Frank V. Webster

“ Andy simply looked and felt for the next ten minutes. The pretty, dainty machine made him think of a skylark, an arrow, a rocket. He had a bouyant sensation like a person taking laughing gas.
The lifting planes moved readily under the manipulation of an expert hand. There was one level flight where the airship exceeded any railroad speed Andy had ever noted. Farms, villages, streams, hills, faded behind them in an endless panorama. ”

“ When Andy had come to Princeville, Chase was a worthless drunkard, who worked rarely and who was in the lockup most of the time. One winter’s night, as Andy was returning from taking a customer to the lake, he lined a swampy stretch and noticed a huddled-up figure lying at its half-frozen edge.
Andy got out of the automobile and discovered a man, his body and clothes half frozen down into the reeds and grass. It was Chase, sodden with drink and fast perishing.
Andy managed to get the poor fellow in the tonneau and drove home. It was late, and Talbot had left the garage for the night. ”

“ Once out of hearing of the farmer, Gus Talbot edged up to his father.
“Has he got the money?” he inquired eagerly. “Make him tell, father, search him.”
“I’ll attend to all that,” retorted the elder Talbot gruffly. “Here, you two fall behind. There’s no need of attracting attention with a regular procession.”
Talbot did not relax his hold of the prisoner until they had reached the garage. He roughly threw Andy into the lumber room. Then, panting and irritated from his unusual exertions, he planted himself in the doorway. Gus and Dale hovered about, anxious to learn the outcome of the row. ”

“ The Racing Star was no longer a bird afloat, but an arrow. Giving to the machine a certain slant, calculating to a foot how and where he would land, Andy saw nothing, thought of nothing, but the home post. ”

“ Air and breeze conditions were most favorable for the try-out. Seated amidships, wearing a leather jacket, cap and gloves, Andy had the motor keyed up to its highest speed. The quick sequence of its exhaust swelled like a rapid-fire gun.
The machine rolled forward, the propellers beat the air, and the Racing Star rose on a smooth parabola. Andy attempted some volplane skits that were fairly hair-raising. He raced with real birds. He practiced with the wind checks. For half an hour he kept up a series of practice stunts of the most difficult character. ”

“ Parks,” said Andy seriously, “I don’t think you had better try to raise the money. It will be harder than you think, and all this will take up your time and attention away from the airship race.”
“There won’t be any airship race for me if you are out of it, will there?” demanded Parks.
“Why not? You can surely find someone to take my place. It’s the Racing Star that is going to win the race, not the man at the lever. He’s got to keep his eyes open, but the machine is so far ahead of anything I’ve seen, that a careful, active pilot can hardly fail to win.” ”

“ Farmer Jones was not spry enough to shorten the circuit Andy made, but he thrust out the rake to its full length. Andy’s foot caught in its tines, dragged, tripped, and the boy went flat to the ground.
“I’ve got him!” hailed Jones, promptly pouncing down upon him.
“Hold him!” panted Talbot, rushing to the spot, and his hard, knotty fingers got an iron clutch on Andy’s coat collar and jerked him to his feet.
“What’s the trouble, neighbor?” projected the farmer curiously.
“A thief isn’t the matter!” shot out Andy hotly, recalling the words of his employer. ”

“ He swept aside the canvas, headed in the direction of the main camp. Hot on his heels came his amazed rescuer, now a wondering pursuer. Andy ran at the fence, gave a spring, and cleared its top in a graceful leap. Silas, more clumsy, ran at two loose boards, and by sheer force of his might and strength, sent them out of place and put after Andy.
“Nelson!” he bawled. “What’s the matter? Nobody’s following you. Crickey, but you’re a sprinter!”
“I’ll see you later—Parks’ camp—in a hurry.” ”

“ He lost himself in his enthusiasm as an inventor. Andy was a ready listener, and it was delightful to him to explore this marvel of machines.
“What I hope to accomplish,” explained Mr. Morse, “is to construct a combined steerer and balancer on one lever. I aim to make this lever not only tilt the flyer to which it is attached on a transverse axis, but also on a longitudinal axis. It is called a double-action horizontal rudder, and if I succeed will give instantaneous control of a flying-machine under all conditions, be it a high wind or the failing of motive power. ”

