"What do you know about that?"
"A regular course in aviation!"
"And birdmen from the United States Army to came here and show us how to do stunts!"
"Well, you fellows can go in for it if you like, but automobiling is dangerous enough sport for me."
"Ah, what's the matter with you? Flying is pretty nearly as safe now as walking! Not half as many birdmen have been killed as there have railroad travelers."
"No, because there are more railroad travelers to be killed. No cloud flights for mine!"
A group of cadets, Dick, Innis and Paul among them, were discussing the latest news at Kentfield.
It was the day following the accident to the biplane. After a brief consultation with Mr. Vardon, and a calling together of his faculty members, Colonel Masterly had made formal announcement that a course in aviation would be open at Kentfield for those who cared to take it.
"I think it will be great!" cried Dick.
"Are you going in for it?" asked Paul.
"I sure am—if dad will let me."
"Oh, I guess he will all right," spoke Innis, "He lets you do almost anything you want to—in reason. But I know a certain person who WILL object."
"Who?" asked Dick, fondling his dog.
"Your Uncle Ezra!"
"I guess that's so!" laughed Dick. "He'll say it's expensive, and all that sort of thing, and that I'll be sure to break my neck, or at least fracture an arm. But we saw one accident that came out pretty well. I think I'll take a chance."
"So will I!" cried Paul.
"I guess you can count me in," agreed Innis, slowly.
"How about it, Larry?" asked Dick, as the young reporter came across the campus. "How does it feel to sail above the clouds?"
"Well, I haven't yet gone up that far. This is only about my fifth flight, and we only did 'grass cutting' for the first few—that is going up only a little way above the ground. I had to get used to it gradually.
"But it's great! I like it, and you're only afraid the first few minutes. After that you don't mind it a bit—that is not until you get into trouble, as we did."
"And I can't understand that trouble, either," said Mr. Vardon, who had joined the group of cadets. "Something went wrong!"
"You mean something was MADE to go wrong," put in Jack Butt, who had now recovered sufficiently to be about.
"Something made to go wrong?" repeated Dick Hamilton, wonderingly.
"That's what I said. That machine was tampered with before we started on our flight. I'm sure of it, and if we could get it up from the bottom of the river I could prove it."
"Be careful," warned the aviator. "Do you know what you are saying, Jack? Who would tamper with my machine?"
"Well, there are many who might have done it," the machinist went on. "Some of the mechanics you have discharged for not doing their work properly might have done it. But the fellow I suspect is that young army officer who got huffy because you wouldn't explain all about your equalizing gyroscope, or stabilizer."
"Oh—you mean him?" gasped the aviator.
"That's the man," declared Jack. "He went off mad when you turned him down, and I heard him muttering to himself about 'getting even.' I'm sure he's the chap to blame for our accident."
"I should dislike to think that of anyone," said Mr. Vardon, slowly. "But I am sure something was wrong with my aircraft. It had worked perfectly in other trials, and then it suddenly went back on me. I should like a chance to examine it."
"We'll try and give you that chance," said Colonel Masterly, who came up at that moment. "We are to have a drill in building a pontoon bridge across the river tomorrow, and I will order it thrown across the stream at the point where your airship went down. Then we may be able to raise the craft."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed the airship man. "I may even be able to save part of my craft, to use in demonstration purposes. I may even be able, to use part of it in building another. It was a fine machine, but something went wrong."
"Something was made to go wrong!" growled Jack Butt. "If ever we raise her I'll prove it, too."
"Well, young gentlemen, I suppose you have heard the news?" questioned the colonel, as the aviator-inventor and his helper walked off to one side of the campus, talking earnestly together.
"You mean about the airship instruction we are to get here, sir?" asked Dick.
"That's it. And I am also glad to announce that I have heard from the war department, and they are going to send some army aviators here to give us the benefit of their work, and also to show some of you cadets how to fly."
There was a cheer at this, though some of the lads looked a bit dubious.
"Are you really going in for it, Dick?" asked Innis, after there had been an informal discussion among the colonel and some of the boys about the aviation instruction.
"Well, I am, unless I change my mind," replied Dick, with a smile. "Of course, after I make my first flight, if I ever do, it may be my last one."
"Huh! You're not taking a very cheerful view of it," retorted Innis, "to think that you're going to come a smash the first shot out of the locker."
"Oh, I didn't mean just that," replied Dick, quickly. "I meant that I might lose my nerve after the first flight, and not go up again."
"Guess there isn't much danger of you losing your nerve," said Paul Drew, admiringly. "I've generally noticed that you have it with you on most occasions."
"Thanks!" exclaimed Dick, with a mock salute.
Strolling over the campus, Dick and his chums talked airships and aviation matters until it was time for guard-mount.
During the next day or two it might have been noticed that Dick Hamilton was rather more quiet than usual. In fact his chums did notice, and comment on it. A number of times they had seen the young millionaire in a brown study, walking off by himself, and again he could be observed strolling about, gazing earnestly up at the clouds and sky.
"Say, I wonder what's come over Dick?" asked Paul of Innis one afternoon.
"Blessed if I know," was the answer, "unless he's fallen in love."
