course.”
“I never felt so sorry for anyone in my life as I do for her.”
“Who is she?”
“A poor girl working her way through the young ladies’ seminary up at the other end of the lake.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It seems she got a telegram about an hour ago. It is from her home, a hundred miles west of here. It stated that her mother was in a critical condition, and if she expected to see her alive she must take the first train for Easton. She hurried to the depot. I found her there crying as if her heart would break.”
“Poor girl! she had missed the train.”
“By just four minutes, and no other until eight o’clock this evening.”
“I am dreadfully sorry for her,” said Dave, glancing with genuine sympathy at the girl in the carryall.
Hiram fidgeted about. He dug the toe of his shoe into the dirt. Then he looked Dave daringly in the eye. Then he dropped his glance. Dave was quick to read his impetuous and open-hearted comrade’s thoughts.
“I fancy I guess what’s in your mind, Hiram,” he said.
“I hope you do, anyhow. Say, if I knew how to run an airship like you – ”
“You’d run it to Easton, I suppose?” intimated Dave.
“Yes, sir, that’s just what I would do. See here, Dave, suppose you had a sister in the trouble that young girl is in?”
Dave put up his hand interruptingly. His face was earnest and serious.
“I’d get her to her mother if I had to sell the shoes off my feet. You’re a grand-hearted fellow, Hiram Dobbs, and, as I’ll not let you beat me in the doing-good line, why – ”
“You’ll take her to her mother in the Gossamer?” fairly shouted Hiram, dancing from one foot to the other in his excitement over such a prospect.
“I’ll try and make it out that way,” responded Dave. “Let me think for a minute or two, Hiram.”
The young aviator took another look at the mournful face of the young girl in the carryall. Then he made up his mind. He was a fully-trusted employe of the Interstate Aero Company, and pretty nearly at liberty to do as he pleased. Dave looked up at the sky, made some mental calculations, and said finally:
“Tell her who I am, Hiram – I want to have a little talk with her.”
“This is my best friend, Dave Dashaway, Miss – ”
“My name is Amy Winston,” spoke the girl, a trifle shy and embarrassed.
“Hiram Dobbs has told me about your trouble, Miss Winston,” said Dave. “He is a fine fellow and feels sorry for you, and so do I. We are going to try and get you to your home within the next three hours.”
“Oh, if you only could!” exclaimed the young girl, anxiously. “But there is no train until this evening.”
“That is true,” replied Dave.
“You see, Dave is a great aviator, Miss,” broke in Hiram, in his usual impulsive, explosive way. “He’s taken lots of prizes. He won the – ”
“That will do, Hiram,” laughed Dave. “The truth is, Miss Winston,” he continued to the puzzled girl, “we have only one way of getting you to your home. Please step down and I will show you what it is.”
Dave helped the girl down the steps at the rear of the vehicle. He led her to the gates of the enclosure and drew one of them wide open.
“Why, it is an airship!” exclaimed Amy Winston. “I saw it yesterday from the seminary grounds.”
“Dave was running it, and I was aboard,” boasted Hiram, proudly.
“How beautifully it sailed,” murmured the girl.
“Miss Winston,” spoke Dave, “I can make Easton in about three hours in that machine. It may be something I should not propose, considering the possible risk, but the Gossamer is at your service.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Amy, her eyes filling with tears of gratitude and hope, “I would dare any danger to once more see my dear mother before she dies.”
“You are willing to try it?” asked Dave, definitely.
Amy was trembling, but she answered bravely in the affirmative.
“Tell Mr. Grimshaw,” said Dave to his friend, who at once started off to obey the order. “Now, Miss Winston,” continued the young aviator, “I will help you to a seat in the machine.”
When the girl had been disposed of in the most comfortable seat in the Gossamer, Dave gave her a strap to draw her dress skirt tightly about her feet. Other straps bound her in the seat so that by no possibility could she fall or be thrown out.
The girl had grown a shade paler and was all in a flutter, but she did not show the least inclination to draw back from an exploit that would start most people into hysterics.
Dave went into the tent where he and Hiram and Grimshaw ate and slept, and came out in aviation garb. He took some time looking over a guide book. Meanwhile his two helpers had been working about the Gossamer, getting everything in order.
Grimshaw made no comment on the occasion. While he always resented any intrusion of outsiders at aerodrome or meet, he had long since made up his mind that Dave knew his business and was just about right in everything he did. The old expert went over the Gossamer as thoroughly as if the machine was bound on a long distance non-stop flight. He saw to it that nothing was lacking that an air navigator might need. He even set the green lantern on the right side and the red to the left, steamship code, in case of some delay or accident, whereby the Gossamer might drift up against night work.
“Look out for a change in the wind,” was Grimshaw’s parting injunction.
“It looks like a coming squall in the northwest,” replied Dave; “but I think this head wind will hold till we get out of range. All ready, Miss Winston?”
“Yes, sir,” fluttered the little lady, holding tightly to the arms of her seat behind the operator’s post, although she was securely tied in.
“All free,” said Dave simply, and his helpers stood aside as the self-starter was set in motion.
The Gossamer rose lightly as a bird. Just above the fence line, however, Dave slightly turned his head at an unusual sound. He had just a glimpse of two figures acting rather wildly immediately beyond the enclosure.
One was the foppish fellow who had recently been repulsed by Grimshaw, and who had made the strange threat that he would bring somebody with him who would settle affairs.
Apparently this vaunted individual was now in his company. He was a richly dressed lad, somewhat older than Dave. He seemed to be a good deal excited about something; acted, as Grimshaw had described it, as if he owned the world.
His companion was waving his cane angrily as the airship shot skyward. The boy himself shook his fists toward the Gossamer,
