THE BIRD BOYS’ AEROPLANE WONDER
[Illustration: Judge of Their Astonishment and Wild Delight When They Saw
the Aeroplane Leave the Earth.]
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THE BIRD BOYS’ AEROPLANE WONDER
Or
Young Aviators On a Cattle Ranch
By
JOHN LUTHER LANGWORHTY
Chicago
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
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Copyright 1914
M. A. Donohue & Company
Chicago
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CONTENTS
I Under the Spreading Beech
II “Glorious News!”
III Looking For Trouble
IV The Panic That Came to Pass
V What They Found at Witherspoon
VI At the Double X Ranch
VII A Pretty Close Call
VIII Broncho Buster Meets His Match
IX Figuring It All Out
X Learning the Ropes on the Ranch
XI Out for Bear
XII The Defense of the Log Bridge
XIII Never-to-be-Forgotten Days
XIV Off For the Round-Up
XV The One Who Came Back
XVI An Alarming Discovery
XVII The Carrying Off of Little Becky
XVIII The Aeroplane Pursuit
XIX Over Plain and Desert
XX What Andy Saw From Aloft
XXI The Terror of the Air
XXII The Bird Boys’ Triumph
XXIII Home Again—Conclusion
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The Bird Boys’ Aeroplane Wonder
Or, Young Aviators On a Cattle Ranch
CHAPTER I—UNDER THE SPREADING BEECH
“Was there ever such great luck, fellows?”
“Whew! for one, I feel like giving a vote of thanks to the striking
masons, who loafed pretty much all summer, and held the repair work
on the Bloomsbury High building up till now.”
“Them’s my sentiments, Elephant!”
“And they say now the work can’t be finished and school taken up
till December! What d’ye think of that, Frank, and you, Larry?”
“Glory to goodness! two extra months’ vacation, and right through
October too, when the chestnuts are ripe, and walnuts are dropping!
What bully days we’ve got ahead of us, boys!”
“And November, too, mind you,” went on the little “runt” who had
been called “Elephant” in a joke by his chums and could not shake
off the name, “the month when the frisky cottontail is also ripe.
Say, Frank, won’t you have a ge-lorious time trying out that new
Marlin pump-gun you got for your last birthday?”
The third member of the group sitting under the beech tree had as
yet not spoken, since his two companions started to give expression
to their extravagant delight over the wonderful news brought by
Fenimore Cooper Small, the aforesaid “Elephant,” whose father
happened to be the head Selectman of the town, and could fetch the
decision of the Board of School Trustees home before the rest of the
worthy citizens had been put wise to the facts.
“Well,” said Frank Bird, with one of his rare smiles that always
made him friends wherever he went, “I had a pretty good idea it
would end that way, when I heard how the trustees failed to find any
building in town that would answer to house the high school pupils.
Yes, I’m glad for some things, and sorry for others. But it’ll give
the Bird boys a chance to do a little more flying before winter sets
in and stops all that fun.”
Frank and his cousin Andy had become quite famous throughout the
region around Bloomsbury, a town in Central New York, on account of
the wonderful success they had made of aviation.
Indeed, some of the doings of the Bird Boys, as they were called,
had even found their way into the columns of the big metropolitan
papers, and among professional birdmen they were looked upon as most
promising “comers.”
Back of Frank’s house—where he lived with his father, Professor
Bird, once a noted balloonist and scientist, together with an old
gentleman who had served as guardian to Frank when his father was
believed to have perished on one of his long flights while exploring
parts of the Panama Isthmus—in a field some distance in the rear of
his house there had been built a fine workshop, where the two boys
spent most of their time when not in the air.
Already they had invented quite a few ingenious contrivances which
gave promise that some day their names would figure along with those
that have made aviation in heavier-than-air machines what it is
today—those of the Wright brothers.
Close to this workshop was the great “hangar” in which they kept
their aeroplane when it was not in use; and since enemies had
frequently tried to injure their property these buildings were not
only securely locked but as a rule watched of nights.
