inquiries took the
car to the aviation works and field. He watched the construction of
flying machines in the factory and saw one or two pupils take short
flights in the air. And Jason Jones was so interested that he was late
to dinner that evening.

Next day he was at the aviation field again, and from that time he
haunted the place, silent and composed but watching every detail of
manufacture and listening to the experts as they instructed the pupils.
These were not many--three altogether--although Stephen Kane's
aeroplane was now admitted to be one of the safest and most reliable
ever invented. And one day one of the instructors, noticing the silent
man who had watched so long, invited him to take a flight, thinking
perhaps to frighten him; but Jason Jones promptly accepted the
invitation and with perfect composure endured the strange experience
and returned to ground with heightened color but no other evidence of
excitement. Could Alora have seen him that day she would have acquitted
him of cowardice.

But Alora knew nothing of her father's odd fancy for some time after he
became interested in aeroplanes. She was not often at home during the
day, frequently taking lunch with Mary Louise or Irene and passing much
of her time in their company. She had no interest whatever in her
father's movements and Jane Gladys didn't think to mention the matter
to her, for "flyin'-machines" had ceased to be a novelty in Dorfield
and the sound of their buzzing through the air was heard many times a
day. But in turning over a pile of her father's books one day in his
absence, Alora found several treatises on aviation and was almost
startled to find that Jason Jones cared for any reading aside from
light novels.

She had been hunting, at the time, for a novel to read herself, so
turning from the aviation literature to a shelf of fiction she began
searching for an interesting title. Presently, as she drew out one of
her father's books, it opened by accident at a place where a letter had
been tucked in--a letter written on soiled and coarse paper of a
foreign make. It was addressed: "Sig. Jaysn Jones, at the Steamer
Hercules to sail for New York, U.S.A." Opening it, she found it signed:
"Silvio Alleghero."

That was their man-servant in Italy, so with a smile of anticipated
amusement she read the letter. It was brief, indeed, but the girl's
expression soon changed to a puzzled look, for the scrawl said:

"Honored Signore: At you