit of minding what Frank
said; and three seconds later he brought his elbow sharply against the
pilot’s side.

Sandy had let go above, allowing the bulky object to fall through
space!




CHAPTER XXII.

WELL WON!


Instantly Frank closed the throttle, and shut off all power!

It was taking a big chance; but there was nothing else to be done. No
matter what it was Sandy had let slip, expecting that it would fall
upon the monoplane, to at least cause consternation, and in some way
lessen the speed of the smaller craft, Frank did not mean that it
should strike them, if he knew it.

Of course their speed instantly slackened; not much, perhaps, but just
enough to allow of a miss in the calculations of the unscrupulous Sandy.

Some object whizzed past, just in advance of the now descending
monoplane. Immediately it went by, Frank, under the belief that the
danger was now over, once more carefully opened the throttle.

Joy! the faithful little Kinkaid answered to the call, and began to
renew its former volleying. Once more they were going along swiftly,
though a bit lower than when the sudden emergency had caused such
prompt work on the part of the wide-awake pilot.

Frank shot a look upward.

The biplane had not diminished its speed an iota all this while. Puss
was attending to his part of the business, leaving all other matters in
the care of his well groomed assistant.

Both of them were leaning forward, staring down and backward at the
monoplane. Even at that distance Frank could see that their faces were
as white as chalk, as though the enormity of what they had done now
burst upon them. Perhaps they may even have felt a spasm of relief at
that moment, because the sand bag which had been dropped had missed its
intended target, thanks to Frank’s ready wit.

Now the monoplane seemed to be pushing forward with more speed than
ever, as if bent on making up for lost time. And Frank was rising, too,
for he knew he must of necessity find himself _above_ the crown of the
mountain, when ready to alight.

“What was that they dropped?” he asked of Andy.

“Looked like a sand bag,” replied the other; “but whatever would they
be doing with such a thing in a biplane?”

“That was what I wanted to know,” replied Frank, “when I saw it tied
there with a cord; and Puss explained that he and Sandy were not quite
heavy enough. Said their experiments had proved the biplane could make
faster time with a little more weight!”

“He just lied!” burst out the indignant Andy. “A hundred to one they
took that sand bag up with them on purpose to drop it on us if we tried
to pass. And look how he kept hovering up there. That gives him away, I
tell you!”

“Perhaps he got the idea from hearing how that other sand bag came down
on our lumber pile, nearly squashing us while we slept!” observed Frank.

“Well, he only had one, didn’t he?” questioned Andy, showing
considerable nervousness; for they were now once more directly under
the biplane.

“Only one, so the trick can’t be duplicated,” answered Frank,
confidently.

“I wouldn’t put it past that sneak Sandy, to let a monkey wrench drop
on us, if he could lay hands on one,” cried Andy; and then raising his
voice he shouted: “Hey! don’t you dare try that trick again! Accidents
don’t happen twice in succession; and they’ll hang you for murder if
anything knocks us out. They can see everything that goes on up here!”

Possibly this was stretching it pretty lively; but all the same Andy
meant to frighten Sandy, so that he would not dream of following up a
blunder by a second miserable attempt.

“It’s too late, anyhow!” said Frank, with a vibration in his voice that
might be caused by anticipated triumph.

“Yes, we’re passing them, as sure as you live! Look at the poor old
biplane dropping out of the race, Frank! Why, it might just as well
stand still as try to keep up with this dandy little airship, once you
pull the throttle wide open! We’ve got ’em beat to a frazzle, I tell
you! Goodbye, fellows. We’ll wait for you on top of old Blitzen and
Thunder! Sorry, but somebody’s got to eat the drumsticks of the turkey!”

Andy was feeling immensely relieved. The monoplane no longer ranged
under its larger opponent. Superior speed, backed by careful
management, had given them the lead. And as Andy declared, it looked
as though the race might end in a real Garrison finish, the one behind
shooting to the front when on the home stretch.