To tell even a small portion of the doings of these bold cousins
when navigating the air would consume too much space and time; and
the reader who has been unfortunate enough not to have enjoyed their
perusal is referred back to the previous volumes in this Series,
where they will be found recorded at length, and the story told in
an entertaining manner.
The third member of the little group taking it easy under the wide
spreading beech tree, with its thick branches, was one Larry
Geohegan, a firm friend of the Bird boys; whose only fault was the
envy he often felt because he could never accompany either of his
flying chums aloft, being afflicted with a weakness that made him
dizzy whenever he looked down from any height.
Elephant had met the other two quite by accident on the road, and
stopped to communicate the grand news, which he had heard his father
tell at the breakfast table.
Apparently the other two lads were going fishing, for they had poles
and bait cans lying on the ground. There was a beautiful lake named
Sunrise, upon which the town lay; and a mile away a stream ran into
this which could always be depended upon to furnish a splendid
string of bass, chubs, sunfish and horned pouts or catfish, when the
wind was favorable, as happened on this lovely morning. “What were
you waiting here for under this tree; did you expect Andy to show
up?” asked Elephant after he had declared his intention of joining
the fishing party, and cutting a pole when he got on the grounds.
“Just what we did,” replied Frank. “He spent last night out at
Spencer’s, because as you all know, the old gentleman is especially
fond of Andy, and every once in so often begs him to come out and
cheer him up.”
“Yes, and they do say he means to leave all he’s got to Andy, in
trust of his father, Doctor Bird,” declared Larry, that little
streak of envy again making itself evident in his voice; for it did
seem to him that things were always coming to his chums and passing
him by.
“Oh! that’s silly talk,” laughed Frank, “I wouldn’t pay any
attention to it, if I were you, Larry. I’m sure Andy never gives
such a thing a thought. He’s only too glad to oblige the poor old
man who’s so crippled with rheumatism that he can hardly hobble
around. And you know that years and years ago he used to be a noted
traveler, and a lecturer as well. Why, fellows, there hasn’t hardly
been a country on the face of the earth that Mr. Spencer hasn’t
visited, and explored. I could sit for hours and just hear him tell
about what he’s seen and gone through with. I try to go out with
Andy every chance I get; but last night I was too busy with a knotty
problem I had to solve.”
“I just bet you it was about some new contraption you’re making up
to surprise the flying people. Already you’ve done a heap along that
line, Frank; and they do say that the time is sure to come when
you’ll give the Wrights, and all that bunch, a rude jolt, by
inventing something that they’ve all been trying hard to discover,
but nixey, nothing doing up to date; because the time ain’t ripe,
and the Bird boys haven’t had a fair chance to show what they can
do.”
Frank only laughed when Elephant applied this thick coat of
flattery. He was accustomed to hearing this sort of talk from that
quarter; because the Small boy had always been one of his greatest
admirers from the time when he and Andy were struggling with their
first rude pattern of an aeroplane, in which they had installed some
sort of cranky engine, and actually taken short flights, without
getting their necks or legs broken.
“But you must have agreed to meet Andy here then, didn’t you?”
Elephant went on to remark, stretching his neck to glance along the
road as he spoke.
“That was the agreement when he went off on his wheel yesterday
afternoon,” replied Frank Bird. “If the morning looked fishy, Larry
and myself were to wait here under the old beech at eight o’clock
until he came along. You see, I’ve got a pole for him; and we dug
lots of worms. Larry even went out last night with a lantern, and
picked up a can of big fat night-walkers that look like young
snakes. I dropped in at Andy’s house on the way here, and told them
he wouldn’t be back till evening, if the fish took good, and the
bathing turned out fine. We’ve also got plenty of grub along; yes,
enough for you, too, Elephant.”
“Hoop-la! you make me feel happy when you say that, Frank; because I
was born with an appetite, you must know; and when I can’t get my
grub at least three times per diem I’m apt to complain,” and the
Small boy grinned good-naturedly as he made this remark.
“I say, Frank, have you and Andy invested that reward money the bank
insisted on you accepting when you captured the two hobo yeggmen who
broke into their safe; and also stole Percy Carberry’s biplane to
make their get-away in?” asked Larry, who, it might as well be
confessed right here, had a pretty average streak of curiosity in
his make-up, and was forever wanting to know this, that, and the
other thing.
