Produced by Pat Pflieger. HTML version by Al Haines.
DICK HAMILTON'S AIRSHIP;
OR, A YOUNG MILLIONAIRE IN THE CLOUDS
BY
Howard R. Garis
CONTENTS
I THE FALLING BIPLANE
II THE COLONEL'S OFFER
III DICK'S RESOLVE
IV THE ARMY AVIATORS
V SUSPICIONS
VI DICK'S FIRST FLIGHT
VII A QUEER LANDING
VIII AT HAMILTON CORNERS
IX UNCLE EZRA'S VISIT
X BUILDING THE AIRSHIP
XI A SURPRISE
XII LARSON SEES UNCLE EZRA
XIII UNCLE EZRA ACTS QUEERLY
XIV THE TRIAL FLIGHT
XV IN DANGER
XVI DICK IS WARNED
XVII OFF FOR THE START
XVIII UNCLE EZRA FLIES
XIX UNCLE EZRA'S ACCIDENT
XX IN NEW YORK
XXI OFF FOR THE PACIFIC
XXII UNCLE EZRA STARTS OFF
XXIII AN IMPROMPTU RACE
XXIV GRIT'S GRIP
XXV A FORCED LANDING
XXVI ON LACK MICHIGAN
XXVII A HOWLING GALE
XXVIII ABLAZE IN THE CLOUDS
XXIX THE RIVAL AIRSHIP
XXX AN ATTACK
XXXI THE WRECK
XXXII SAVING UNCLE EZRA
XXXIII WITH UNCLE EZRA'S HELP
CHAPTER I
THE FALLING BIPLANE
"She sure is a fine boat, Dick."
"And she can go some, too!"
"Glad you like her, fellows," replied Dick Hamilton, to the remarks of
his chums, Paul Drew and Innis Beeby, as he turned the wheel of a new
motor-boat and sent the craft about in a graceful sweep toward a small
dock which connected with a little excursion resort on the Kentfield
river.
"Like her! Who could help it?" asked Paul, looking about admiringly at
the fittings of the craft. "Why, you could go on a regular cruise in
her!"
"You might if you kept near your base of supplies," remarked Dick.
"Base of supplies!" laughed Innis. "Can't you forget, for a while,
that you're at a military school, old man, and not give us the sort of
stuff we get in class all the while?"
"Well, what I meant," explained the young millionaire owner of the
motor-boat, "was that you couldn't carry enough food aboard, and have
room to move about, if you went on a very long trip."
"That's right, you couldn't," agreed Paul. "And of late I seem to have
acquired the eating habit in its worst form."
"I never knew the time when you didn't have it," responded Dick. "I'm
going to give you a chance to indulge in it right now, and I'm going to
profit by your example."
"What's doing?" asked Innis, as he straightened the collar of his
military blouse, for the three were in the fatigue uniforms of the
Kentfield Military Academy, where Dick and his chums attended. Lessons
and practice were over for the day, and the young millionaire had
invited his friends out for a little trip in his new motor-boat.
"I thought we'd just stop at Bruce's place, and get a sandwich and a
cup of coffee," suggested Dick. "Then we can go on down the river and
we won't have to be back until time for guard-mount. We'll be better
able to stand it, if we get a bite to eat."
"Right you are, old chap!" exclaimed Paul, and then he, too, began to
smooth the wrinkles out of his blouse and to ease his rather tight
trousers at the knees.
"Say, what's the matter with you dudes, anyhow?" asked Dick, who, after
glancing ahead to see that he was on the right course to the dock,
looked back to give some attention to the motor.
"Matter! I don't see anything the matter," remarked Innis in casual
tones, while he flicked some dust from his shoes with a spare pocket
handkerchief.
"Why, you two are fussing as though you were a couple of girls at your
first dance," declared Dick, as he adjusted the valves of the oil cups
to supply a little more lubricant to the new motor, which had not yet
warmed up to its work. "Innis acts as though he were sorry he hadn't
come out in his dress uniform, and as for you, Paul, I'm beginning to
think you are afraid you hadn't shaved. What's it all about, anyhow?
Old man Bruce won't care whether you have on one tan shoe and one black
one; or whether your hair is parted, or not."