No matter what they would have liked to do, Puss and Sandy were now
helpless to hinder the triumphal arrival of their rivals on top of the
mountain. Everything depended on the success that might attend Frank,
when making his drop. Should he make a bad job of it, and shoot beyond
the other edge of the plateau, possibly after all the others might be
the first to land. It was their only hope.

Frank knew what he had before him. He was keenly alive to the chances
of making a poor landing. And like a wise general he had anticipated
all such things before now, even practicing stopping within a certain
limited space when going at full speed.

“We’re high enough, all right, Frank!” cried Andy reassuringly, as
they swooped down toward the top of the ominous cliffs that had always
barred their gaining lodgment on the crown of Old Thunder Top.

“Yes, no doubt about that, Andy,” returned the other, confidently.
“Now, be ready for your part. Remember, not to blunder, or we may lose
out yet. They are coming hotfooted after us, you know!”

“I’ll remember. You can trust me, Frank!”

Really, Andy was showing commendable grit and steadiness as the
termination of the fierce race through the upper currents of the air
drew nearer and nearer its termination. There was hope that in time he
might conquer that nervousness of his, and play his part as a worthy
successor to his famous father, the professor.

Like a great bird they sailed straight for the plateau marking the
flat top of the elevation. Frank could even see the nest of sticks and
grass that marked the home of the two great kings of the air, the bald
eagles, now circling around overhead, and evidently greatly excited at
the coming of these astonishing creatures, with their loud crackling
voices.

“Say, you don’t think they’ll tackle us, and knock us off the rocks?”
cried Andy, who had also been taking notice of the wheeling birds, now
swooping down, and anon rising higher on outspread pinions.

“Keep an eye on ’em!” was all Frank could say; for just then they were
close to the outer edge of the plateau, and his entire attention had to
be focused upon what was before him, since one little misjudgment might
bring about the ruination of his plans, however admirably fashioned.

Andy had already clutched the little pole to which the National
emblem was fastened, so that not a second might be lost in giving it
to the breeze, once his feet touched the plateau. But his anxiety
was sufficient to cause him to reach to the tool box, and extract a
rather long alligator-jaw wrench, which he had in his mind as the most
suitable weapon of defense, in case of an emergency, in which one of
those old pirates of the air figured.

Angry shouts came from the rear. Of course it was the very last
despicable little scheme of the baffled plotters, by which they hoped
to disconcert Frank enough to cause him to make a bad landing, so that
they might come swinging along in time to fly the flag first.

But Frank was not built that way. It would have to be something much
greater than a few harmless hoots, to cause him to lose his head,
especially when so very important a result depended on his nice
judgment.

He had calculated to a fraction of a foot just how far above the
plateau the monoplane was situated, so that when he shut off the engine
they would drop lightly just where he figured.

And Andy knew how to apply the drag brake, so as to haul up in a short
distance.

All the same it must have been a moment of extreme anxiety to both of
the daring young aviators. They had victory within their grasp, and in
another few seconds it would be clinched and riveted, when their flag
flew from the crown of the now conquered Old Thunder Top, that had so
long defied all attempts at mastery.

Just as Frank had figured the monoplane glided down after the engine
was stopped, and touched the rocks as gently as ever he had come to
earth, running along on the three bicycle wheels, jolting over the
rough surface, yet gradually coming to a standstill, as the brake got
in its work.

Indeed, the aeroplane had not actually come to a stop before Andy was
out of his seat, and wildly flaunting the flag that had been given him
by the head of the sports committee. He knew that every eye far away
was riveted on the spot, and that since the biplane was still afloat,
those who had glasses could readily see how the other air craft had
landed first, and hence won the race.

Of course Andy shouted like a young cowboy; he would hardly have been
human not to have found some such outlet for the pent-up emotions that
were threatening to suffocate him.

And naturally enough, those victorious whoops must have been so like
gall and worm-wood to the disheartened pair just about to alight on the
plateau, a quarter of a minute after the victors had taken possession.

Frank knew too that there must be the added consciousness of having
attempted a nasty trick, and failed! There is possibly no meaner
feeling that can overwhelm a boy than to realize that he has tried to
down a rival through trickery, that must have been apparent to many
eyes, and failed.

