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Airplane Boys among the Clouds

<h3 id="id00009" style="margin-top: 3em">THE AIRPLANE BOYS AMONG THE CLOUDS</h3> or, Young Aviators in a Wreck by <h5 id="id00013">JOHN LUTHER LANGWORTHY</h5> <h4 id="id00020" style="margin-top: 2em">CHAPTER I</h4> <h5 id="id00021">TRYING OUT THE NEW BIPLANE</h5> "I tell you, Elephant, it's the Bird boys, and nobody else!" "But they had a monoplane last summer, Larry; and you can see for yourself it's a biplane out yonder over the lake. So that's why I thought it must be Percy Carberry and his crony, Sandy Hollingshead." "Shucks! stir up your think-box, Elephant. Get a move on your mind, and look back. Don't you remember Percy lost his old biplane when he took that trip down to South America, and had some trouble with the revolutionists in Colombia?" "Say, now, that's right. You mean the time Andy Bird found his long-lost father, whose balloon left him a prisoner in such a queer way? Yes, but tell me, where would Frank and Andy Bird get a biplane now?" "Oh! rats, what ails you, Elephant? Didn't they make the other; and don't you know they've been busy all winter, in that shop Old Colonel Whympers fitted up for them out in the field? And not even such bully good friends as you and me were allowed to take a peep inside. That's what they were working on—building this new biplane, after sending for the parts." "Don't it just shine like fun in the sunlight, though?" declared the little "runt," who had been nicknamed "Elephant" by his chums, possibly in a spirit of boyish humor, and which name had clung to him ever since. "It sure does look like a spider-like craft," Larry Geohegan went on. "Just see that white-headed eagle up in the blue sky. I bet you he's looking down, and wondering what sort of thing it is." "Huh! don't you fool yourself there, Larry," chuckled the other. "That wise old chap knows all about aeroplanes. He's had experience, he has. You forget that last summer, when the race was on between the Bird boys and Percy, to see who could land on the summit of Old Thunder-Top first, from an aeroplane, those same eagles had a nest up there, and tackled the boys for a warm session." The two lads had come to a halt on the road about half a mile from the borders of Bloomsbury where they lived. From where they stood, holding their fishing rods, and quite a decent catch of finny prizes, they could look out over the beautiful surface of Lake Sunrise, which was over fifteen miles long, and in places as much as three or four wide. "Mebbe you can tell me, Larry," the smaller boy presently said, "just why Frank keeps sailing around over the lake that way? Suppose he's taking pictures from his biplane?" "That might be, Elephant," Larry answered, slowly and thoughtfully. "Seems to me I did hear somebody talking about the State wanting to get a map of the lake, with all its many coves and points. But ain't it more dangerous for aviators hanging over water than the shore?" "That depends," remarked the other boy, whose real name was Fennimore Cooper Small, and who was rather apt to have an exalted idea of his own importance, as do so many undersized people. "If a fellow dropped out of his machine when he was even fifty feet high, he'd be apt to break his neck, or anyhow a leg, if he struck on the land; but in the water he might have a show." "Look at 'em circling round and round, would you?" Larry went on, his curiosity climbing toward the fever stage. "I'd give a fit now to know what Frank's got in that wise old noddle of his. He ain't the one to do things for nothing, take it from me, Elephant." "Hi! step out of the way, Larry, if you don't want to get run over!" exclaimed the other, suddenly gripping his companion's sleeve. "Here comes a car, and the driver's tooting his old bazoo to beat the band." "They're slowing up, don't you see," observed Larry, who had been startled by the other's abrupt warning. "No need to scare a feller like that, Elephant." "Well, that machine don't belong around here, anyway; and I guess they're tourists doing the lake road course. Lots of 'em come this way just for the view, which they say can't be beat," the other went on, in a low tone; for the touring car had drawn very close by now. Two men sat in it, one apparently the chauffeur, and the other occupying the commodious seat in the tonneau. The latter was a keen-faced man, with a peculiar eye, that seemed to sparkle and glow; and Larry immediately became aware that he was experiencing a queer sensation akin to a chill, when he returned the gaze of this individual. Still, the other could look very pleasant when he chose to smile, as was the case immediately after the car came to a halt within five feet of where the two Bloomsbury high school boys stood. "Looks like you had had pretty good luck, boys," he remarked, smoothly. "Pretty middlin'," Elephant said, indifferently, as though this were an everyday occurrence with him; when to tell the truth, he and Larry had not done so well all season as on this particular day. "Guess you know where the old fishing hole lies," laughed the stranger, pleasantly. "Quite a collection too—black bass, perch, 'slickers,' as we used to call the pickerel, and even some big fat sunfish. Many a happy hour have I spent just as you've been doing. And I'll never forget how fine those same fish tasted after I'd cleaned them myself for the frying-pan." "That's what we do, sir," replied Larry, now beginning to think the stranger rather a nice spoken man. "My friend and myself were just wondering what aviator you've got up here," continued the gentleman, as he cast a quick glance out over the lake. "You see, our attention was attracted toward that circling biplane as we came along. I happen to know some of the most famous fliers myself; but I never heard that any one of them was hiding up here this summer, trying fancy stunts. Look at that dip, Longley. That was a corker, now, I'm telling you. Do you know who that fellow is, my boy; the one handling the levers of that sparkling biplane out yonder?" Larry and Elephant glanced at each other and grinned. Then the little fellow threw out his chest, after a pompous way he had, and observed: "Sure we do, mister. 