ut if Uncle Ezra could have known all that was
before him I am doubtful if he would have gone on.

CHAPTER XXIII

AN IMPROMPTU RACE

"How's she running?"

"Couldn't be better!"

"You're not crowding her though, are you? I mean we can go faster;
can't we?"

"Oh, yes, but I think if we average fifty miles an hour for the whole
trip, we'll be doing well."

Dick, Paul and Innis were talking together in the small pilot-house of
the airship. And it was Dick who made the remark about the speed.
They had risen high above New York now, and were headed across the
Hudson to the Jersey shore. They would cover the Western part of the
Garden State.

"It sure is great!" cried Innis, as he looked down from the height. "If
anyone had told me, a year ago, that I'd be doing this, I'd never have
believed him."

"Me either!" declared Dick. "But it's the best sport I ever heard
about."

"And you sure have got some airship!" declared Larry, admiringly. The
young reporter had just finished writing an account of the start,
heading his article, "Aboard the Abaris," and, enclosed in a leather
holder, had dropped the story from a point near the clouds. The
leather cylinder had a small flag attached to it, and as it was dropped
down while the airship was shooting across the city, it attracted
considerable attention. By means of a glass Larry saw his story picked
up, and he felt sure it would reach the paper safely. And he learned,
later, such was the case.

"We'd better arrange to divide up the work of running things while
we're in the airship," suggested Dick. "We want to have some sort of
system."

"That's right," agreed Mr. Vardon. "We shall have to do some sleeping."

"How long do you figure you will take for the trip?" asked Lieutenant
McBride, who was making official notes of the manner in which the motor
behaved, and of the airship in general.

"Well," answered Dick, "we can make a hundred miles an hour when we're
put to it," and he looked at Mr. Vardon for confirmation.

"Yes, that can be done," the aviator said. "But of course we could not
keep that up, as the motor would hardly stand it. But fifty miles, on
the average, for the entire trip, would be a fair estimate I think."

"And figuring on it being three thousand miles from New York to San
Francisco, we could do it in sixty hours of continuous flight," added
Dick. "Only of course we'll not have such luck as that."

"No, we've got to make one desc