Grit growled in a deep, threatening voice, and Uncle Ezra looked around with startled suddenness.
"I guess I'd better chain him up before I answer you," said Dick, grimly. "Here, old boy!"
The bulldog came, unwillingly enough, and was made secure.
"An—an airship!" gasped Uncle Ezra, as though he could not believe it. "An airship, Nephew Richard. It will never go. You might a good deal better take the money that you are so foolishly wasting, and put it in a savings bank. Or, I would sell you some stock in my woolen mill. That would pay you four per cent, at least."
"But my airship is going to go," declared the young millionaire. "It's on the same model as one I've ridden in, and it's going to go. We're sure of it; aren't we, Mr. Vardon?"
"Oh, it will GO all right," declared the aviator. "I'm sure of that. But I don't guarantee that you'll win the prize money."
"What's that? What's that?" asked Uncle Ezra in surprise. He was all attention when it came to a matter of money. "What prize did you speak of?"
"Didn't you hear, Uncle Ezra?" inquired Dick. "Why, the United States government, to increase the interest in aviation, and to encourage inventors, has offered a prize of twenty thousand dollars to the first person who takes his airship from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or rather, from New York to San Francisco with but two landings. I'm going to have a try for that prize!"
"Yes, and he's going to win it, too!" cried Paul.
"And we're at least going to share in the glory of it," added Innis.
"Twenty thousand dollars!" murmured Uncle Ezra. "Is it possible?"
"Oh, it's true enough, sir," put in Mr. Vardon. "The offer has been formally made. I know several of my aviator friends who are going to have a try for it. I intended to myself, but for the accident in which my craft was smashed. Only for the kindness of your nephew in engaging me on this work I don't know what I should be doing now."
"That's all right!" interrupted Dick, who disliked praise. "I'm doing MYSELF as much a favor in having you build this airship as I am YOU. I intend to have a good time in this craft, even if I don't win the prize."
"Twenty thousand dollars," murmured Uncle Ezra again, slowly. "It's an awful lot of money—an awful lot," he added in an awed tone of voice.
The truth of the matter was that Uncle Ezra had nearly a million. But he was very "close," and never missed a chance to make more.
"And do you intend to get the government prize in that—that contraption?" he asked, motioning to the half-completed aeroplane.
"Oh, it isn't finished yet," explained Dick.
"When it is, it will be one of the finest aircraft in this, or any other, country," declared Mr. Vardon. "I don't say that just because I am building it, but because Mr. Hamilton is putting into it the very best materials that can be bought."
"And we mustn't forget your stabilizer," laughed Dick.
"What's that?" Uncle Ezra wanted to know. Since hearing about the twenty thousand dollar prize his interest in airships seemed to have increased.
"The stabilizer, or equalibrizer, whatever you wish to call it, is to keep the airship from turning over," explained Mr. Vardon, and he went into the details with which I have already acquainted my readers.
But it is doubtful if Uncle Ezra heard, or at least he paid little attention, for he was murmuring over and over again to himself:
"Twenty thousand dollars! Twenty thousand dollars! That's an awful lot of money. I—I'd like to get it myself."
From time to time Grit growled, and finally Uncle Ezra, perhaps fearing that the dog might get loose and bite him, said:
"I think I'll go in the house for a while, Nephew Richard. Your father is not likely to be home today, but as I have missed the last train back to Dankville, listening to your talk about airships—foolish talk it seems to me—I will have to stay all night."
"Oh, certainly!" exclaimed Dick, remembering that he must play the host. "Go right in, Uncle Ezra and tell the butler to get you a lunch. I'll be in immediately."
"Well, I could eat a little snack," admitted the crabbed old man. "I did think of stopping in the restaurant at the railroad depot on my way here, and getting a sandwich. But the girl said sandwiches were ten cents, and they didn't look worth it to me.
"I asked her if she didn't have some made with stale bread, that she could let me have for five cents, but she said they didn't sell stale sandwiches. She seemed real put-out about it, too. She needn't have. Stale bread's better for you than fresh, anyhow.
"But I didn't buy one. I wasn't going to throw away ten cents. That's the interest money on a dollar for two whole years."
Then he started back to the house.
"Isn't he the limit!" cried Dick, in despair. "He's got almost as much money as we have, and he's so afraid of spending a cent that he actually goes hungry, I believe. And his house—why he's got a fine one, but the only rooms he and Aunt Samantha ever open are the kitchen and one bedroom. I had to spend some time there once, as I guess you fellows know, and say—good-night!" cried Dick, with a tragic gesture.
"He seemed interested in airships," ventured Paul.
"It was the twenty thousand dollars he was interested in," laughed Dick. "I wonder if he—"
"What?" asked Innis, as the young millionaire paused.
"Oh, nothing," was the answer. "I just thought of something, but it's too preposterous to mention. Say, Mr. Vardon, when do you expect our engine?"
"Oh, in about a week now. I won't be ready for it before then. We can give it a try-out on the blocks before we mount it, to see if it develops enough speed and power. But have you made your official entry for the prize yet?"
"No, and I think I'd better," Dick said. "I'll do it at once."
Dick and his chums had their lunch, and then went for a ride in Dick's motor-boat, which had been brought on from Kentfield. They had a jolly time, and later in the afternoon returned to watch the construction of the airship.
The building of the Abaris, as Dick had decided to call his craft, went on apace during the days that followed. Uncle Ezra was more interested than Dick had believed possible, and prolonged his stay nearly a week. He paid many visits to the airship shed.
Mr. Vardon, and Jack, his right-hand man, and the other workmen labored hard. The airship began to look like what she was intended for. She was of a new model and shape, and seemed to be just what Dick wanted. Of course she was in a sense an experiment.
The main cabin, though, containing the living and sleeping quarters, as well as the machinery, was what most pleased Dick and his chums.
"It's like traveling in a first-class motor-boat, only up in the clouds, instead of in the water," declared Innis.
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