But Frank’s was a generous nature. Even then he was resolved not to
press the charge against his defeated rivals. No harm had resulted
from the contemptible endeavor to delay or injure them; and doubtless
already Puss must regret that he had ever allowed himself to conspire
with Sandy to carry it out. Surely he could not have realized what a
terrible thing it was they had attempted. Let it go as an accident
then; but all the same Frank was bound to make sure that he did not
again sail the upper currents under any sort of an air craft which
either Puss Carberry or Sandy Hollingshead piloted.

The others managed to alight on the plateau, though their momentum was
enough to have carried them over the other edge had not Frank, who had
left his own machine, laid hold and held the biplane back.

Puss looked white and confused. Sandy, on the other hand, scowled, and
clenched his hands menacingly, as though so sore over his defeat that
he was almost tempted to rush on the cheering bearer of the flag, and
have it out with him there on the very apex of Old Thunder Top.

Possibly the sight of that long alligator-jaw wrench which Andy still
clutched in his right hand may have deterred the belligerent Sandy,
though his face continued to work spasmodically, as though he might be
saying things not at all complimentary to the object of his aversion.

Suddenly Frank gave utterance to a shout. Faintly on the air came the
uproarious cheering of the tremendous throng, away down yonder on the
aviation field, as they saw the humiliation of the once proud Thunder
Top; but it was not in connection with this that Frank gave tongue.

“Look out!” he cried, “the eagle!”

Sandy Hollingshead happened to be the one picked out by the angry bird,
upon whom to first try his claws and beak. The boy turned at Frank’s
cry, and just managed to throw his arm up to screen his face from the
attack. But the heavy bird struck him with tremendous force so that
Sandy was hurled over upon the rocks, and more or less bruised and cut.

Andy ran toward him, bent on defending the prostrate lad from any
further attack on the part of the enraged feathered king of the air.
Then he stopped short, gaped at something that lay there on the rocks,
having fallen undoubtedly from one of Sandy’s coat pockets when he was
sent sprawling; and with a shrill laugh Andy snatched the object up in
his hand.

“Frank, looky here would you! Just think of me finding it up on Old
Thunder Top!”

And Frank stared, as well he might, for his chum was holding up the
missing little aluminum monkey wrench for which he had so long searched
everywhere.




CHAPTER XXIII.

PROVEN GUILTY--CONCLUSION.


“Hurrah! found at last! Didn’t I tell you I’d run it down sooner or
later, Frank? And just to think that this sneak had it all the while;
grabbed it some time when perhaps it fell out of my pocket. It’s the
greatest thing ever! I’m glad I came up here!”

So Andy kept on crying, to the secret amusement of his cousin.
Evidently the other found more real joy in the sudden and unexpected
recovery of his missing monkey wrench, than in the great victory which
the little monoplane had won.

“Look out! There come both of them, Andy! Drop flat!” he yelled, as he
saw the circling eagles start to swoop down again.

Andy just saved himself by following directions, for one of the eagles
barely missed him. Sandy was sitting up, and rubbing the back of his
head, where it had come in contact with the hard rock. He appeared half
dazed, and evidently there was little use demanding any explanation
as to how the precious tool chanced to be in his possession. Truth to
tell, Andy never did find out, and had to jump at conclusions.

The great birds continued to wheel and dart at the intruders, so that
all of the boys were soon engaged in defending themselves.

“They think we mean to rob their nest of the two eaglets you can see
there,” was Frank’s explanation. “Perhaps if we go over to the other
side of the plateau they may haul off, and let us embark again. I
wouldn’t like to hurt them, boys.”

“And I’d kill the whole outfit, if I had my way,” grumbled Sandy, whose
clothes were torn and marked with blood, where the sharp talons of the
furious bird had clawed along his person.

“Oh! well, we’ll leave you here to clean ’em out, if you say so,”
remarked Puss, who was himself anxious to get down from that dizzy
height as soon as possible, and feeling ugly toward all creation, as
fellows who make a bad mess of things usually are.