Then Dick, having gotten the motor running to his satisfaction, looked
toward the dock which he was rapidly nearing in his boat. The next
moment he gave a whistle of surprise.
"Ah, ha! No wonder!" he cried. "The girls? So that's why you fellows
were fixing up, and getting yourselves to look pretty. And you let me
monkey with the motor, and get all grease and dirt while you-- Say, I
guess we'll call off this eating stunt," and he swung over the steering
wheel.
"Oh, I say?" protested Innis.
"Don't be mean?" added Paul. "We haven't seen the girls in some time,
and there's three of 'em--"
Dick laughed. On the dock, under the shade of an awning, he had caught
sight of three pretty girls from town--girls he and his chums knew
quite well. They were Mabel Hanford, in whom Dick was more than
ordinarily interested, Grace Knox, and Irene Martin.
"I thought I'd get a rise out of you fellows," the young millionaire
went on. "Trying to get me in bad, were you!"
The boat swerved away from the dock. The girls, who had arisen,
evidently to come down to the float, and welcome the approaching
cadets, seemed disappointed. One of them had waved her handkerchief in
response to a salute from Paul.
"Here, take some of this and clean your face," suggested Paul, handing
Dick some cotton waste from a seat locker.
"And here's a bit for your shoes," added Innis, performing a like
service. "You'll look as good as we do."
"What about my hands?" asked Dick. "Think I want to go up and sit
alongside of a girl with paws like these?" and he held out one that was
black and oily.
"Haven't you any soap aboard?" asked Innis, for he, like Paul, seemed
anxious that Dick should land them at the dock where the girls were.
"Oh, well, if you fellows are as anxious as all that I s'pose I'll have
to humor you," agreed Dick, with a grin. "I dare say Bruce can let me
wash up in his place," and he turned the craft back on the course he
had previously been holding. A little later the motor-boat was made
fast to the float, and the three cadets were greeting the three girls.
"Look out for my hands!" warned Dick, as Miss Hanford's light summer
dress brushed near him. "I'm all oil and grease. I'll go scrub up, if
you'll excuse me."
"Certainly," said Mabel Hanford, with a rippling laugh.
When Dick returned, he ordered a little lunch served out on the end of
the dock, where they could sit and enjoy the cool breezes, and look at
the river on which were many pleasure craft.
"Where were you boys going?" asked Grace Knox, as she toyed with her
ice-cream spoon.
"Coming to see you," answered Paul promptly.
"As if we'd believe that!" mocked Irene. "Why, you were going right
past here, and only turned in when you saw us!"
"Dick didn't want to come at all," said Innis.
"He didn't! Why not?" demanded Mabel.
"Bashful, I guess," murmured Paul.
"No, it was because I didn't want to inflict the company of these two
bores on you ladies!" exclaimed Dick, thus "getting back."
There was much gay talk and laughter, and, as the afternoon was still
young, Dick proposed taking the girls out for a little jaunt in his new
craft He had only recently purchased it, and, after using it at
Kentfield, he intended taking it with him to a large lake, where he and
his father expected to spend the Summer.
"Oh, that was just fine!" cried Mabel, when the ride was over, and the
party was back at the pier. "Thank you, so much, Dick!"
"Humph! You have US to thank--not him!" declared Paul. "He wouldn't
have turned in here if we hadn't made him. And just because his hands
had a little oil on!"
"Say, don't believe him!" protested the young millionaire. "I had
proposed coming here before I knew you girls were on the dock."
"Well, we thank all THREE of you!" cried Irene, with a bow that
included the trio of cadets.
"Salute!" exclaimed Paul, and the young soldiers drew themselves up
stiffly, and, in the most approved manner taught at Kentfield, brought
their hands to their heads.
"'Bout face! Forward--march!" cried Grace, imitating an officer's
orders, and the boys, with laughs stood "at ease."
"See you at the Junior prom!"
"Yes, don't forget."
"And save me a couple of hesitation waltzes!"
"Can you come for a ride tomorrow?"
"Surely!"
This last was the answer of the girls to Dick's invitation, and the
exclamations before that were the good-byes between the girls and boys,
reference being made to a coming dance of the Junior class.
Then Dick and his chums entered the motor-boat and started back for the
military academy.
"You've got to go some to get back in time to let us tog up for
guard-mount," remarked Paul, looking at his watch.