“Oh!” answered the other carelessly, “we’ve still got that in bank,
and may put it into another machine later on; or else invest in some
parts we want to work with, Andy having a new idea this time that
looks worth while experimenting with.”
“You sure are the luckiest pair I ever ran up against, and that’s a
fact!” declared Larry.
“We think so ourselves,” Frank admitted. “There’s one thing certain,
and that is we don’t deserve all the great times we’ve been having
this year and more.”
“Don’t you believe it!” exclaimed Elephant. “It ain’t luck so much
as being everlastingly at it, and minding how you do things. You
deserve all you’ve got, Frank; and lots of people say so besides
me.”
“Here comes Andy,” remarked Larry, anxious to turn the conversation
just then, for he was really somewhat ashamed of his weakness, “I
saw him flash past that open place up the road, and spinning along
like fun.”
“Yes, you’re right there, Larry,” added Frank, “and here he is.” A
boy mounted on a fine bicycle came whirling along the road, and
speedily drew up at the beech with the dense foliage, which later on
would yield a harvest of the small but sweet nuts boys love so well
when it is a “fat” season.
Andy Bird was not quite as tall as his cousin, though well built and
rather stocky at that. There was more or less resemblance between
them, although their temperaments differed in many ways, Andy being
more inclined to impulsiveness than the cooler and far-seeing Frank.
But they were exceedingly fond of each other, and had been
inseparable for years.
Andy threw himself from his saddle, and lowering his wheel to the
ground after the usual boyish way, dropped down beside the others.
“Whew! I hit it up at a lively clip all the way down!” he remarked.
“You see, it’s awful hard to break away from Mr. Spencer, and he
kept me up to the last minute. I knew you said eight o’clock, Frank,
and I didn’t want to keep you waiting. Glad you turned up, Elephant;
we tried to get you on the phone yesterday afternoon; but they said
you’d gone off, and nobody knew where. Going with us, ain’t you?”
“Make your mind easy on that, Andy,” replied the diminutive
Elephant, glibly. “I never could hold out when there was any fishing
going on. I just revel in pulling out the gamey bass, the festive
catfish, and the acrobatic eel; while as for perch and pickerel and
sunfish, why, I delight to see them wriggling on the hook, ready to
take their places in the pan. See you’ve got a fryingpan along,
Larry; and that means we’ll have fish for dinner today—after we grab
’em out of the water.”
“But Andy, think of the bully good news Elephant’s gone and brought
with him,” Larry went on to say, jubilantly, “the trustees have
finally decided that, as the big repairs on the high school building
have been started, and can’t possibly be done till early winter,
why, because there’s no place in town that could be used just now,
vacation has got to be lengthened until about the first of
December.”
Andy Bird looked delighted, as what boy would not. Immediately his
eyes traveled in the direction of his cousin, and there was
exchanged between them a significant series of nods and winks, that
possibly meant their thoughts were along the same lines; and that
now they would have the time to go with certain work that had been
taking their attention of late. “By the way,” said Frank, “I stopped
at your house on the way out, Andy, to tell your father that you
would go fishing with us, and not to expect you till night. And he
gave me a letter for you that he said had come in the early morning
mail. From the postmark I see it’s from your uncle Jethro, away down
on that Arizona ranch you were telling me about. Here it is, and a
fine fat one too.”
Andy hastily opened the letter, and was heard to give vent to a low
cry that seemed to spell both astonishment and delight.
“What’s this mean?” exclaimed Frank, stooping to pick up a paper
that had fallen to the ground, “why, as sure as you live, it’s a
check made out to you, Andy, and signed by the old bachelor uncle,
your mother’s brother. Hold your breath, fellows, while I whisper
what the amount is he takes pleasure in sending to his beloved
nephew—four figures in it, as sure as you live—a clean thousand
dollars!”
Larry gave a groan and threw up his hands while his eyes rolled.
“Of all the lucky fellows, you Bird boys do certain sure take the
cake!” he cried.