“ He’s a slippery fellow.”
Andy saw that it would be useless to appeal to either of his companions in the automobile, and put in his time doing some pretty serious thinking as the machine sped over the landscape.
“This is a bad fix at a bad time,” reflected Andy. “The lawyer will expect me back as I promised, and think all kinds of things about me because I don’t come. And there’s Mr. Parks. And the race. I mustn’t miss that! But then, I am arrested. They’ll lock me up. Suppose they really prove I fired that barn?” Andy’s heart beat painfully with dread and suspense. ”

“ I was mad and accused Gus of taking it. Gus got mad and left home.”
“What did I have to do with that?”
“Why, if you’d stayed where you belonged it wouldn’t have happened, would it?”
Andy actually laughed outright at this strange reasoning.
“What!” he cried. “Me, the firebug, me, the thief you accuse me of being!”
“Well, anyhow, you’ve been a lot of expense and trouble to me. Now you’re in a hard fix. You are dead sure to go to the reformatory until you are twenty-one years of age, unless some one steps in and saves you.”
“You think so, do you, Mr. Talbot?” ”

“ The forty-foot mechanical bird, the Duske machine, however, had made the lead and kept it.
The climax came in Andy’s preliminary ascent. Now the Racing Star, light and dainty as a lark, mounted with amazing speed. A glance at three of the airships convinced Andy that they were too faulty to make a record. The Moon Bird, however, was a marvel. From what he had heard Mr. Parks say, Duske had been an expert balloonist, and he now showed amazing ability in the aviation line. He seemed to be putting the stolen airship idea to marked advantage. ”

“ The boy began creeping along the slant of the barn roof. It was slow progress, for he saw that he must keep the rope from getting tangled. Another hindrance to rapid progress was the fact that he had to be careful not to graze or disturb the delicate wings of the machine.
About half the directed progress covered, Andy paused and looked down. The door of the farmhouse was in his range of vision, and the farmer had just opened it cautiously. ”

“ Dawson now,” decided Andy. “It’s too late in the evening, and too many people will be looking for me. There’s so much piling up against me, that maybe Mr. Dawson wouldn’t believe a word I say. No, it’s a plain case. They haven’t any use for me in Princeville, and the sooner I get out of the town and stay out of it, the better for me.”
Andy’s foot was in no condition for a long tramp. He realized this as he stretched it out and tested his weight upon it. He was not seriously crippled, but he was in no shape to run a race or kick a football. ”

“ He had never had so much money all his own at any time in his life. Once a tourist in settling a day’s jaunt with Talbot in Andy’s presence had added a two-dollar bill for his chauffeur, but this Talbot had immediately shoved into his money drawer without even a later reference to it.
Andy got back to the garage before seven o’clock. He whistled cheerily as he made a notation on the book of his fare and the collection, unlocked the desk, put the five dollars in the tin cash box, and relocked the desk. ”

“ I’ve just got to get that five-thousand-dollar prize to make good, for I’ve invested a good deal here.”
“I hope I can help you do it,” said Andy fervently.
“The Eagle is only a trial craft. Over in the workshop yonder, I’ve got a genius of a fellow, named Morse, working for me, who is turning out the latest thing in airships. Here’s our living quarters.”
Mr. Parks led Andy into the shed-like structure that formed the back of the tent which sheltered the aeroplane and also a dirigible balloon. ”

“ The geese get their feet so cut they can’t walk. If we try the side of the roads, then we run into ditches, or the fowls get under farm fences, and then it’s trouble and a chase. I say, lad,” continued the man, with a glance at Andy’s bandaged foot, “you don’t look any too able to get about yourself.”
“Oh, that isn’t worth thinking of,” declared Andy. “I’ll be glad to help.”
He quite cheered up the owner of the geese by his willingness and activity. In half an hour’s time they had all the disabled stray fowls in the enclosure. Some dead ones were left where they had fallen by the wayside. ”

“ Morse,” pleaded Andy; “I am greatly interested in it all.”
“I am going to tell you, Andy,” responded the inventor, “because I believe the men who imprisoned me will try to enter the prize contest, and I want to keep track of them. I don’t dare venture among them myself, but I may ask you to seek them out and bring me some news.”
“Yes, sir,” said Andy.
“The head man of the crowd is an old circus man named Duske. It is a good name for him, for he is dark in looks and deed. ”

