John Luther Langworthy

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Still they knew that every eye was focused on their movements, and hundreds of glasses [209] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ 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 [183] barograph almost under your nose. Suppose you just take a squint and inform me.” ”

“ 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.” ”

“ 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 [177] stared and cheered as they watched the evolutions and stunts which were successfully engineered. ”

“ 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 [160] began to actually leave the ground and ascend in a graceful upward curve. ”