"You are a very foolish young man. Vardon is a
dreamer, a visionary inventor who will never amount to anything.
His gyroscope is a joke, and--"
"I am sorry you think so," interrupted the aviator. "But you
evidently considered my gyroscope such a good joke that you tried
to spoil it."
"I! What do you mean? You shall answer for that!" cried the former
lieutenant, in an unnecessarily dramatic manner.
"I think you know what I mean," replied Vardon, coolly. "I need
not go into details. Only I warn you that if you are seen tampering
about the Hamilton airship, on which I am working, that you will not
get off so easily as you did in my case!"
"Be careful!" warned Larson. "You are treading on dangerous
ground!"
"And so are you," warned the aviator, not allowing himself to get
excited as did Larson. "I know of what I am speaking."
"Then I want to tell you that you are laboring under a
misapprehension," sneered the former officer. "I can see that I am
not welcome here. I'll go."
Dick did not ask him to stay. The young millionaire was anything
but a hypocrite.
"What did he want?" asked Mr. Vardon, when Larson had left.
"To build my airship. He evidently did not know that I had already
engaged you. He got a surprise, I think."
"He is a dangerous man, and an unscrupulous one," said the aviator.
"I do not say that through any malice, but because I firmly believe
it. I would never trust him."
"Nor shall I," added Dick.
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