a new suit. I've worn this one
five years, and it's good for three more, if I'm careful of it!" he
boasted, as he looked down at his shiny, black garments.

"Then you're going to walk?" asked Dick.

"Yes, Nephew Richard. There's grass almost all the way to the station,
and I can keep on that. It will save my shoes."

"But people don't like you to walk on their grass," objected Dick.

"Huh! Think I'm going to tramp on the hard sidewalks and wear out my
shoe leather?" cried Uncle Ezra. "I guess not!"

He started off, trudging along with his cane, but paused long enough to
call back:

"Oh, Nephew Richard, I got the cook to put me up some sandwiches. I can
eat them on the train, and save buying. The idea of charging ten cents
in the railroad restaurant! It's robbery! I had her use stale bread,
so that won't be wasted."

Dick hopelessly shook his head. He really could say nothing.

His chums knew Uncle Ezra's character, and sympathized with their
friend.

The cadets resumed work on the big airship. The framework of the wings
had been completed, and all that was necessary was to stretch on the
specially made canvas. The cabin was nearing completion, and the place
for the engine had been built. The big propellers had been constructed
of several layers of mahogany, and tested at a speed to which they
would never be subjected in a flight. The bicycle wheels on which the
big airship would run along the ground, until it had acquired momentum
for a rise, were put in place.

"I didn't just like those hydroplanes, though," said Dick, who had
added them as an after thought. "I think they should be made larger."

"And I agree with you," said Mr. Vardon. "The only use you will have
for the hydroplanes, or wheel-pontoons, will be in case you are
compelled to make a landing on the water. But they should be larger,
or you will not float sufficiently high. Make them larger. But it will
cost more money."

"I don't mind that," returned Dick. "Of course I am not anxious to
throw money away, but I want to make a success of this, and win the
prize, not so much because of the cash, as to show how your
equilibrizer works, and to prove that it is possible to make an airship
flight across the continent.

"So, if bigger hydroplanes are going to make it more certain for us to
survive an accident, put them on."

"I will," promised the aviator.

Pontoons, or hydroplanes, in this case, I might state, were hollow,
wat