to be closed.

"I guess they're able to take care of themselves," conceded Mr. Grant.

"I started out younger," added Mr. Moulton.

"I'm planning to leave at three o'clock Monday afternoon," announced the
Kentuckian, with his most genial smile, "and we'll have a car ready for
the machine Monday morning."

The conference immediately turned into a business session to discuss
immediate plans and the outfit needed by the newly enlisted assistants.
In this the mothers took a leading part, seeming to forget every
foreboding, and when Colonel Howell left, the two families were
apparently as elated as they had been despondent on his arrival.

The next day's performance at the Stampede was more or less perfunctory,
so far as the young aviators were concerned, and was only different from
the others in that Roy accompanied Norman in the exhibition flight.

Colonel Howell, after a day of activity in the city, was present when the
flight was made. No time had been lost by the boys in arranging for their
departure, and mechanics in Mr. Grant's railroad department had been
pressed into service in the construction of three crates--a long skeleton
box for the truss body of the car, another, wider and almost as long, to
carry the dismounted planes, and a solidly braced box for the engine. The
propeller and the rudders were to go in the plane crate. These were
promised Sunday morning, and Norman and Roy took a part of Saturday for
the selection of their personal outfits. Over this there was little
delay, as the practical young men had no tenderfoot illusions to
dissipate.

The kind of a trip they were about to make would, to most young men, have
called for a considerable expenditure. But to the young aviators, life in
the cabin or the woods was not a wholly new story. Overnight they had
talked of an expensive camera, but when they found that young Zept was
provided with a machine with a fine lens, they put aside this
expenditure, and the most expensive item of their purchases was a couple
of revolvers--automatics.

Norman already owned a .303 gauge big game rifle, but it was heavy and
ammunition for it added greatly to the weight to be carried in the
airship. With the complete approval of Colonel Howell, he bought a new
.22 long improved rifle, which he figured was all they needed in addition
to their revolvers.

"It's a great mistake," explained Colonel Howell, who had met the two
boys at the outfitting store just before noon,