THE HYDRO-AEROPLANE
The general manager of the Springfield Novelty Manufacturing Company
was plainly anxious and he could hardly wait for Lamar Chase to get rid
of the new crowd that was gathering.
“I want to see you about something, Chase,” the two boys heard him say,
as he leaned over a small counter that had been put up for writing
purposes.
“All right, in a minute, Mason,” returned the plow man. “I’ve got to
’tend to the people here.”
“Well, hurry up--I can’t stay here all day,” grumbled Thomas Mason.
Joe and Fred looked at each other knowingly. They were behind the wall
of a tent that covered some farming machinery, and neither of the men
could see them.
“Now, what is it?” they heard Lamar Chase ask, presently, after he had
explained the working of the patented plow to some farmers and waited
until he had answered their questions and gotten them to take some of
his pamphlets.
“I had some visitors this morning, Chase--two boys from Lakeport,” said
Thomas Mason.
“Well, how does that concern me?” growled the plow man.
“They came to see me about some stock in our concern--some stock they
said Andrew Akers had offered to Horace Westmore, father of one of the
boys.”
“Phew!” whistled the plow man. “Said he had offered it, eh?”
“Yes. They wanted to know if it was good stock and O. K., and all that.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them they would have to bring me the certificate from Akers
before I would give them any information.”
“Did they say they would get it?”
“No. They tried to make me admit that he owned the stock, but I
told them I didn’t keep a list of the stockholders in my head and I
wouldn’t look up the company’s records for them without they showed the
certificate.”
“I see,” responded Lamar Chase, dryly.
“Now look here, Chase, we have got to get down to business,” pursued
Thomas Mason, earnestly. “I’ve got to know just what I can do and what
I can’t do. You must know that just as well as I do.”
“I told you what you can do, Mason.”
“I can’t do that, Chase.”
“All right, then; we’ll let the matter drop.”
“But what good will that do you?” cried the manager of the novelty
company, angrily. “You can’t do anything alone and you know it.”
“Perhaps I can--anyway, I can try.”
“And lose the chance to make a couple of thousand dollars,” stormed
Thomas Mason.
“If I do it will be my loss, not yours, Mason. This is the first chance
I have had in years to make real money and I am going to take it. You
can either take my offer, or--well, I’ll see what I can do on my own
hook.” And Lamar Chase spoke with great earnestness.
“You want too much, I tell you.”
“Only my share.”
“You don’t realize that I am running all the risk.”
“Who ran the first risk?”
“We won’t quarrel about that. Then it’s your idea to share and share
alike?”
“Absolutely.”
Thomas Mason growled something under his breath that the two boys could
not catch. Then Lamar Chase started to speak, but at that moment came
a sudden cry from a crowd near by.
“Look out for that horse!”
A small boy with a toy balloon had walked in front of a horse attached
to a buggy, scaring the animal. The horse danced from one side to the
other and tried to get away from his driver, and there was considerable
confusion. Part of the crowd backed into the tent where Fred and Joe
were standing, and the lads were forced to raise a back flap in order
to get out. Then they found themselves in another crowd and jostled
still further away from the place presided over by Lamar Chase.
“We had better be getting back,” said Joe, when the temporary
excitement was over and the horse had been quieted down. “We are losing
the most important part of that talk.”
“Come on, I’m ready to go back,” answered the stout youth.
But getting back was not so easy, for the crowd was still thick, and
two policemen had run up and they forced the boys to go another way,
around a shed devoted to poultry. But the lads hurried all they could,
and when they got close enough saw that Thomas Mason and Lamar Chase
were still talking earnestly.
“Then that is settled?” they heard the novelty company man say.
“Yes.”
“And you will see me in a day or two?”
“Just as soon as the fair closes and I can wind up matters here, Mason.”
“And I can depend upon you, Chase?”
“Absolutely. I never yet went back on my word--you know that.”
“All right, then. I’ll go ahead as we agreed,” said Thomas Mason; and a
moment later he turned and walked away rapidly, in the direction of the
fairgrounds gate.
“Too bad!” cried Joe. “I believe we missed the most important part of
their talk.”
“So do I,” returned Fred. “What shall we do next, follow him?”
“I don’t think it would do any good. And, besides, we’d miss the
hydro-aeroplane exhibition.”
“Joe, do you think Mr. Mason has the missing certificate?” went on
the stout youth, as the pair turned in the direction of the lake. The
majority of those on the grounds were now moving in the same direction,
all anxious to see what the aviator might do with his new air and water
machine.
“No, I do not, Fred.”
“You don’t!” cried the stout youth, in astonishment.
“That is what I said.”
“Do you mean to say you don’t think Mr. Akers was robbed?”
“Oh, no. But I think this Lamar Chase has the certificate.”
“Oh!”
