Dick Hamilton's Airship Part 23

CHAPTER XVII

OFF FOR THE START

Uncle Ezra Larabee stood fairly glaring at his nephew. The crabbed old man seemed strangely excited.

"No, there ain't nothing going to blow up," he said, after a pause.

"But don't you come in here. I warn you away! You can go in any other part of my factory you want to, but not in here."

"Well, I certainly don't want to come where I'm not wanted, Uncle Ezra," said d.i.c.k, with dignity. "But I hear you are building an airs.h.i.+p, and I thought I'd like to get a look at it."

"And that's just what I don't want you to get--none of you," went on Mr. Larabee, looking at d.i.c.k's chums. "I don't want to be mean to my dead sister's boy," he added, "but my airs.h.i.+p ain't in shape yet to be inspected."

"Well, if it isn't finished, perhaps we can give you some advice," said d.i.c.k, with a smile.

"Huh! I don't want no advice, thank you," said Uncle Ezra, stiffly. "I calkerlate Lieutenant Larson knows as much about building airs.h.i.+ps as you boys do."

"Larson!" cried d.i.c.k. "Is he here?"

"He certainly is, and he's working hard on my craft. I'm going to be an aviator, and win that twenty-thousand-dollar government prize!" Mr.

Larabee said, as though it were a certainty.

"Whew!" whistled d.i.c.k. "Then we'll be rivals, Uncle Ezra."

"Humph! Maybe you might think so, but I'll leave you so far behind that you won't know where you are!" boasted the crabbed old man.

"Building an airs.h.i.+p; eh?" mused d.i.c.k. "Well, that's the last thing I'd ever think of Uncle Ezra doing." Then to his relative he added: "But if you're going to compete for the prize your airs.h.i.+p will have to be seen. Why are you so careful about it now?"

"Because we've got secrets about it," replied Mr. Larabee. "There's secret inventions on my airs.h.i.+p that haven't been patented yet, and I don't want you going in there, Nephew Richard, and taking some of my builder's ideas and using 'em on your airs.h.i.+p. I won't have it! That's why I won't let you in. I'm not going to have you taking our ideas, not by a jugful!"

"There's no danger," answered d.i.c.k quietly, though he wanted to laugh.

"My airs.h.i.+p is all finished. We've used her, and she's all right. I wouldn't change her no matter what I saw on yours."

"Wa'al, you might think so now, but I can't trust n.o.body--not even you, so you can't come in," said Uncle Ezra.

"Oh, we won't insist," answered d.i.c.k, as he pa.s.sed over the bonds.

"Father said you wanted these, Uncle Ezra."

"Yes, I do," and an expression, as of pain, pa.s.sed over the man's face.

"I've got to raise a little money to pay for this airs.h.i.+p. It's costing a terrible pile; a terrible pile!" and he sighed in despair. "But then, of course, I'll get the twenty thousand dollars, and that will help some. After that I'm going to sell plans and models of my successful airs.h.i.+p, and I'll make a lot more that way. So of course I'll get it all back.

"But it's costing me a terrible pile! Why, would you believe it," he said, looking around to see that the door to the factory was securely closed, "would you believe I've already spent five thousand, six hundred twenty-seven dollars and forty-nine cents on this airs.h.i.+p? And it ain't quite done yet. It's a pile of money!"

"Yes, they are expensive, but they're worth it," said d.i.c.k. "It's great sport--flying."

"It may be. I've never tried it, but I'm going to learn," declared Uncle Ezra. "Only I didn't think it would cost so much or I never would have gone into it. But now I'm in I can't get out without losing all the money I've put up, and I can't do that. I never could do that," said Uncle Ezra with a doleful shake of his head.

He gave a sudden start, at some noise, and cried out:

"What's that? You didn't dare bring your bulldog in here, did you, Nephew Richard? If you did I'll--"

"No, I left Grit at home, Uncle Ezra."

Then the noise was repeated. It came from the part of the factory where the airs.h.i.+p was being constructed, and was probably made by some of the workmen.

"I guess I'll have to go now," said Mr. Larabee, and this was a hint for the boys to leave.

"Lieutenant Larson said he wanted to consult with me about something.

I only hope he doesn't want more money," he added with a sigh. "But he spends a terrible pile of cash--a terrible pile."

"Yes, and he'll spend a lot more of your cash before he gets through with you, if I'm any judge," thought d.i.c.k, as he and his chums went back to the automobile. "To think of Uncle Ezra building an airs.h.i.+p!

That's about the limit."

"Do you really think he is going to have a try for the government prize?" asked Larry Dexter.

"Well, stranger things have happened," admitted the young millionaire.

"You're not worrying, though, are you?" asked Paul.

"Not a bit. I imagine I'll have to compete with more formidable opponents than Uncle Ezra. But I do give Larson credit for knowing a lot about aircraft. I don't believe, though, that his mercury stabilizers are reliable. Still he may have made improvements on them.

I'd like to get a look at Uncle Ezra's machine."

"And he doesn't want you to," laughed Innis. "He's a queer man, keeping track of every cent."

"Oh, it wouldn't be Uncle Ezra if he didn't do that," returned d.i.c.k, with a grin.

There were busy days ahead for the young millionaire and his chums.

Though the Abaris seemed to have been in almost perfect trim on her trial trip, it developed that several changes had to be made in her.

Not important ones, but small ones, on which the success, or failure, of the prize journey might depend.

d.i.c.k and his friends worked early and late to make the aircraft as nearly perfect as possible.

d.i.c.k's entry had been formally accepted by the government, and he had been told that an army officer would be a.s.signed to make the trans-continental flight with him, to report officially on the time and performance of the craft. For the government desired to establish the nearest perfect form of aeroplane, and it reserved the right to purchase the patent of the successful model.

"And it is on that point that more money may be made than by merely winning the prize," said Mr. Vardon. "We must not forget that, so we want everything as nearly right as possible."

And to this end they worked.

"You're going to take Grit along; aren't you?" asked Paul of d.i.c.k one day, as they were laboring over the aircraft, putting on the finis.h.i.+ng touches.

"Oh, sure!" exclaimed the young millionaire. "I wouldn't leave him behind for anything."

"I wonder what army officer they'll a.s.sign to us," remarked Innis. "I hope we get some young chap, and not a grizzled old man who'll be a killjoy."

"It's bound to be a young chap, because none of the older men have taken up aviation," said Larry. "I guess we'll be all right. I'll see if I can't find out from our Was.h.i.+ngton reporter who it will be."

But he was unable to do this, as the government authorities themselves were uncertain.

The time was drawing near when d.i.c.k was to make his start in the cross-country flight, with but two landings allowed between New York and San Francisco. Nearly everything was in readiness.