ephant and placed them to his own eye, as
though it might be of the greatest importance that he see distinctly
every little movement of the daring young aviators.

"Whoop! hurrah! there they quit snaking along on the water! They're
going to climb, I tell you, Larry! Look at that, would you? Up they
go, as easy as you please! Now, ain't that just a hummer; and did you
ever hear tell of as smart a pair of boys as Frank and Andy Bird? What
won't they try next, I wonder?"

"They certainly seem to be made of the right stuff for airmen,"
admitted Mr. Marsh, with animation. "Some time I hope to make their
acquaintance, and hear the story of their stirring adventure down in
South America. What say Longley, can we afford to lay over at this
Bloomsbury for a couple of days, while we have the car overhauled, and
put in apple-pie condition?"

"It might be a good thing, Marsh," the other promptly answered, as he
detected the signal wink his companion gave. "You know they say an
ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. And unless
something is done we stand a chance of being thrown over a precipice,
when that weak place in the machinery gives way suddenly."

"All right, then; we'll stop," remarked the gentleman with the
glittering eyes, as if the new idea quite appealed to him. "I'd like
to see something of these Bird boys. They have a future before them, I
believe. And if I'm any judge of up-to-date things I even suspect
they've gone and applied that latest device the Wrights patented, where
a little pendulum under the machine warps the planes automatically, at
the slightest motion of the body, keeping the aeroplane in an exactly
horizontal position."

"Oh! they're up to snuff, all right, take it from me," declared
Elephant, with an air of pride, since it was his friends whose praises
were being sung, and he could bask in the reflected light.

"I bet you there ain't anything going on in aviation circles that them
two boys don't know," put in Larry, enthusiastically. "They take all
sorts of papers and magazines, and spend every living day in that old
shop. I knew something was on, and there she is, all hatched out.
Poor old Percy, won't he just want to crawl back into his hole, though,
when he learns this?"

"Rats! you don't know him if you think that!" exclaimed Elephant. "Ten
to one he plays Frank and Andy a close second. Right now that sharper
has got cards hidden up his sleeve, and ready to surpr