John Luther Langworthy

“ But everybody took these sharp sayings of Larry Geohegan in the same happy-go-lucky spirit in which they were uttered. No one had more friends and fewer enemies than the tall boy; because he was generous to a fault, humorous in his remarks, and the life of the camp when out with any of his companions.
Andy had stalked back into the shop again, though Frank had looked after him as though inclined to wonder what ailed his cousin to be so mysterious in his actions. ”

“ Anybody could see without trouble that Bloomsbury was in the throes of a tremendous excitement that afternoon. People abandoned their houses in crowds, and flocked toward the campus of the high school, which seemed to be the hub of a vast wheel, the squads of citizens taking the part of spokes, all headed toward the common center.
And nearly everybody seemed to be turning around, to observe the biplane which was plainly visible, as Frank and Andy warmed the engine up for speedy use. ”

“ Look at Andy turning red, would you? Elephant, don't he look guilty now? Tell us all about it, Frank. Who is she; what's the name of the little witch? We're from Missouri, and we want to know."
"Oh! let up on that sort of soft stuff, won't you?" complained Andy. "Things have come to a pretty pass when a fellow can't just biff a measly old bulldog on the jaw, without having a romance made out of the thing."
"A bulldog?" echoed Larry, grinning immediately. "Listen to that,
Elephant and Nat! He's been having a fight with a terror of a dog. ”

“ When a little later they heard the stamp of the Colonel's crutch the boys looked up expectantly, knowing they would have the laugh on the old veteran traveler, who had flown to the rescue when the alarm was all a farce, and slept through the real thing.
"What's all this? Bless me, if they haven't caught the rascal after all! Why didn't you ring me up? That alarm bell must have played me false, Andy, and I believe you juggled with it! The old cry of 'wolf' again; and I'm the victim." ”

“ Frank was almost tempted to stop, alight, and place a couple of shells in the gun, so as to be ready for any emergency that might arise.
"Shucks! what's getting you, Frank Bird?" he exclaimed, as he laughed at the idea of being held up in that fashion on the public highway. "Just make up your mind nothing's going to happen to you; and that if Jules did come back to the Powell woods he's started away by now, full tilt. I'm ashamed of you, that's what. If it was Andy now, he's so full of imagination he sees lots of things that never exist; but you know better. ”

“ He didn't keep his promise to me, and I don't like that way of doing things."
"There's Percy with his biplane over yonder, holding a levee," remarked
Elephant.
"He looks as happy as a clam," said Larry. "You know his way, fellows? Ten to one he's dead sure he's got this race clinched already. See him shake hands with Bessie Clinton! I can just guess how he's saying what he means to do to Frank and Andy. Huh!" finishing his sentence with a snort of disgust.
"The feller that crows last crows loudest," observed Elephant. ”

“ Frank had settled down to the proper distance from the ground. Having been here before he knew whether any obstacle would present itself in making that swoop around the tall mast. Not for a single instant must he allow his eyes to leave the object of his flight. Andy could observe what was transpiring below but to the young pilot of the biplane his only recollection would be a hazy one of a multitude of upturned faces, a wilderness of fluttering handkerchiefs and flags together with hats thrown into the air ”

“ CHAPTER II A RESCUER FROM THE SKIES "What if the bally thing takes a notion to duck under, Larry?" asked Elephant, staggered himself at the possibility of such a catastrophe happening.
"Wow! they'd stand a chance of being drowned, then, I take it!" answered the taller lad, shaking his head as if worried.
"Say, p'raps we ought to be chasing after a boat, and putting out there right now," the small boy exclaimed.
"O K say I. Let's make a dash for Cragan's dock, and borrow his skiff!" ”

“ Let him try it, if he wants to see what nice quarters Chief Waller has in the Bloomsbury lockup. You hear me?"
"After you give us the shove-off, boys, get on your wheels and hike for the campus. We expect you to be there to start us in the race. Something depends on a clever get-away, you know," Frank observed, as he locked the door, and put the key in his pocket.
A short time later the biplane rose swiftly, like a hawk that had been startled, and began to mount upward in gigantic circles, the faithful little Kinkaid engine throbbing with the regularity of heart beats. ”

