long time."

"Isn't it a darling," agreed Bess warmly, "but, my! how I had to beg and
pray dad before he would buy it for me. He said that no daughter of his
should ever go up in an aeroplane, much less drive one. It wasn't till I
got him down at Mineola and persuaded him to take a ride himself that he
consented to buying me my dear little _Dart_."

She laid one daintily gloved hand on the steering wheel of the little
monoplane and patted it affectionately.

"It's pretty enough, but it wouldn't fly very far," commented Roy
teasingly, "sort of aerial taxicab, I'd call it."

"Is that so, Mr. Roy Prescott? Well, I'd like you to know that the
_Dart_ could fly just as far and as fast as the _Red Dragon_ or the
_Golden Butterfly_."

"Well, if you wanted to take a trip to North Carolina with us you'd have
an opportunity to test that idea out," laughed Peggy.

"A trip to North Carolina? What do you mean? Are you dreaming?"

"No, not even day-dreaming."

Just then Miss Prescott, her gentle face wreathed in smiles, appeared
at the door.

"Children! children!" she exclaimed, "what is all this? Adjourn your
discussion for a while and come in and have tea."

While the happy group of young fliers are entering the pretty,
old-fashioned house with its clustering roses and green-shuttered
casements, let us relate a little more about the young personages
to whose enthusiastic talk the reader has just listened.

Roy and Peggy Prescott were orphans living in the care of their aunt,
Miss Prescott, the location of whose home on Long Island has already
been described. At school Roy had imbibed the aerial fever, and after
many vicissitudes had built a fine monoplane, the _Golden Butterfly_,
with which he had won a big money prize, besides encountering a series
of extraordinary aerial adventures. In these Peggy participated, and on
more than one occasion was the means of materially aiding her brother
out of difficulties. All this part of their experiences was related in
the first volume of this series, "The Girl Aviators and the Phantom
Airship."

In the second volume, "The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings," a combination
of strange circumstances took our friends out to the Great Alkali of the
Nevada desert. Here intrigues concerning a hidden gold mine provided
much excitement and peril, and the girls proved that, after all, a
fellow's sisters can be splendid companions in fun and hardship. An
exciting race with an express train, an