“ Chase,” promised Andy. “If things go as I think they will, I have a friend as well as an employer who will probably need a man such as you to potter about and look after things.”
“Andy, I’ll potter for keeps if you get me that situation,” declared the old lockup-keeper earnestly. “You get it fixed for me, and when your trial comes up, I’ll show you how much I think of you.”
“Things are certainly coming out famously right,” chirped Andy gaily, as he left Chase.
“Now then, Nelson, take a try at my new machine,” said Mr. Webb, as he led Andy to the street. ”

“ From sounds near by and in the distance during 164 the next two hours, Andy could figure out just what was going on about him. The Moon Bird was carried from its aerodrome and taken to the aviation field. The old cook seemed to be left in possession of the camp. He looked in on Andy every so often. The rest of the time he was busy in the larger tent or outside of it with his cooking utensils.
Poor Andy was in sore straits of despair. He had a vivid imagination, and could fancy all that was shut out from his view by captivity. He heard a distant town bell strike nine o’clock. ”

“ I hear you’ve got a machine that will land just as steadily and balance on top of a telegraph-pole as on a prairie.”
“That’s pretty near the truth, John Parks,” declared Ridley. “I can’t make a mile in thirty seconds, but I can get to the ground on a straight dive ahead of your clumsy old Eagle, or any other racer on the field.”
“Why, Ridley,” retorted Parks, in a vaunting way, “I’ve got a boy here who can give you a handicap and double discount you.”
“Is that him?” inquired Ridley, with a stare at Andy.
“That’s him out of harness,” laughed Parks. “Like to see him do something?” ”

“ Andy struck a level about fifteen hundred feet in the air. There was a head wind, but it was not strong. Andy put on fine speed gradually. The Racing Star passed two of the contestants, and, fully in action, he drove keen on the trail of the Moon Bird.
The train that acted as a pilot with an American flag on its last car, Andy kept in view as a guide. When they came to Lake Clear, the Moon Bird did not follow the rounding land course, nor did Andy. Lake Clear was a shallow body of water, but of considerable extent, and dotted here and there with little islands. ”

“ If I’d gone to work for old Talbot when I had a chance, you’d have been out and wouldn’t have learned about automobiles and machinery and such, and couldn’t have run an airship and won the race.”
This was queer reasoning. Andy had to smile. He couldn’t feel any way but pleasant and happy with the great airship prize his, however, and he said:
“Well, let that go. What are you driving at, Dale?” 184
“We’re in hard luck, me and Gus.”
“You look it,” said Andy.
“We haven’t got a cent, we don’t dare to go back home. ”

“ Webb.
“Yes,” growled Parks, but playfully, “and spoil a good aviator!”
“Not at all,” declared Andy quickly. “I love the airship business, Mr. Parks, but I want to 201 learn every branch of the science that covers it. It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, you say, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and the professional aviator will be just a common, everyday person.”
“Well, I suppose that’s so,” admitted Parks.
“Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship. ”

“ About two o’clock in the afternoon Andy fancied he saw his chance for making a break for liberty. Talbot was in the office. There was only one automobile in the garage. This was a car that the proprietor’s son had just backed in. Andy could figure it out that Gus had just returned from a trip. He leaped out of the machine, simply throwing out the power clutch, with the engine still in motion, as if intending to at once start off again. ”

“ Dawson had taken occasion to pass a pleasant word with Andy, commending his attention to the lecture. When Andy had taken the two hundred dollars to him that morning, the banker had placed his hand on his shoulder, with the remark: “You are a good, honest boy, Nelson, and I want to see you later.”
“I’ll wait until about nine o’clock,” planned Andy, “when most of the town is asleep, and go to Mr. Dawson’s house. There’s a lecture at the club to-night, I know, and he won’t get home till after ten. I’ll hide in the garden and catch him before he goes into the house. ”

“ Chase,” said Andy.
“You needn’t sleep in any cell. I’ll let you have a cot in my room,” continued Chase with earnestness and emotion. “Andy——” and there the speaker choked up, and he grasped Andy’s hand, and turning away trembled all over. “You’re a blessed good boy, and you’ve got a true friend in me, and remember what I tell you—they 121 will never find you guilty of burning down Jones’ barn.” ”