“ If we had to take up some one to gave them from peril that would be all right. Now, here we are at the commons, Andy."
"Wow! look at the people rushing out of the houses," cried Andy, "would you? I guess this is the biggest thing that's happened at Hazenhurst for a whole year of Sundays. Hope they give us plenty of elbow-room to land. If they push in too far, somebody is going to get hurt."
Frank called out in time, and the crowd swayed back, so that presently the wonderful biplane dropped as lightly as a feather on the beautiful green commons, and close to the foot of the liberty pole. ”

“ Elephant continued, as he watched the biplane swinging past, some hundreds of feet in the air.
"I suppose that's meant for a defi," laughed Frank. "You know Sandy's ways, fellows? He always was something of a monkey on the team when he played ball. Don't answer back, any of you. A cat may look at a king; and we have a perfect right to stand here in our own dooryard, and gape at the show. But, Andy, pay attention to the way his machine works. I've caught on to a little idea already that I believe we could use with benefit ourselves." ”

“ He likes a little bit of mystery too, even if he hasn't got any reason to hide things."
"That settles my neat little scheme," sighed the runt, disconsolately. "Don't understand why it is that everything I happen to propose, Larry or somebody else always sits down on it, kerchunk! It's discouraging to genius, I say, and might keep a budding inventor from ever attaining his manifest destiny."
"Hear! hear!" chuckled Andy. ”

“ As for the tall boy, he came near having a fit, so doubled up with laughter did this important remark on the part of his small chum leave him.
"No danger of you ever being discouraged, or left at the stake, Elephant," he managed to say, presently. "You come up smiling after every backset. You've sure got grit, and to spare, if they did forget you when handing out bone and muscle."
"And I bet you if I'd only had the chance, fellows, I'd have dropped into the bally old lake, just like Andy did, and saved that sweet cherub, Tommy Cragan!" ”

“ Then you could snap your fingers at his games," declared Larry.
"Say, there is something in that, Frank," Andy admitted.
"I believe it," returned the other young aviator. "The only trouble I can see is that Percy usually starts off with a furious rush, and takes the lead. He believes it gives him an advantage, and perhaps it does. Every fellow has his pet theories in a race, and no two of them may be alike." ”

“ Frank Bird frowned.
"H'm! I just don't like to hear that," he said. "Andy and myself have been working on something lately that we want to keep a dead secret from everybody. If we don't tell even our friends, then there can be little chance of a leak. But I'm not inviting strangers to take a ride with me, or visit us in our shop. Though you can come in now, any time you want, Larry and Elephant." ”

“ Half a dozen men were crowded in the car and one of these half arose in passing, to wave a hand vigorously toward the group of boys in the field.
"That's Chief Waller!" remarked Andy, with more or less eagerness in his voice.
"And those others are some of his men," Frank went on. "They don't mean to lose any time about looking Jules up, do they?"
"Hey! are you sure about that?" asked Elephant; "because none of 'em had a uniform on; and what good are the police in plain clothes?"
"Oh! there are times when they can do more without their uniforms than in them," Frank remarked. ”

“ If Percy and that crony of his, Sandy Hollingshead, only believed in the square deal, we might have great times in racing and exploring; but the trouble is, they hate to see anybody getting ahead of them, and lots of times as everybody understands, have tried to injure our machine."
"Oh! I don't know," said the optimistic Andy; "we always manage somehow, to come out of every affair right-side up, and they get the rough end of the deal, as they should because they won't leave us alone to manage our own business. ”

“ Andy said, quickly for he was accustomed to studying that countenance of his cousin, and could read between the lines.
"Well, I'd hate to think that any maker of aeroplanes could descend that low as to want to steal ideas from any one," Frank answered. "They are few in number, and so far as we know, honorable men. If they wanted to get something that you and I, or any other fellow, had happened to hit on, and which would be of value to aviators, the chances are they'd send somebody to open up negotiations, and offer to buy the improvement outright, or take it on a royalty basis." ”

