DICK'S RESOLVE
"What do you know about that?"
"A regular course in aviation!"
"And birdmen from the United States Army to came here and show us how
to do stunts!"
"Well, you fellows can go in for it if you like, but automobiling is
dangerous enough sport for me."
"Ah, what's the matter with you? Flying is pretty nearly as safe now
as walking! Not half as many birdmen have been killed as there have
railroad travelers."
"No, because there are more railroad travelers to be killed. No cloud
flights for mine!"
A group of cadets, Dick, Innis and Paul among them, were discussing the
latest news at Kentfield.
It was the day following the accident to the biplane. After a brief
consultation with Mr. Vardon, and a calling together of his faculty
members, Colonel Masterly had made formal announcement that a course in
aviation would be open at Kentfield for those who cared to take it.
"I think it will be great!" cried Dick.
"Are you going in for it?" asked Paul.
"I sure am--if dad will let me."
"Oh, I guess he will all right," spoke Innis, "He lets you do almost
anything you want to--in reason. But I know a certain person who WILL
object."
"Who?" asked Dick, fondling his dog.
"Your Uncle Ezra!"
"I guess that's so!" laughed Dick. "He'll say it's expensive, and all
that sort of thing, and that I'll be sure to break my neck, or at least
fracture an arm. But we saw one accident that came out pretty well. I
think I'll take a chance."
"So will I!" cried Paul.
"I guess you can count me in," agreed Innis, slowly.
"How about it, Larry?" asked Dick, as the young reporter came across
the campus. "How does it feel to sail above the clouds?"
"Well, I haven't yet gone up that far. This is only about my fifth
flight, and we only did 'grass cutting' for the first few--that is
going up only a little way above the ground. I had to get used to it
gradually.
"But it's great! I like it, and you're only afraid the first few
minutes. After that you don't mind it a bit--that is not until you get
into trouble, as we did."
"And I can't understand that trouble, either," said Mr. Vardon, who had
joined the group of cadets. "Something went wrong!"
"You mean something was MADE to go wrong," put in Jack Butt, who had
now recovered sufficiently to be about.
"Something made to go wrong?" repeated Dick Hamilton, wonderingly.
"That's what I said. That machine was tampered with before we started
on our flight. I'm sure of it, and if we could get it up from the
bottom of the river I could prove it."
"Be careful," warned the aviator. "Do you know what you are saying,
Jack? Who would tamper with my machine?"
"Well, there are many who might have done it," the machinist went on.
"Some of the mechanics you have discharged for not doing their work
properly might have done it. But the fellow I suspect is that young
army officer who got huffy because you wouldn't explain all about your
equalizing gyroscope, or stabilizer."
"Oh--you mean him?" gasped the aviator.
"That's the man," declared Jack. "He went off mad when you turned him
down, and I heard him muttering to himself about 'getting even.' I'm
sure he's the chap to blame for our accident."
"I should dislike to think that of anyone," said Mr. Vardon, slowly.
"But I am sure something was wrong with my aircraft. It had worked
perfectly in other trials, and then it suddenly went back on me. I
should like a chance to examine it."
"We'll try and give you that chance," said Colonel Masterly, who came
up at that moment. "We are to have a drill in building a pontoon
bridge across the river tomorrow, and I will order it thrown across the
stream at the point where your airship went down. Then we may be able
to raise the craft."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed the airship man. "I may even be able to
save part of my craft, to use in demonstration purposes. I may even be
able, to use part of it in building another. It was a fine machine,
but something went wrong."
"Something was made to go wrong!" growled Jack Butt. "If ever we raise
her I'll prove it, too."
"Well, young gentlemen, I suppose you have heard the news?" questioned
the colonel, as the aviator-inventor and his helper walked off to one
side of the campus, talking earnestly together.
"You mean about the airship instruction we are to get here, sir?" asked
Dick.
"That's it. And I am also glad to announce that I have heard from the
war department, and they are going to send some army aviators here to
give us the benefit of their work, and also to show some of you cadets
how to fly."
There was a cheer at this, though some of the lads looked a bit dubious.
"Are you really going in for it, Dick?" asked Innis, after there had
been an informal discussion among the colonel and some of the boys
about the aviation instruction.
"Well, I am, unless I change my mind," replied Dick, with a smile. "Of
course, after I make my first flight, if I ever do, it may be my last
one."
"Huh! You're not taking a very cheerful view of it," retorted Innis,
"to think that you're going to come a smash the first shot out of the
locker."
"Oh, I didn't mean just that," replied Dick, quickly. "I meant that I
might lose my nerve after the first flight, and not go up again."
"Guess there isn't much danger of you losing your nerve," said Paul
Drew, admiringly. "I've generally noticed that you have it with you on
most occasions."
"Thanks!" exclaimed Dick, with a mock salute.
Strolling over the campus, Dick and his chums talked airships and
aviation matters until it was time for guard-mount.
During the next day or two it might have been noticed that Dick
Hamilton was rather more quiet than usual. In fact his chums did
notice, and comment on it. A number of times they had seen the young
millionaire in a brown study, walking off by himself, and again he
could be observed strolling about, gazing earnestly up at the clouds
and sky.
"Say, I wonder what's come over Dick?" asked Paul of Innis one
afternoon.
"Blessed if I know," was the answer, "unless he's fallen in love."