"That's right," added Innis. "I don't want to get a call-down. I'm
about up to my limit now.
"We'll do it all right," announced Dick. "I haven't speeded the motor
yet. I've been warming it up. I'll show you what she can do!"
He opened wider the gasoline throttle of the engine, and advanced the
timer. Instantly the boat shot ahead, as the motor ran at twice the
number of revolutions.
"That's something like!" cried Paul admiringly.
"She sure has got speed," murmured Innis.
On they sped, talking of the girls, of their plans for the summer, and
the coming examinations.
"Hark! What's that?" suddenly asked Paul, holding up his hand for
silence.
They were made aware of a curious, humming, throbbing sound.
"Some speed boat," ventured Dick.
"None in sight," objected Paul, with a glance up and down the river,
which at this point ran in a straight stretch for two miles or more.
"You could see a boat if you could hear it as plainly as that."
"It's getting louder," announced Innis.
Indeed the sound was now more plainly to be heard.
Paul gave a quick glance upward.
"Look, fellows!" he exclaimed. "An airship!"
The sound was right over their heads now, and as all three looked up
they saw, soaring over them, a large biplane, containing three figures.
It was low enough for the forms to be distinguished clearly.
"Some airship!" cried Dick, admiringly.
"And making time, too," remarked Innis.
Aircraft were no novelties to the cadets. In fact part of the
instruction at Kentfield included wireless, and the theoretical use of
aeroplanes in war. The cadets had gone in a body to several aviation
meets, and once had been taken by Major Franklin Webster, the
instructor in military tactics, to an army meet where several new forms
of biplanes and monoplanes had been tried out, to see which should be
given official recognition.
"I never saw one like that before," remarked Paul, as they watched the
evolutions of the craft above them.
"Neither did I," admitted Dick.
"I've seen one something like that," spoke Innis.
"Where?" his chums wanted to know, as Dick slowed down his boat, the
better to watch the biplane, which was now circling over the river.
"Why, a cousin of mine, Whitfield Vardon by name, has the airship craze
pretty bad," resumed Innis. "He has an idea he can make one that will
maintain its equilibrium no matter how the wind blows or what happens.
But, poor fellow, he's spent all his money on experiments and he hasn't
succeeded. The last I heard, he was about down and out, poor chap. He
showed me a model of his machine once, and it looked a lot like this.
But this one seems to work, and his didn't--at least when I saw it."
"It's mighty interesting to watch, all right," spoke Paul, "but we'll
be in for a wigging if we miss guard-mount. Better speed her along,
Dick."
"Yes, I guess so. But we've got time--"
Dick never finished that sentence. Innis interrupted him with a cry of:
"Look, something's wrong on that aircraft!"
"I should say so!" yelled Paul. "They've lost control of her!"
The big biplane was in serious difficulties, for it gave a lurch,
turned turtle, and then, suddenly righting, shot downward for the river.
"They're going to get a ducking, all right!" cried Innis.
"Yes, and they may be killed, or drowned," added Paul.
"I'll do what I can to save 'em!" murmured Dick, as he turned on more
power, and headed his boat for the place where the aircraft was likely
to plunge into the water.
Hardly had he done so when, with a great splash, and a sound as of an
explosion, while a cloud of steam arose as the water sprayed on the hot
motor, the aircraft shot beneath the waves raised by the
rapidly-whirling propellers.
"Stand ready now!"
"Get out a preserver!"
"Toss 'em that life ring!"
"Ready with the boat hook! Slow down your engine, Dick."
The motor-boat was at the scene of the accident, and when one of the
occupants of the wrecked airship came up to the surface Dick made a
grab for him, catching the boat hook in the neck of his coat.
The next instant Dick gave a cry of surprise.
"Larry Dexter--the reporter!" he fairly shouted. "How in the world--"
"Let me get aboard--I'll talk when--when I get rid of--of--some of this
water!" panted Larry Dexter. "Can you save the others?"
"I've got one!" shouted Paul. "Give me a hand, Innis!"
Together the two cadets lifted into the motorboat a limp and bedraggled
figure. And, no sooner had he gotten a glimpse of the man's face, than
Innis Beeby cried:
"By Jove! If it isn't my cousin, Whitfield Vardon!"