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." "Bird?" the other went on, turning to his companion. "Seems to me, Longley, there used to be a professor by that name in one of our colleges, who went daft on the subject of flying." "You're right, Marsh; and he lost his life down at Panama; tried to cross the isthmus in a dirigible, and was never heard from again." "Oh! but you're wrong, sir!" exclaimed Elephant, eagerly. "He was saved through those two boys in their monoplane, and is alive and well in Bloomsbury right now. It's a great story, and all to the good for the Bird boys." "I'd like to hear it some time or other," replied the gentleman called Mr. Marsh by his companion who was serving as chauffeur. "But it seems to me these young fellows must be unusually bright boys to do what they're doing right now." "That's easy for Frank and Andy Bird, sir," declared Larry. "Why, they've got a shop that they keep under lock and key, where they spend most of their time when they ain't flying. That biplane is what they made last winter—got some of the parts, and did the rest themselves. And it would be just like Frank to have invented some clever stunt that's going to just revolutionize flying." Again a quick look passed between the two tourists, but the boys simply considered that it implied wonder at such youthful ingenuity. "They must be smart boys, surely," remarked Mr. Marsh, again turning his head to look out over the lake. "And you say they even have a shop, where they work out these wonderful new ideas? Perhaps if we stayed over in Bloomsbury, Longley, they might be willing to let us have a little peep in that place?" Elephant promptly shook his head in the negative. "I wouldn't build too much on that, if I was you, sir," he said, "because, you see, we're chums of the Bird boys; and if they wouldn't let us once inside that shop all winter they ain't going to invite strangers there." "Well, hardly," laughed the other. "How's that, Longley? Quite interesting to run across a couple of boy inventors up this way. Must tell Wright about it the next time we see him, and Curtiss too. They'll want to look them up perhaps, and coax them to join the new aeroplane trust that's forming. But what makes that biplane shine so? It glitters in the sunlight like silver." "That's just what me and Elephant were talking about when you came along, mister," remarked Larry. "And we just came to the conclusion that it must be something Frank's been experimenting on. Mebbe he's made his machine out of aluminum; or else he's got a new Kinkaid engine that has a lot of brass about it. Gee! look at 'em now, Larry! My heart jumped up in my throat because they just skimmed the water, and I was dead sure it meant a ducking for the boys." "They certainly seem to know how to handle an aeroplane as well as any one I have ever seen," declared Mr. Marsh; who apparently could not tear his eyes away from the thrilling spectacle of the swooping air craft, that soared aloft, only to again dart daringly down toward the surface of the almost quiet lake. "I bet you it's a game of conquer they're playing," suggested Elephant. "Each one seeing how close to touching the water he can come. Say, Larry, d'ye suppose Percy Carberry has got his new biplane yet? He's been boasting about it for weeks, and what he meant to do when she arrived." "I saw him this morning, and he said he was still waiting; but that the thing had been shipped," replied the other. "Never saw such an unlucky dog as Percy is; and to tell the honest truth, Elephant, 'twouldn't surprise me one little bit if the old train got smashed up on the way, and the new flying machine along with it." "Wonder if he's watching the stunts them fellers are doing out there, and saying all sorts of mean things about 'em?" suggested the smaller boy, grinning. "Shouldn't wonder," Larry chirped. "He keeps tab on all Frank does these days. You know they've had to keep a man on duty every night around that workshop, because of Percy. He ain't to be trusted, and would just as soon put a match to the place as eat his dinner—if he thought he could do it on the sly." Mr. Marsh caught the eye of his companion, and instantly a quick signal seemed to pass between them, unnoticed by either of the two boys, who were keeping their attention glued on the fluttering aeroplane a quarter of a mile away, and which had again mounted to quite a little height by means of boring upward in circles. "There they go again!" exclaimed Elephant, excitedly, as the flying machine once more tilted its planes, and started down toward the water like a huge bird intending to alight. "Oh! look at it, would you?" cried Larry, almost as much worked up as his smaller companion. "This time there's going to be something doing! I bet you Frank wants to just snatch a floating piece of wood off the water as he skims along, just like them Wild West riders do on horseback, when they throw their hats down. Why! Something must a-busted—they dropped splash on the lake; and look at the old biplane sitting right there like a great big gull! Ain't that too bad, though; I'm sorry for Frank and Andy!" But Mr. Marsh, bending his head close to the ear of the man who sat in the front of the touring car, laughed softly, and remarked with an air of triumph: "What did I tell you, Longley? Now say it was a false scent, will you? It isn't often I make a mistake, and already I believe we've struck great luck in coming up here." <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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