“Not much you don’t,” said Sandy quickly. “I’m going when you get good
and ready, bet your life on it. Wouldn’t ketch me staying up here
alone. Wow! even if I had a rope long enough to reach down, I’d be
afraid to chance it. Come along, Puss, we ain’t got no call to stay
here any longer. Let’s vamose.”

The biplane was the first to start off, and Frank was a little nervous
as to whether the thing could be successfully navigated in so short a
space. But nothing went wrong, and presently those who manned the other
aeroplane also took their places and made the trial.

The flag had been left fluttering in the breeze, Andy having fixed the
short pole in a crevice of the rocks, where he could wedge it fast.
With the aid of any fairly decent glasses it could be seen from town;
and would doubtless serve to stimulate many boys in the endeavor to
accomplish some similar feat of daring.

The eagles were still soaring in great circles, now rising, and again
swooping down on their broad pinions. Frank even feared that they might
take a notion to strike the strange bird that had dared invade their
eyrie home; but evidently the eagles had come to the wise conclusion
that they need fear nothing from the visit of the two aeroplanes, for
they followed them but a short distance, to return, and perching on a
crag give utterance to what might be called a victorious scream.

“Say, what d’ye think of that?” demanded Andy, laughing as the sound
floated to them while speeding along. “They reckon they’ve licked us,
good and plenty.”

“Well,” said Frank, quickly, “so they have in one sense, for we gave up
the field to them. But looks to me as though Puss and Sandy somehow
don’t want to return to the aviation field. They’re veering off as if
they meant to go home.”

“Humph! guess that’s the best thing they could do anyhow, after what
happened!” grunted Andy.

“Meaning that sand bag they let drop?” remarked his cousin. “If I were
you, Andy, I wouldn’t say anything about that, unless asked. Perhaps it
was an accident, and they didn’t mean to do us any harm.”

“Accident! You know just as well as I do, Frank Bird, that it was
meant, every time,” exploded the impulsive Andy. “It’s just the kind of
dirty trick Puss and his cowardly shadow are always playing on those
they don’t like.”

“Well, could you swear to it?” asked Frank.

“On general principles, yes I could,” answered the other, shaking his
head in an obstinate fashion.

“Then you saw Sandy unfasten the cord, or cut it loose?” Frank went on.

“No--no, I can hardly go as far as that. He seemed to be handling the
bag, and I just guessed what he had in mind,” Andy admitted.

“Well, since we couldn’t prove our assertion it would be better to keep
mum on the subject. They’ll hatch up a story, and swear they were just
going to cast the bag over-board, thinking they might hit up a faster
pace, and didn’t see us below. You ought to know Puss Carberry by this
time; did you ever see him wanting a good excuse for anything he did?
And he can put on such an innocent face, too. Let it drop, Andy. We
won, and can afford to be generous, you know.”

Andy could never stand out against this convincing tone of Frank’s.

“Oh! all right, if you say so, Frank, though I think you’re by long
odds too easy on the skunks. Why, if that bag had struck us in a
certain way, we might be as dead as herrings long before now. Makes me
shiver every time I look down. And after a fall of more than a thousand
feet, a fellow wouldn’t look good at his own funeral. But since you say
forget it, I’ll try to.”

When they hovered over the big field there was a whirlwind of shouts
that must have been pleasant music to these two young victorious air
voyagers returning from their recent exploit.

The next half hour was filled with plenty of excitement all around.
Frank had to guard his precious little monoplane from the crowds of
curious and applauding people who had witnessed their plucky race.

And the silver cup was indeed a beauty, well worth all the effort they
had put into their work. No one was more extravagant in praise than
Colonel Josiah Whympers, who toddled around with crutch and cane,
telling everybody he met what wonderful things Andy and Frank were
going to do some day. While most people were of the opinion that he
“put the cart before the horse” when using those two names in that
fashion, still they could forgive him, because Andy was naturally
everything to the doting old man.

Of course after that it was demanded that the Bird boys give a few
exhibition flights, just to let the gaping crowd see to what an
astonishing degree the modern aviator could guide his novel craft
through the air.