"Get out! He's too sensible. But he sure has something on his mind."
"I agree with you. Well, if he wants to know he'll tell us."
So they let the matter drop for the time being. But Dick's abstraction grew deeper. He wrote a number of letters, and sent some telegrams, and his friends began to wonder if matters at Dick's home were not altogether right.
But the secret, if such it could be called, was solved by the unexpected arrival of Mr. Hamilton at Kentfield. He appeared on the campus after drill one day, and Dick greeted his parent enthusiastically.
"So you got here, after all, Dad?" he cried, as he shook hands, Paul and Innis also coming over to meet the millionaire.
"Well, I felt I just had to come, Dick, after all you wrote and telegraphed me," replied Mr. Hamilton. "I thought we could do better by having a talk than by correspondence. But, I tell you, frankly, I don't approve of what you are going to do."
Dick's chums looked curiously at him.
"I may as well confess," laughed the young millionaire, "I'm thinking of buying an airship, fellows."
"Whew!" whistled Paul.
"That's going some, as the boys say," commented Innis. "Tell us all about it."
"I will," said Dick, frankly. "It's been on my mind the last few days, and—"
"So that's been your worry!" interrupted Paul. "I knew it was something, but I never guessed it was that. Fire ahead."
"Ever since your cousin came here, Innis, in his craft, and since the colonel has arranged for aviation instruction, I've been thinking of having an airship of my own," Dick resumed. "I wrote to dad about it, but he didn't seem to take to the idea very much."
"No, I can't say that I did," said Mr. Hamilton, decidedly. "I consider it dangerous."
"It's getting more safe every day, Dad. Look how dangerous automobiling was at the start, and yet that's nearly perfect now, though of course there'll always be accidents. But I won't go in for this thing, Dad, if you really don't want me to."
"Well, I won't say no, and I'll not say yes—at least not just yet," said Mr. Hamilton slowly. "I want to think it over, have a talk with some of these 'birdmen' as you call them, and then you and I'll consider it together, Dick. That's why I came on. I want to know more about it before I make up my mind."
Mr. Hamilton became the guest of the colonel, as he had done on several occasions before, and, in the following days, he made as careful a study of aviation as was possible under the circumstances. He also had several interviews with Mr. Vardon.
"Have you decided to let your son have an airship of his own?" the colonel asked, when the millionaire announced that he would start for New York the following morning.
"Well, I've been thinking pretty hard about the matter," was the answer. "I hardly know what to do. I'm afraid it's only another one of Dick's hare-brained ideas, and if he goes in for it, he'll come a cropper.
"And, maybe, on the whole, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him go in for it, and make a fizzle of it. It would be a good lesson to him, though I would certainly regret, exceedingly, if he were even slightly injured.
"On the other hand Dick is pretty lucky. He may come out all right. I suppose he'll go in and try to win some prizes at these aviation meets they hold every once in a while."
"Yes, there are to be several," spoke the colonel. "I heard something about the government offering a big prize for a successful trans-continental flight—from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but I know nothing of the details."
"Well, I suppose Dick would be rash enough to try for that, if he hears about it," murmured Mr. Hamilton. "I guess, taking it on all sides, that I'll let him have an airship, if only to prove that he can't work it. He needs a little toning down, most young chaps do, I fancy. I know I did when I was a lad. Yes, if he makes a fizzle of it, the lesson may be worth something to him—throwing his money away on an airship. But I'll give my consent."
And when Dick was told by his parent, not very enthusiastically, that he might secure an aircraft, the young cadet's delight was great.
"That's fine!" he cried, shaking hands heartily with his father.
"Well, I hope you succeed in flying your machine, when you get it, but, as the Scotchman said, 'I have my doubts,'" said Mr. Hamilton, grimly.
"Humph!" mused Dick later. "Dad doesn't think much of me in the aviator class, I guess. But I'll go in for this thing now, if only to show him that I can do it! I've done harder stunts, and if the Hamilton luck doesn't fail, I'll do this. I'll make a long flight, and put one over on dad again. He thinks I can't do it—but I'll show him I can!" exclaimed Dick, with sparkling eyes.
Dick communicated his father's decision to Paul and Innis.
"I'm going to have an airship!" he cried. "It wasn't easy to get dad's consent, but he gave it. Now, how about you fellows coming on a cruise in the clouds with me?"
"Say, how big a machine are you going to have?" Paul wanted to know.
"Well, my ideas are rather hazy yet," admitted the young millionaire, "but if I can get it built, it's going to be one of the biggest airships yet made. We'll travel in style, if we travel at all," he said, with a laugh. "I'm thinking of having an aircraft with some sort of enclosed cabin on it."
"Say, that will be quite an elaborate affair," commented Innis.
"The question is, will you fellows take a chance with me in it?" asked Dick.
"Well, I guess so," responded Paul, slowly.
Innis nodded in rather a faint-hearted fashion.
"Now," said Dick, "I want to see—"
He was interrupted by shouts in the direction of the river.
"There she is!"
"She's floating down!"
"Let's get her!"
A number of cadets were thus crying out.
"Come on!" yelled Dick. "Something's happened! Maybe my motor-boat is adrift!"
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