"Get out! He's too sensible. But he sure has something on his mind."
"I agree with you. Well, if he wants to know he'll tell us."
So they let the matter drop for the time being. But Dick's abstraction
grew deeper. He wrote a number of letters, and sent some telegrams,
and his friends began to wonder if matters at Dick's home were not
altogether right.
But the secret, if such it could be called, was solved by the
unexpected arrival of Mr. Hamilton at Kentfield. He appeared on the
campus after drill one day, and Dick greeted his parent
enthusiastically.
"So you got here, after all, Dad?" he cried, as he shook hands, Paul
and Innis also coming over to meet the millionaire.
"Well, I felt I just had to come, Dick, after all you wrote and
telegraphed me," replied Mr. Hamilton. "I thought we could do better
by having a talk than by correspondence. But, I tell you, frankly, I
don't approve of what you are going to do."
Dick's chums looked curiously at him.
"I may as well confess," laughed the young millionaire, "I'm thinking
of buying an airship, fellows."
"Whew!" whistled Paul.
"That's going some, as the boys say," commented Innis. "Tell us all
about it."
"I will," said Dick, frankly. "It's been on my mind the last few days,
and--"
"So that's been your worry!" interrupted Paul. "I knew it was
something, but I never guessed it was that. Fire ahead."
"Ever since your cousin came here, Innis, in his craft, and since the
colonel has arranged for aviation instruction, I've been thinking of
having an airship of my own," Dick resumed. "I wrote to dad about it,
but he didn't seem to take to the idea very much."
"No, I can't say that I did," said Mr. Hamilton, decidedly. "I
consider it dangerous."
"It's getting more safe every day, Dad. Look how dangerous
automobiling was at the start, and yet that's nearly perfect now,
though of course there'll always be accidents. But I won't go in for
this thing, Dad, if you really don't want me to."
"Well, I won't say no, and I'll not say yes--at least not just yet,"
said Mr. Hamilton slowly. "I want to think it over, have a talk with
some of these 'birdmen' as you call them, and then you and I'll
consider it together, Dick. That's why I came on. I want to know more
about it before I make up my mind."
Mr. Hamilton became the guest of the colonel, as he had done on several
occasions before, and, in the following days, he made as careful a
study of aviation as was possible under the circumstances. He also had
several interviews with Mr. Vardon.
"Have you decided to let your son have an airship of his own?" the
colonel asked, when the millionaire announced that he would start for
New York the following morning.
"Well, I've been thinking pretty hard about the matter," was the
answer. "I hardly know what to do. I'm afraid it's only another one
of Dick's hare-brained ideas, and if he goes in for it, he'll come a
cropper.
"And, maybe, on the whole, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him go in
for it, and make a fizzle of it. It would be a good lesson to him,
though I would certainly regret, exceedingly, if he were even slightly
injured.
"On the other hand Dick is pretty lucky. He may come out all right. I
suppose he'll go in and try to win some prizes at these aviation meets
they hold every once in a while."
"Yes, there are to be several," spoke the colonel. "I heard something
about the government offering a big prize for a successful
trans-continental flight--from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but I know
nothing of the details."
"Well, I suppose Dick would be rash enough to try for that, if he hears
about it," murmured Mr. Hamilton. "I guess, taking it on all sides,
that I'll let him have an airship, if only to prove that he can't work
it. He needs a little toning down, most young chaps do, I fancy. I
know I did when I was a lad. Yes, if he makes a fizzle of it, the
lesson may be worth something to him--throwing his money away on an
airship. But I'll give my consent."
And when Dick was told by his parent, not very enthusiastically, that
he might secure an aircraft, the young cadet's delight was great.
"That's fine!" he cried, shaking hands heartily with his father.
"Well, I hope you succeed in flying your machine, when you get it, but,
as the Scotchman said, 'I have my doubts,'" said Mr. Hamilton, grimly.
"Humph!" mused Dick later. "Dad doesn't think much of me in the
aviator class, I guess. But I'll go in for this thing now, if only to
show him that I can do it! I've done harder stunts, and if the
Hamilton luck doesn't fail, I'll do this. I'll make a long flight, and
put one over on dad again. He thinks I can't do it--but I'll show him
I can!" exclaimed Dick, with sparkling eyes.
Dick communicated his father's decision to Paul and Innis.
"I'm going to have an airship!" he cried. "It wasn't easy to get dad's
consent, but he gave it. Now, how about you fellows coming on a cruise
in the clouds with me?"
"Say, how big a machine are you going to have?" Paul wanted to know.
"Well, my ideas are rather hazy yet," admitted the young millionaire,
"but if I can get it built, it's going to be one of the biggest
airships yet made. We'll travel in style, if we travel at all," he
said, with a laugh. "I'm thinking of having an aircraft with some sort
of enclosed cabin on it."
"Say, that will be quite an elaborate affair," commented Innis.
"The question is, will you fellows take a chance with me in it?" asked
Dick.
"Well, I guess so," responded Paul, slowly.
Innis nodded in rather a faint-hearted fashion.
"Now," said Dick, "I want to see--"
He was interrupted by shouts in the direction of the river.
"There she is!"
"She's floating down!"
"Let's get her!"
A number of cadets were thus crying out.
"Come on!" yelled Dick. "Something's happened! Maybe my motor-boat is
adrift!"