So Frank ascended to a height of nearly fifteen hundred feet, boring
his way upward after a fashion much in vogue among these pilots
who lead the world in aerial navigation; after which he descended
in spirals, being averse to attempting the risky stunt known as
volplaning, until he had learned the ropes better.

But it was all a grand circus for the thousands who viewed these
wonderful feats for the first time. And great was the uproarious
applause that greeted the young aviators after they had landed again.

Before evening came the Bird boys once more went up, and headed for the
home field, tired but satisfied.

Dr. Bird had insisted that Frank come home for the night, since he had
been away so very long now.

“I guess there’s no danger about the monoplane,” Frank remarked, as
they locked the doors, and Andy for the twentieth time drew out his
recovered little monkey wrench to examine it carefully. “You know Chief
Waller nabbed those two men, Jules and Jean, and has them locked up
tight. Besides, now that the race is over, Puss and Sandy will have no
reason to want to injure our machine.”

“Perhaps not,” said Andy, “but Colonel Josiah ain’t going to take any
risks. He told me he had hired a watchman to sleep here in the shed
every night, just as long as we want. I’m going to hang around and wait
for him. I don’t trust Puss or his crony one little bit.”

“Well,” said Frank, as he prepared to depart on his wheel, “we’ve had a
grand day of it, old fellow; and I doubt if we ever see such a great
time again.”

“Just what I was thinking,” replied Andy, half regretfully, as though
he felt badly because all pleasant things must have an end. “There’ll
be no more races for us to win, and things will get mighty humdrum,
unless something turns up shortly.”

Little did either of the Bird boys, fresh from their victory of the
air, dream of the astonishing adventures that were soon to fall to
their portion, beside which those they had experienced, as narrated
between the covers of this book, would appear almost insignificant.
In good time the reader may be taken into our confidence, and allowed
to share in the knowledge of those stirring times that is in our
possession.

A few days later Frank and Andy happened to be among a group of boys
gathered on the campus in front of the high school building. Although
school had long since been dismissed for the summer vacation, still the
boys often congregated here by the famous Bloomsbury school fence, to
talk over things in general, such as interested lads in a country town.

Baseball matters were being discussed, and the possibilities of a
good football season in the Fall. Frank and Andy were not so deeply
interested in these matters as usual though they did not see fit to
tell their friends just why.

Frank had been watching for an opportunity to carry out a little scheme
he had in mind, and which he had talked over with Andy, Elephant Small,
Larry Geohegan, and one or two other good fellows.

“Here he comes, Frank!” said Andy finally, as Puss Carberry and his
eternal shadow, Sandy Hollingshead, were seen approaching from the
direction of town.

Just as they were passing Larry stepped forward.

“I say, Puss, does this belong to you?” and he held out a card--none
other than the one which had been found in the hangar of the monoplane
the day after that trick of cutting the canvas of the planes had been
accomplished.

Puss was for once taken off his guard.

“Why, yes, I believe it does, Larry,” he said, immediately pulling out
a pack of fine cards. “You know I brought these up with me from the
city. See, it has the Indian on the back, and the words ‘Red Hunter.’
I’ll run them over, and see if the jack of spades is missing.”

He did so in an adept manner that told how accustomed he was to
handling such things.

“You see, it is missing,” he said triumphantly, “so I’ll thank you for
returning my black jack to me. Where did you pick it up, Larry?”

“Oh! you’re not indebted to me for its return,” declared Larry, turning
up his nose in disgust. “Frank here found it; he can tell you just
where.”

And Puss grew fairly scarlet, he hardly knew why himself, as he turned
his gaze upon the accusing face on the one whom he had done so much to
injure.

“You dropped it out of your pocket the night you visited our hangar,
and cut the canvas of our monoplane wings to flinders. I have been
saving it for you. Thank you, Puss, for admitting that you were the
author of that dirty trick,” and Frank turned his back on the confused
rogue.

