ill be slick enough to get away
with any crooked work."

"How long have we got to get ready?" asked Hiram suddenly.

"Just a week."

"Wow! that isn't much time."

"No; my father told me that Professor Charlton, whom he knows, would
have given a longer time for preparation but that he has to attend a
flying meet in Europe, and only decided to lecture at his native town
at the last moment. Lucky thing that most of us have got our models
almost ready."

"Yes, especially as this notice says," added Paul, who had been reading
it, "that all models must be the sole work of the contestants."

"If it wasn't for that it would be easy," remarked Hiram. "You can buy
dandy models in New York. I've seen them advertised in the papers."

"Well, come on over now and put your name down, as a contestant. The
blanks are in the office of the Hampton News," urged Frank.

"I guess we're all through up here, Rob, aren't we?" asked Hiram.

"Yes," rejoined the young leader; "but you study up on your woodcraft,
Hiram, and devote more time to your signaling. You are such a bug on
wireless that you forget the rest of the stuff."

"All right, Rob," promised Hiram contritely. "By the time we go
camping I'll know a cat track from a squirrel's, or never put a
detector on my head again."

Piloted by Frank, the two young scouts made their way to the office of
the local paper, which had already placed a large bulletin announcing
the aeroplane model competition in its window. Quite a crowd was
gathered, reading the details, as the three boys entered.

They applied for their application blanks and walked over to a desk to
fill them out. As they were hard at work at this, Jack Curtiss and his
two chums entered the office.

"You going into this, too?" asked the proprietor of the paper, Ephraim
Parkhurst, as Jack loudly demanded two blanks.

"Sure," responded Jack confidently, "and we are going to win it, too.
Hullo," he exclaimed, as his eyes fell on the younger lads, "those kids
are after the prize, too. Why, what would they do with fifty dollars
if they had it? However, there's not much chance of your winning
anything," he added, coming up close to the boys, with a sneer on his
face. "I think that I've got it cinched."

"I didn't know that you knew anything about aeroplanes," responded Paul
quietly. "Have you got a model built yet?"

"I know about a whole lot of things I don't go blabbing round to
everybody about," responded t