plane.

It was rather a tight squeeze to get the big craft out of the barn
doors, wide as they were, but it was successfully accomplished, and the
craft now stood on a level stretch of grass, ready for her first trial
flight.

Save for a few small details, and the stocking and provisioning of the
craft in preparation for the trip across the continent, everything had
been finished. The big motor had been successfully tested, and had
developed even more power than had been expected. The propellers
delivered a greater thrust on the air than was actually required to
send the Abaris along.

"We'll have that for emergencies," said Dick. "Such as getting about
in a hurricane, and the like."

"I hope we don't get into anything like that," remarked Mr. Vardon,
"but if we do, I think we can weather it."

"How does the gyroscope stabilizer work?" asked Paul, who with Innis,
had made Dick's house his home while the airship was being built.

"It does better than I expected," replied the inventor. "I was a bit
doubtful, on account of having to make it so much larger than my first
model, whether or not it would operate. But it does, perfectly,--at
least it has in the preliminary tests. It remains to be seen whether
or not it will do so when we're in the air, but I trust it will."

"At any rate, Larson hasn't had a chance to tamper with it," said Jack
Butt, grimly.

"No, he hasn't been around," agreed Dick. "I wonder what has become of
him?"

As yet the young millionaire knew nothing of the plans of his Uncle
Ezra, for he had been too busy to visit his relatives in Dankville.

"Well, let's wheel her over to the starting ground," proposed Dick, as
they stood around the airship. A level stretch had been prepared back
of the barn, leading over a broad meadow, and above this the test
flight would be made, as it offered many good landing places.

The airship was so large and heavy, as compared with the ordinary
biplane, that a team of horses was used to pull it to the starting
place. But heavy as it necessarily had to be, to allow the enclosed
cabin to be carried, the young millionaire and his aviator hoped that
the power of the motor would carry them aloft and keep them there.

"Go ahead!" cried Dick, as the team was hitched to the long rope made
fast to the craft. "Take it easy now, we don't want an accident before
we get started. Grit, come back here! This is nothing to get excited
over," for the bulldog was wil