Unable to frame a reply, Puss and his crony walked hastily away. And
before night the whole of Bloomsbury knew of what they had been guilty;
because Larry and Elephant refused to keep it to themselves.

But it was not to be expected that this would cause such fellows as
Puss Carberry or Sandy Hollingshead to see the error of their ways. On
the contrary, it was only apt to make them the more bitter against the
Bird boys; and in time to come they would wish more than ever that they
could find some way by means of which they might injure those who had
so skillfully guided their little air craft to victory in the race to
the crest of Old Thunder Top.

Whether that opportunity would ever come, as well as many other things
in the line of adventure which were fated to befall the Bird boys,
must be left to another volume, which the reader, who has followed
our venturesome young aviators thus far, will be pleased to know has
already been issued under the title of “The Bird Boys on the Wing; or,
Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics.”


THE END.




BOYS’ COPYRIGHTED BOOKS


Printed from large, clear type on a superior quality of paper,
embellished with original illustrations by eminent artists, and bound
in a superior quality of binders’ cloth, ornamented with illustrated
covers, stamped in colors from unique and appropriate dies, each book
wrapped in a glazed paper wrapper printed in colors.


BOY SCOUT SERIES

By

G. HARVEY RALPHSON, of the Black Bear Patrol.

   1.--Boy Scouts in Mexico; or, On Guard With Uncle Sam.
   2.--Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam.
   3.--Boy Scouts in the Philippines; or, The Key to the Treaty Box.
   4.--Scouts in the Northwest; or, Fighting Forest Fires.
   5.--Boy Scouts in a Motor Boat; or, Adventures on the Columbia River.
   6.--Boy Scouts in an Airship; or, The Warning from the Sky.
   7.--Boy Scouts in a Submarine; or, Searching an Ocean Floor.
   8.--Boy Scouts on Motorcycles; or, With the Flying Squadron.
   9.--Boy Scouts Beyond the Arctic Circle; or, The Lost Expedition.
  10.--Boy Scout Camera Club; or, The Confessions of a Photograph.
  11.--Boy Scout Electricians; or, The Hidden Dynamo.
  12.--Boy Scouts in California; or, The Flag on the Cliff.
  13.--Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; or, The Disappearing Fleet.
  14.--Boy Scouts in Death Valley; or, The City in the Sky.
  15.--Boy Scouts on the Open Plains; or, The Round-up not Ordered.
  16.--Boy Scouts in Southern Waters; or, the Spanish Treasure Chest.
  17.--Boy Scouts in Belgium; or, Under Fire in Flanders.
  18.--Boy Scouts in the North Sea; or, the Mystery of U-13.
  19.--Boy Scouts under the Kaiser; or, the Uhlans in Peril.
  20.--Boy Scouts with the Cossacks; or, Poland Recaptured.


THE MOTORCYCLE CHUMS SERIES

By

Andrew Carey Lincoln

  1.--Motorcycle Chums in the Land of the Sky; or, Thrilling Adventures
        on the Carolina Border.

  2.--Motorcycle Chums in New England; or, The Mount Holyoke Adventure.

  3.--Motorcycle Chums on the Santa Fé Trail; or, The Key to the Treaty
        Box.

  4.--Motorcycle Chums in Yellowstone Park; or, Lending a Helping Hand.

  5.--Motorcycle Chums in the Adirondacks; or, The Search for the Lost
        Pacemaker.

  6.--Motorcycle Chums Storm Bound; or, The Strange Adventures of a
        Road Chase.




BOYS’ COPYRIGHTED BOOKS


Printed from large, clear type on a superior quality of paper,
embellished with original illustrations by eminent artists, and
bound in a superior quality of book binders’ cloth, ornamented with
illustrated covers, stamped in colors from unique and appropriate dies,
each book wrapped in a glazed paper wrapper printed in colors.


MOTOR BOAT BOYS SERIES

By Louis Arundel

  1.--The Motor Club’s Cruise Down the Mississippi; or, The Dash for
        Dixie.

  2.--The Motor Club on the St. Lawrence River; or, Adventures Among
        the Thousand Islands.

