hich was one assigned to
preparation for the contests of the morrow. All the other aeroplane hives
fairly radiated activity. Freakish-looking men hovered about their weird
helicopters and lovingly polished brass and tested engines. The reek of
gasolene and burning lubricants hung heavily over the field. Reporters
darted here and there followed by panting photographers bearing
elephantine cameras and bulging boxes of plates, for the metropolitan
press was "playing up" the tests which were expected to produce a definite
aerial type of machine for the United States Navy.

But even the most inquisitive of the news-getters failed to get anything
from within the mysterious realms occupied presumably by the Nameless. Its
roller-fitted double doors remained closed, and no sign of activity
appeared about it.

This was conceded on all sides to be extraordinary, but all the
speculation which was indulged in failed to elucidate the mystery.

"The Nameless is also the Ungetatable," joked one reporter as he and a
companion passed by.

But if anyone had been about late that night, long after the aviators who
had quarters at the hotels in town had quitted the field, he would have
seen three figures--two girls and a boy, steal across the field from an
auto which had driven up almost noiselessly, and unfasten the formidable
padlocks on the doors of the Nameless's dwelling place.

This done they vanished within the shed for a short time, and presently
thereafter a dark and strangely shaped form slowly emerged from the shed.
It was the _Golden Butterfly_, and the trio of young folks were, as you
have already guessed, Peggy, Jess and Jimsy. They crawled noiselessly on
board, and a few minutes later, with a soft whirring of the propellers,
the _Butterfly_ shut down for precaution's sake to half speed, sped almost
noiselessly upward.

The night was a calm one. Hardly a leaf was stirring and the stars shone
like steel points in a cloudless sky. The aeroplane, after it had
attained a few hundred feet, seemed to merge into the dark background of
night sky. Unless one had known of its flight it would have taken a sharp
pair of eyes to have discerned it.

"Say, this is glorious. It's like being pirates or--or something," said
Jimsy enthusiastically, as soon as they had reached a height where they
felt they could talk without difficulty.

"It's great after being penned up all day at that hotel," agreed Peggy,
who was at the wheel, "how bea