"A visitor for yo', Marse Andy," announced Scipio.
"It's only me," said Mr. Chase, stepping into the sitting room of the
aerodrome at the Parks' camp.
"Well, no one is more welcome, Mr. Chase," declared Andy heartily. "Come
in, sit down, and make yourself at home."
"Not till I ask a certain question," dissented the grizzled
lockup-keeper of Princeville.
"Fire away," smiled Andy. "What's the question?"
"Can you get me a job?"
"Right off, and a good one," responded Andy promptly. "My employer, Mr.
Parks, is going into the airship line as a regular professional, and I
don't know a better all-round handy man I would recommend sooner than
you."
"All right," said Chase, with a sigh of relief, dropping into a chair
and placing a bulging, ancient carpet bag on the floor. "I'm done with
lockups."
"Is that so, Mr. Chase?"
"It is, and with that conscienceless old grafter, Talbot. You know I
told you I was waiting for something when I last saw you."
"Yes," nodded Andy.
"It was Wandering Dick."
"So you told me."
"I sent that tramp after him. He found him. I got from Dick what I
wanted, paid for it, resigned my position, and now I am here."
"Quick work."
"And here's what I got from Wandering Dick."
Chase extended to Andy a neatly folded paper.
"And what is this, Mr. Chase?" asked Andy.
"A confession and affidavit."
"How does that interest me?"
"Read and see."
Andy's face grew interested and then startled as he perused the sheet of
paper. It was a legal document attested to by Wandering Dick before a
regular justice of the peace at Princeville.
In his affidavit the tramp stated that on the night that the barn of
Farmer Jones burned down, he was in its hay mow. He saw distinctly the
two boys who set the fire--Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. He got out of
the way for fear of being charged with the crime, sought later shelter
at the jail, and told Chase about it.
The latter was so dependent upon Talbot and in dread of the garage
keeper, who held his position at his mercy, that he made no move to
right Andy with the public until the latter was arrested.
"You have done nobly, Mr. Chase," said Andy with deep gratitude, "and
where is your bill of expenses to settle?"
"Settle nothing!" flared out Chase stormily. "You ever mention it again
and I'll get out of here bag and baggage, double quick."
"Well, well," answered Andy, "we'll try to find some way to make it up
to you."
Two days later Andy learned that the attention of Seth Talbot had been
called to the affidavit. Runaway Gus Talbot and Dale Billings had
returned to Princeville. In some way the garage keeper settled with
Farmer Jones, hushed up the matter, and sent his graceless son on a sea
voyage. The charge against Andy was, of course, dismissed.
Andy went to visit Duske in the town hospital. His accomplice, Tyrrell,
had been driven out of the aviation camp and threatened with a coat of
tar and feathers if he ever returned. The rest of Duske's party
disappeared, and creditors seized what little property he had.
Duske would never drive a balloon or airship again. One arm and one foot
were broken, and he had sustained other severe injuries. Andy found him
a dispirited, wretched man.
He had an object in visiting the crippled aeronaut. He began by telling
Duske that deeply as he tried to wrong Parks, the latter had ordered and
paid for the best care during his stay in the hospital.
"I am circulating a subscription paper among the aviators," added Andy.
"We expect to raise a thousand dollars for you to go to some quiet town
and buy some small business that will give you a living."
No person could resist the kindliness of Andy under the circumstances.
Duske broke down completely. He was as sincere and penitent as a man of
his rough mould of mind could be.
"I don't deserve it, I've been a bad man," he declared, with tears in
his eyes. "What can I do for you for all your kindness to me?"
"You can do something, Mr. Duske," said Andy. "There is a man named
Morse. Do you know him?"
"Why, yes, I do," replied Duske, with a great start. "Do you?"
"I happen to."
"What has he got to do with you and me?"
"Just this," said Andy, "you have treated him badly. He is my friend.
You had a hold on him. What was it?"
"A forgery he never committed."
"Are you willing to prove that, and clear him?"
"Yes, indeed. I've done enough wickedness in the world."
"Then clear his name of an unjust charge, so he can stand before the
public the good, noble man he is."
"I will," declared Duske earnestly, and he did.
One week after the airship race Mr. Webb, to whom Andy had sent the old
leather pocketbook by registered mail the day he recovered it, came down
to the Parks camp.
"I have been too busy to come before," he explained to Andy. "That
document in the old leather pocketbook took up my time. I tell you,
Nelson, it has brought brightness and comfort to two orphan children in
a grand way."
"I am very glad," said Andy.
"I got back the two hundred dollars you left at the bank in
Princeville," continued Mr. Webb. "I have added something to it, and my
attorneys have directed me to pay you what they intended to give the
finder of the pocketbook--five hundred dollars."
Andy made some demur at the largeness of the amount, but Mr. Webb was
persistent, declared he was simply acting as agent for the lawyers, and
Andy had to take the money.
"As to myself," observed the gentleman, "I want to say what you must
already know, Nelson--I am greatly interested in you. I wish you could
suggest some way in which my means can benefit you."
"So do I," broke in John Parks. "The lad is a genius in the aviation
line, and I want him to keep on at it."
"Don't I intend to?" challenged Andy.
"Not when you say you are going to leave me next month," declared the
aeronaut.
"Yes, but why?" said Andy. "I'll leave it to Mr. Webb here if I have not
decided in a sensible, practical way."
"What is it, Nelson?" inquired Mr. Webb.
"Why, I have over two thousand five hundred dollars in the bank. I want
to put one thousand of it aside for my half brother, when he turns up.
He was good and kind to me in the old days, and I must not forget it.
Then I want to go through college and learn something so I may be of
some use in the world."
"An excellent idea," commended Mr. Webb.
"Yes," growled Parks, but playfully, "and spoil a good aviator!"
"Not at all," declared Andy quickly. "I love the airship business, Mr.
Parks, but I want to learn every branch of the science that covers it.
It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, you
say, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and the
professional aviator will be just a common, everyday person."
"Well, I suppose that's so," admitted Parks.
"Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship.
Why, I'll go through college, come out with my head chock full of new
ideas, and Mr. Webb and you and I will get up the World's Airship
Construction Co."
"That's a pretty grand scheme, Nelson," said Mr. Webb.
"Mayn't it become a true one?"
"Yes, it may," said John Parks, "but I'll always think most of you just
as you are--Airship Andy."
THE END
The Webster Series
By Frank V. Webster
Mr. Webster's style is very much like that of the boys' favorite author,
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Only A Farm Boy
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Stories of the great west, with cattle ranches as a setting, related in
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1. THE BOY RANCHERS, or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X
Two eastern boys visit their cousin. They become involved in an exciting
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2. THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP, or The Water Fight at Diamond X
Returning for a summer visit to their western cousin's ranch, the two
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3. THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL, or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers
Our boy heroes take the trail after Del Pinzo and his outlaws.
4. THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS, or Trailing the Yaquis
Rosemary and Floyd visiting their cousins Bud, Nort and Dick, are
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5. THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK, or Fighting the Sheep Herders
Dangerous struggle against desperadoes for land rights brings out heroic
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