“ That's a chum of ours. His name is Frank Bird, and he knows more about aeroplanes in a minute than the rest of us do in a year. His cousin, Andy, is along with him. They stick together through thick and thin."
"Bird!" remarked the other, watching the agile movements of the biplane eagerly, as Larry could not but note. "A very suggestive name for a flier, too."
"That's right," burst out Larry. "Frank always said he was just forced to take to being an aeronaut. He says it's just as natural for birds to take to the air, as it is for ducks to swim in the water." ”

“ Say, you're gazing right now on the wonderful new aeroplane which your rival Percy has sent for, and in which he means to make you fellows look like two cents. Hey! what's this I see?"
"They've stopped short, that's all," observed Andy. "An automobile has blocked the road, and Percy seems to be having a confab with one of the parties in the car. Frank, do you see who whose men are? The very gents we were talking about. And now they've struck another scent, for they seem to be bent on learning all about who these boys carrying a crated aeroplane in parts can be. The mystery grows! ”

“ You can see it differs from ours in lots of ways. Some things may be a bit better, and others not so good."
"But, Frank, you don't think it could beat us out, do you?" Andy quickly demanded.
Frank shook his head.
"I hope not," he said, quietly; "but you can't always tell. That's a great machine Percy has there now, and it would be silly to deny it. A good deal depends on how it's going to be run."
"That's the ticket, Frank!" exclaimed Larry. "And I'm dead sure that no matter which biplane you handled in a race you'd come out ahead."
"Sure he would," added Elephant, emphatically. ”

“ What lad with red blood in his veins does not? And then there was Andy, who, seeing his state of wavering uncertainty, began to plead with him to try the thing.
"Frank, don't let 'em crow over us!" he went on, the fever still in his blood. "We can do it, all right, you know. It'd only take a few minutes to wheel around that bald old peak three times; and then a long dip will carry us clear to the campus. Frank, head for Old Thunder Top! Show him he ain't the only Bloomsbury aviator that's got nerve!" ”

“ Will you take me up on that, Frank?"
"If you mean that we head across to Hazenhurst, and interview that liberty pole Percy lays so much stress on, I'm willing. Then again, I want to try for height while we're about it. We don't know just what this biplane can do, or how it'll act when a mile or so up."
"Huh! I didn't see anything the matter when we landed on top of the peak," remarked Andy. "Sure she was all to the good then. Frank, honest Injun now, I'm more in love with this outfit than I ever was with our first one. I can see possibilities about a biplane that a monoplane never can own." ”

“ One thing alone troubled Frank. He realized that it was folly in them to think of carrying out the part of the conditions that called for three circles around the peak of Old Thunder Top before heading for the high school campus on the last stage of the race.
And after they were well on the way toward home, he meant to hail Percy to propose that they combine to cut that risky part of the performance out. A joint agreement would settle it; and doubtless the judges would hail that decision as the part of prudence. Human lives were worth more than empty honors ”

“ I don't know; perhaps the trouble may later on be all in store for the fellow who held that gun. But look up, Andy; we're getting along toward the peak at a gay old pace. Say, what do you think of the biplane now?"
"She's a peach, that's what!" burst out Andy, impulsively. "I thought the little Bug was the whole thing, and then some; but honestly, Frank, she wasn't in the same class as this new machine."
"And yet," Frank laughed, "remember that with her we beat Percy and his biplane, manufactured by one of the best firms in the market. That ought to be glory enough for the Bird boys. ”

“ I tell you, old chum, we've just got the finest governors ever. It's a lucky thing to have an obliging dad!"
"And be able to wind him around your finger, as I hear you do yours, ever since he came back from South America," laughed Frank.
By the time darkness began to gather the boys were deep in the delightful task of cooking a genuine camp supper. The stove was of generous size, so that several could work around it at the same time. Andy took charge, nor would he let Frank have any hand in the proceedings, calling upon Elephant, Larry and Nat when he needed assistance. ”