THE CHALLENGE
Frank laughed heartily, so that Andy turned toward him in surprise. Of
course it was silly to think of such a thing as a bomb, in connection
with the object Sandy had dropped. Then again, Frank had seen that it
was bound to fall at some little distance away from the shed. He also
caught the unmistakable flutter of paper, and could give a pretty
accurate guess as to what it all meant.
"It's dropped, Frank, and didn't go off!" exclaimed Larry, having
himself been more or less influenced by the panic into which timid
Elephant had fallen.
Frank started forward as if bent upon approaching the object that lay
upon the ground; while the biplane was now heading straight away, as if
it might be the intention of the pilot to seek new pastures.
"Be careful, Frank!" called out Larry.
"Yes, go mighty slow, please!" added Elephant, thrusting his head out
from cover, much as a cautious old tortoise might do, to see if the
coast were clear.
They saw Frank reach the object, and immediately pick it up. He seemed
to be examining it with more or less interest.
"Why, I declare if I don't believe it's only a block of wood after
all," remarked Larry, in disgust.
"Sure it is; anybody could see that!" declared Elephant, who had
managed to slide out from under the woodpile most adroitly, and was
rubbing his cheeks to induce a return of his customary color.
"Frank's reading something, fellows!" cried Andy. "I know what it must
be; and just like that sassy Perc Carberry to send it in that way. He
wants to do everything just like he was on the stage, you know."
"A challenge!" burst out Larry.
"Sure thing!" piped up Elephant, grinning now, and ready to make it
appear that he had guessed this from the very first, and that his
actions had been in the light of a huge joke.
Frank had turned around now, and was approaching them, still engrossed
with what he had found on the paper Sandy had dropped, with a heavy
block of wood to carry it direct to the earth.
"What is it, Frank?" asked his cousin.
"Yes, tell us before we burst, please!" Elephant pleaded.
"Me too!" said Larry, feeling that he ought to be heard.
"D-d-do it, F-f-frank!"
"All right, fellows," replied the other, nodding and smiling, as if
something had pleased him. "Suppose we sit down on that long bench in
front of the shed."
He had no sooner dropped upon the wooden settee than there were a
couple of eager boys hanging over either shoulder.
"It's a challenge, all right?" said Andy, his eyes sparkling.
"Yes, that's where you hit the nail on the head," replied the other.
"And like everything that Percy manages, it is gotten up in a way to
sting. We might decline an ordinary, everyday challenge; but he
manages to fix it so that you've just got to accept, or be set down as
afraid."
"Huh! no danger of our not taking him up on anything that's half way
fair," said Andy, promptly. "And now suppose you read it out to us,
Frank."
"Here goes then. He's got it headed 'A Challenge!' And then right
below he gets down to business in this way: 'Frank Bird and Andy Bird,
Aviators!'"
"Wow!" cried Larry, "that sounds all the good; but he's giving you that
taffy only because he wants to claim the same title himself; ain't it
so, Frank?"
"You'll see presently. Here's the way he goes on, fellows: 'Greeting:
I hereby challenge you to a trial of skill and speed with our
respective biplanes, same to take place within three days from date, at
an hour to be selected mutually. Said test to include first, a thirty
mile straightaway race, and circle the liberty pole on the Commons at
Hazenhurst; next altitude, to be decided by the barograph carried on
each biplane; then three times around the peak of Old Thunder Top; and
finally the feat of volplaning from the greatest height, to land on
Bloomsbury high school campus. Other rules for this race to be
arranged between us at a meeting to be held later on. If you decline
to accept this challenge I propose to go over the aforesaid schedule
alone, and claim a victory.' And then underneath it all he signs
himself: 'Percy Carberry, Aviator.'"
The boys looked at each other.
"Sounds like a real good test, Frank!" suggested Larry, cautiously.
"Just what I was going to say," Elephant put in, watching Frank's face,
and seeing what he considered favorable signs there.
"And I move for one that the challenge be immediately accepted, so that
further arrangements may be made!" Andy observed, grimly.
"Well," remarked Frank, slowly; "we'll consider it. As a rule, you
know, fellows, I'm not much in favor of racing, when there's so much
danger involved, but just as I said a bit ago, Percy knows how to fix
things so as to stick pins in you. He's written his challenge in a way
that makes us accept, or be branded for cowards."
