nsibility.

What had happened was that the craft had suddenly gone into an "air
pocket" or partial vacuum, and there had been a sudden fall and a slide
slip. In trying to stop this too quickly Tom had broken one of his
controls, and he was busily engaged in putting an auxiliary one in
place and trying to reassure Mary at the same time.

"But it's mighty hard trying to do that through a speaking tube with a
motor making a noise like a boiler factory," mused the young inventor.
Tom worked quickly and to good purpose. In a few moments, though to
Mary they seemed like hours, the machine was again gliding along on a
level keel, and Tom breathed more easily.

"And now for my great idea!" he told himself.

But it was some time before he could give his attention to that.

CHAPTER III

THE BIG OFFER

Working with all the skill he possessed, Tom had got the aeroplane in
proper working order again. As has been said, the accident was a
trivial one, and had he been alone, or with an experienced aviator, he
would have thought little of it. Then, very likely, he would have
volplaned to earth and made the repairs there. But he did not want to
frighten Mary Nestor, so he fixed the control while gliding along, and
made light of it. Thus his passenger was reassured.

"Are we all right?" asked Mary through the tube, as they sailed along.

"Right as a fiddle," answered Tom, shouting through the same means of
communication.

"What's that about a riddle?" asked Mary, in surprise at his seeming
flippancy at such a time.

"I didn't say anything about a riddle--I said we are as fit as a
fiddle!" cried Tom. "Never mind. No use trying to talk with the racket
this motor makes, and it isn't the noisiest of its kind, either. I'll
tell you when we get down. Do you like it?"

"Yes, I like it better than I did at first," answered Mary, for she had
managed to understand the last of Tom's questions. Then he sailed a
little higher, circled about, and, a little later, not to get Mary too
tired and anxious, he headed for his landing field.

"I'll take you home in the auto," he cried to his passenger. "We could
go up to your house this way--in style--if there was a field near by
large enough to land in. But there isn't. So it will have to be a
plain, every-day auto."

"That's good enough for me," said Mary. "Though this trip is
wonderful--glorious! I'll go again any time you ask me."

"Well, I'll ask you," said Tom. "And when I do