“This is the way I figure it, although I may be all wrong. I imagine
that both Mason and Chase know Mr. Akers and have had dealings with
him, and we know that these two men here are friendly and have had
numerous dealings in the past. Now I think both knew about this stock
and one or the other suggested that they get hold of the certificate.
Lamar Chase, on the day he visited Joel Runnell’s cottage, saw Mr.
Akers there and made up his mind to watch the old man. He did so, saw
Mr. Akers hide the black box, and opened it and took the certificate
and maybe the other papers. Then he let Thomas Mason know about it.
Mason wanted to give him two thousand dollars for the certificate, and
perhaps the other papers, but Chase wanted more--he wanted to share and
share alike. And now that is what Mason has agreed to do.”
“I believe you are right--it all fits in so well with what we know and
have heard!” cried Fred. “But what is our next move?”
“We’ll go home this evening and tell my father and yours about it. I
think we’d better leave it to them. They may set a private detective at
work.”
Once at the lake shore the two lads, for the time being, forgot all
about the errand that had brought them to Springfield. They got as
close to the hydro-aeroplane as they could, and examined the craft with
interest.
The machine was about the size of the _Skylark_, but had a far
more powerful engine--one of a hundred horse power, so one of the
working-men said. The rudders were all far to the rear, and instead
of a steering wheel there were several levers to be manipulated. At
the bottom were four air-tight pontoons, or flatboats, of heavy sheet
metal, painted green, two in the center and a smaller one at either
side. The machine was fastened to the pontoons by means of hollow metal
rods, of the gaspipe variety, and by a number of wire stays.
“There she goes!” cried the crowd, presently, and as the cry arose the
hydro-aeroplane was shoved across a smooth float onto the calm waters
of the lake. There the curious craft floated as on an even keel but
with a slight tilt backward.
“Wants a little weight in front,” remarked Fred.
“And here it is,” replied Joe, and then a cheer arose as the aviator
appeared, clad in a waterproof suit and cap. He crawled forward through
the machine and took the single seat, and then the affair looked to be
balanced evenly all around.
“All ready! Let her go!” came a minute later, and then followed a
popping from the engine and the propellers began to whir around, faster
and faster. The crowd stopped cheering and gazed in open-mouthed
expectancy.
Suddenly the hydro-aeroplane left the float and went skimming up the
long lake. On and on over the surface of the water it skimmed, sending
a fine spray flying around it. The crowd sent up a roar.
“Look at that thing go!”
“A regular sea-bird, ain’t it?”
“Say, that beats a motor boat all to pieces!”
“Talk about your ferries! A fellow could cross the lake in about ten
seconds in one of those things!”
The crowd watched the hydro-aeroplane almost out of sight. Then the
air-and-water machine made a wide curve and started to come back.
Closer and closer it came to the float and the lake shore, lined with
many thousands of spectators.
“Say, maybe he’ll run into us!”
“No, he won’t! He knows what he is doing.”
Presently the explosions of the motor increased. Then the rudder
control was shifted, and with a whizz the hydro-aeroplane suddenly left
the bosom of the lake and slanted skyward, over the heads of the gaping
crowd. Up and up it went, into the sunshine, until it was fully three
hundred feet in the air. Then the aviator began to circle the main
fairground buildings and the race course.
“Say, that’s fine!” cried Joe. “It’s immense!”
“What a fine getaway he made from the lake,” added Fred. “Why, he
sailed up like a wild duck leaving the water!”
The chums watched the course of the hydro-aeroplane with rapt
attention, as did everybody else in the crowd. It circled around twice
and then made a figure eight.
“By gum! I never thought I’d live to see it!” gasped an old farmer,
standing by. “Sails on the water an’ in the air! Well, I’ll be
switched!” and he shook his beard in wonder.
“He’s coming back!” said Fred, a minute later, and this announcement
proved true. Straight for the lake sailed the hydro-aeroplane, coming
down lower and lower. Then it shot along for several hundred feet on an
even keel and at last touched the surface of the water with a slight
splash. Up the lake it went once more, and then made a slow turn and
came back. The power was shut off, and like some gigantic white swan it
came silently back to the float and stopped there.
For several seconds the crowd was silent, then came a cheering and
a handclapping that could be heard a long distance off. The daring
hydro-aeroplanist got up and bowed and smiled and raised his cap. Then
he leaped to the float and disappeared into a boathouse, leaving the
machine to his assistants. The show was over for the day, and gradually
the larger portion of the crowd dispersed, only a small number
remaining behind to inspect the hydro-aeroplane and see it rolled back
to an ice-house that was being used for a hangar.
“And now for home!” cried Fred. “Joe, wasn’t that fine?”
“Yes, indeed! I am glad we saw it. It’s great sport!”
“Better than plain flying, eh?”
“As good, anyway. But I’m going to learn plain flying first,” added the
Westmore youth, with a smile.
[Illustration: THEN IT SHOT ALONG FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET ON AN EVEN
KEEL.]