"Oh, he needn't have worried about that!" cried Andy, angrily. "If he
knows anything about the Bird boys he ought to make sure they never
take water. Didn't we see whatever he did before, and go him one
better? And down in the land of revolution he knows who carried off
the honors, as well as saved him from those men who had him in their
power. Frank, we've just got to do it!"
"I suppose so, Andy," returned his cousin; "but if you think that
another win on our part is going to close Percy up like a clam you're
away off. He makes me think of a medicine ball--every time you hit it
and send it flying, it comes back again as chipper as ever. He just
won't stay down, that's all."
"I don't agree with you there," said Andy. "If we can only rub it into
him hard enough, Percy will never have the nerve to hold up his head
again in Bloomsbury."
"But we can't expect to do that, you know," Frank went on. "He seems
to have a splendid machine there, that will make us hustle all we know
how to pass ahead. And even you give the fellow credit for knowing his
business. He's a bird boy all right, even if his name happens to be
Carberry. No overconfidence, Andy. That's lost any number of races
that ought to have been won, hands down."
"Oh! I understand that, Frank," the other said; "but I believe in you,
and that Perc ain't in the same class. Count on him to make a mistake
when the crisis comes. And if he thinks he's going to be passed there
ain't any low down trick he wouldn't be guilty of. I leave it to
Larry, Nat and Elephant if that isn't right."
"I've known him to do lots of mean things," spoke up Elephant,
promptly; "and if I had to enter a race with him I tell you right now
I'd keep out of his reach, all right."
"The best way is to get the lead in the start, and never let him come
within striking distance. Then you could snap your fingers at his
games," declared Larry.
"Say, there is something in that, Frank," Andy admitted.
"I believe it," returned the other young aviator. "The only trouble I
can see is that Percy usually starts off with a furious rush, and takes
the lead. He believes it gives him an advantage, and perhaps it does.
Every fellow has his pet theories in a race, and no two of them may be
alike."
"I guess the main idea with him is that he can get in some of his dirty
work if he sees the other is passing him," Andy sneered.
Frank shook his head at him; but on the whole did not know that he
could blame Andy for feeling so bitterly toward the other. Their
experiences with Percy in the past had been far from pleasant; and many
times had he attempted some unscrupulous game that had stirred Andy's
fighting blood to the boiling point.
As for Sandy Hollingshead, Andy's opinion of him as a sneak was known
to every boy in Bloomsbury; nor did the party most interested seem to
care to knock off the chip aggressive Andy had long carried on his
shoulder.
The aeroplane had vanished beyond the high fringe of trees. Possibly
Percy had headed for town to show off his new purchase to the gaping
Bloomsbury crowds, certain to come rushing from houses and stores as
soon as the word was passed around that a flying machine was hovering
overhead.
As the afternoon passed, the boys debated pro and con concerning the
challenge. Frank had agreed to accept, much to the delight of the
others, and his answer was carefully prepared, so as to cover every
point in question.
He and Andy realized that after all, their prediction as to a storm had
failed, for the clouds seemed to have passed away, leaving the day
hotter than ever.
"Whew! ain't I glad though I can camp on a night like this," said
Elephant, as started in to assist Larry get dinner ready.
"Just what I was thinking," added the chief cook, looking up from his
task with a grin of pleasure. "I've got the peskiest hot room ever, on
a still summer night like this is goin' to be; right under the roof,
cold as a barn in winter; roasting in July and August. Say, I've often
said they'd find me fried like a doughnut some fine morning; or froze
stiff. This thing just suits me to a whiz."
"Heard Frank ask the Colonel to eat with us tonight; so I s'pose we're
going to have an extra good spread," Elephant went on, scraping the
potatoes industriously.
"That's what," chuckled the other. "You just leave it with your uncle,
and the chances are you won't be disappointed much. I like good things
myself. Used to say I was going to study to be a great chef when I
grew up. May yet, who knows? What's Frank and Andy doing with that
wire right now?"
"Why, you see the Colonel made 'em promise to connect him with the
shed; so in case any row happened to be pulled off here he'd know it.
Hard for him to understand he's out of the game with that crippled leg.
He's been doing things all his life. I think he's the most wonderful
old codger I ever knew."
"And that's where you're just about right, Larry. We must make him
tell us some of his travel yarns tonight while we sit around," Elephant
declared.