defeated by any other make of
machine at the tests I mean to sell the whole thing and at least realize
what I've put into it."

Mortlake turned a little pale under his swarthy skin. He rubbed his blue
chin nervously.

"Why, you wouldn't chuck us over now, Mr. Harding," he said deprecatingly.
"It was at your solicitation that the plant was put up here, and I had
relied on you for unlimited support. Why did you go into the manufacture
of aerial machines, if you didn't mean to stick it out?"

"I had two reasons," was the rejoinder, in tones as cold as a frigid blast
of wind, "one was that I thought it was certain we should capture the
government contract, and the other was--well, I had a little grudge I
wished to satisfy."

"But we will capture the government business. I am not afraid. There is no
machine to touch the Mortlake that I know of----"

"Yes, there is," interrupted Mr. Harding; "a machine that may be able to
discount it in every way."

"Nonsense! Where is such an aeroplane?" "Within a quarter of a mile from
here. To be accurate, young Prescott's--you know whom I mean?"

The other nodded abstractedly.

"Well, that youth has a monoplane that has already caused me a lot of
trouble." The old man's yellow skin darkened with anger, and his blue
pinpoints of eyes grew flinty. "It was partly out of revenge that I
decided to start up an opposition business to his. He was in the West till
a few days ago, and I never dreamed that he would return till I had
secured the government contract. But I am now informed--oh, I have ears
everywhere in Sandy Beach--that this boy and his sister, who is in a kind
of partnership with him have had the audacity to offer their machine for
the government tests also."

"Audacity," muttered Mortlake under his breath, but Harding's keen ears
caught the remark.

"It is audacity," agreed the leathern-faced old financier; "and it's
audacity that we must find some way to checkmate. I've never had a
business rival yet that I haven't broken into submission or crushed, and a
boy and a girl are not going to outwit me now. They did it once, I admit,
but this time I shall arrange things differently."

"You mean----"

"That I intend to cinch that government business."

"But what if, as you fear, the Prescotts have a superior aeroplane?"

"My dear Mortlake," the pin-point eyes almost closed, and the thin,
bloodless lips drew together in a tight line, "if they have a superior
machine, we m