  3.--The Motor Club on the Great Lakes; or, Exploring the Mystic Isle
        of Mackinac.

  4.--Motor Boat Boys Among the Florida Keys; or, The Struggle for the
        Leadership.

  5.--Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast; or, Through Storm and Stress.

  6.--Motor Boat Boys’ River Chase.


THE BIRD BOYS SERIES

By John Luther Langworthy

  1.--The Bird Boys; or, The Young Sky Pilots’ First Air Voyage.
  2.--The Bird Boys on the Wing; or, Aeroplane Chums in the Tropics.
  3.--The Bird Boys Among the Clouds; or, Young Aviators in a Wreck.
  4.--Bird Boys’ Flight; or, A Hydroplane Round-up.
  5.--Bird Boys’ Aeroplane Wonder; or, Young Aviators on a Cattle Ranch.


CANOE AND CAMPFIRE SERIES

By St. George Rathborne

  1.--Canoe Mates in Canada; or, Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan.
  2.--Young Fur-Takers; or, Traps and Trails in the Wilderness.
  3.--The House-Boat Boys; or, Drifting Down to the Sunny South.
  4.--Chums in Dixie; or, The Strange Cruise in the Motor Boat.
  5.--Camp Mates in Michigan; or, With Pack and Paddle in the Pine
        Woods.
  6.--Rocky Mountain Boys; or, Camping in the Big Game Country.

For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 50 cents.


  M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
  701-733 So. Dearborn Street,      Chicago




BOYS’ COPYRIGHTED BOOKS


The most attractive and highest class list of copyrighted books for
boys ever printed. In this list will be found the works of W. Bert
Foster, Capt. Ralph Bonehill, Arthur M. Winfield, etc.

Printed from large clear type, illustrated, bound in a superior quality
of cloth.


THE CLINT WEBB SERIES

By W. Bert Foster

  1.--Swept Out to Sea; or, Clint Webb Among the Whalers.
  2.--The Frozen Ship; or, Clint Webb Among the Sealers.
  3.--From Sea to Sea; or, Clint Webb on the Windjammer.
  4.--The Sea Express; or, Clint Webb and the Sea Tramp.


THE YOUNG SPORTSMAN’S SERIES

By Capt. Ralph Bonehill

  Rival Cyclists; or, Fun and Adventures on the Wheel.
  Young Oarsmen of Lake View; or, The Mystery of Hermit Island.
  Leo the Circus Boy; or, Life Under the Great White Canvas.


SEA AND LAND SERIES

Four Boys’ Books by Favorite Authors

  Oscar the Naval Cadet         Capt. Ralph Bonehill
  Blue Water Rovers             Victor St. Clare
  A Royal Smuggler              William Dalton
  A Boy Crusoe                  Allen Erie


ADVENTURE AND JUNGLE SERIES

A large, well printed, attractive edition.

  Guy in the Jungle               Wm. Murray Grayden
  Casket of Diamonds              Oliver Optic
  The Boy Railroader              Matthew White, Jr.
  Treasure of South Lake Farm     W. Bert Foster


YOUNG HUNTERS SERIES

By Capt. Ralph Bonehill

  Gun and Sled; or, The Young Hunters of Snow Top Island.
  Young Hunters in Porto Rico; or, The Search for a Lost Treasure.
  Two Young Crusoes; by C. W. Phillips.
  Through Apache Land; or, Ned in the Mountains; by Lieut. R. H. Tayne.


BRIGHT AND BOLD SERIES

By Arthur M. Winfield

  Poor but Plucky; or, The Mystery of a Flood.
  School Days of Fred Harley; or, Rivals for All Honors.
  By Pluck, not Luck; or, Dan Granbury’s Struggle to Rise.
  The Missing Tin Box; or, Hal Carson’s Remarkable City Adventure.


COLLEGE LIBRARY FOR BOYS

By Archdeacon Farrar

  Julian Home; or, A Tale of College Life.
  St. Winifred’s; or, The World of School.

For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 50 cents.


  M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
  701-733 So. Dearborn Street,      Chicago




TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:


  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.