OFF ON THE FLIGHT.
"But, my dear children, do you realize what such a trip means?"
The gentle-voiced Miss Prescott leaned back in her easy-chair and
gazed at Peggy and Roy with an approach to consternation.
"It means fun, adventure, and--oh, everything!" cried Peggy, clapping
her hands.
"You can't have the heart to refuse us," sighed Jess.
"If it were only the boys it might be different, but two young ladies--"
"Three," corrected Bess.
"Three, then. For three young ladies, supposedly of sound mind, to go
flying across country like, like--" "Butterflies," struck in Jimsy.
"Wait a minute," cried Jess, "there'd have to be four ladies--"
"Of course; a chaperon," breathed Peggy, with a mischievous glance.
Miss Prescott dropped her knitting.
"Peggy Prescott, you mean me?"
"Of course; who else could go?"
"My dear child, do you actually contemplate taking me flying through
the air at my time of life?"
"Why not? It isn't as if you'd never been up," urged Peggy.
"You said you liked it, too," struck in Jess.
"Um--well, I may have said so," admitted Miss Prescott, visibly
weakening from the stand she had taken, and she went on: "I would
like to see James again."
"And here is your opportunity ready to hand, as the advertisements say,"
declared Bess, her blue eyes shining.
"But how could I go?"
The question was an outward and visible sign of capitulation on Miss
Prescott's part.
"Why, I was thinking we could use that big biplane I was building for
Mr. Bell's use out in Nevada," spoke up Roy; "it will seat three, and is
as steady as a church, thanks to that balancing device Jimsy and I
figured out."
"I'd fly my little _Dart_," declared Bess.
"And you and I would take the _Golden Butterfly_," cried Peggy, crossing
to Jessie and placing her arm round the dark-haired girl's neck.
"Jimsy can fly the _Red Dragon_, and that leaves Roy and auntie for the
biplane," she went on, bubbling over with enthusiasm as her plans
matured and took form.
"Goodness gracious, an aërial circus!" cried Miss Prescott. "We would
attract crowds, and that wouldn't be pleasant."
"I was planning to make it a sort of picnic," declared Peggy, who
appeared to have an answer for every objection that could be interposed
to her project.
"What, camp out every night? Well, you are a wonder," exclaimed Jimsy,
"if there's one thing I love it's camping out."
"How long would it take us to get to Marysville?" asked Bess.
"I'll get the atlas," cried Peggy, "but if we have good weather not more
than three or four days."
"I hardly think it would take as long as that," declared Roy, as five
eager heads were bent over the atlas.
"But camping out!" exclaimed Miss Prescott, "think of colds and
rheumatism, not to mention snakes and robbers."
"Tell you what," cried Jimsy suddenly, "what's the matter with Miss
Prescott going along in an automobile? We can map out the route, arrange
our stops and meet every evening at some small town where we won't
attract too much of a crowd."
"Jimsy, I always said you were a genius," cried Peggy.
"Behold the last objection swept away," struck in Bess.
"Surely you can't refuse now?" urged Jess.
"Please say yes," came from them all.
"But--but who would drive the car?" asked Miss Prescott, in the voice of
one who is thinking up a feeble last objection.
"Why, Jake Rickets, of course," declared Roy, referring to the man who
helped the boys in the machine shop in which the aëroplanes for the
desert mines were manufactured.
After this Miss Prescott could make but a poor stand against the united
urgings of five impetuous, enthusiastic young people. The air was filled
with plans of all sorts. Jimsy was for going at once, but it was finally
decided to meet again and set a definite date for a start. In the
meantime there were parents' consents to be obtained, plans laid for the
route to be followed, and various things purchased for the aërial trip.
All this occupied some time, and it was not till a week later that the
last difficulty in connection with the motor flight had been
straightened out and the three aëroplanes stood ready, in Roy's hangar,
for a tour that was to prove eventful in more ways than one.
It was just after dawn on the day of the start that Roy and Jimsy for
the last time went over every nut and bolt on the machines and declared
everything in perfect readiness for the trip. Breakfast was a mere
pretence at a meal; excitement got the better of appetites that morning.
Beside the winged machines sputtering and coughing as if impatient at
the delay, was a large and comfortable red touring car. At the driver's
wheel of this vehicle was seated a small, "under-done"-looking man, in a
chauffeur's uniform of black leather. This was Jake Rickets.
"Well, Jake, we're all ready for a start," announced Roy, at last.
The small man, whose hair was fair, not to say pale, glanced at the
glowing boy with an expression of deep melancholy.
"Yes, if something don't happen," he declared, in tones of deep
pessimism.
"Jake's never happy unless he's foreboding some disaster," explained
Roy to Bess, who happened to be standing by drawing on her gloves.
"It don't never do to be too sure," murmured the melancholy Jake,
"'cos why? Well, you can't most generally always tell."
"Everything ready?" cried Peggy at last, as Miss Prescott got into
the car.
"As ready as it ever will be," merrily called back Bess, who was already
seated in the little green _Dart_.
The chorus of engine pantings and explosions was swelled by the roar of
Roy's big biplane and the rattling exhaust of Jimsy's fierce-looking
_Red Dragon_.
The _Golden Butterfly_, which was equipped with a silencing device, ran
smoothly and silently as a sewing machine. Peggy sat at the wheel, while
Jess reclined on the padded seat placed tandemwise behind her. It made a
wonderful picture, the big white biplane with its boy driver, the
scarlet and silver machine of Jimsy Bancroft and the delicate green and
gold color schemes of the other two flying machines.
"The first stop will be Palenville," announced Roy, "the biplane will be
the pathfinder."
Despite the earliness of the hour and the efforts that had been made to
keep the motor flight a secret, the information of the novel experiment
had, in some way, leaked out. Quite a small crowd gave a loud cheer as
Roy cried:
"Go!"
"We're off!" cried Peggy, athrill with excitement.
Propellers flashed in the sunlight and the next instant the biplane,
after a short run, soared aloft toward a sky of cloudless, clean-swept
blue. In rapid succession the _Dart, Golden Butterfly_ and _Red Dragon_
followed.
"Come on," cried Bess to Jimsy, waving her hand challengingly.
"Ladies first, even off the earth," came back from Jimsy gallantly,
as he skillfully "banked" his machine in an upward spiral.
Then upward and outward soared the gayly colored sky racers, like a
flock of wonderful birds. It was the greatest sight that the crowd left
behind and below had ever witnessed, although one or two shook their
heads and prophesied dire results from young ladies tampering with
them blamed "sky buggies."
But not a thought of this entered the heads of the aërial adventurers.
With sparkling eyes, and bounding pulses they flew steadily southward,
from time to time glancing below at the touring car. Even though they
were flying slowly it was plain that the big auto had hard work to keep
up with them. The unique motor flight was on, and was about to develop
experiences of which none of them at the moment dreamed.