And certainly the young millionaire might be
proud of his newest possession. Mr. Vardon and his men had labored
well on the aeroplane.
It was rather a tight squeeze to get the big craft out of the barn
doors, wide as they were, but it was successfully accomplished, and
the craft now stood on a level stretch of grass, ready for her first
trial flight.
Save for a few small details, and the stocking and provisioning of
the craft in preparation for the trip across the continent,
everything had been finished. The big motor had been successfully
tested, and had developed even more power than had been expected.
The propellers delivered a greater thrust on the air than was
actually required to send the Abaris along.
"We'll have that for emergencies," said Dick. "Such as getting
about in a hurricane, and the like."
"I hope we don't get into anything like that," remarked Mr. Vardon,
"but if we do, I think we can weather it."
"How does the gyroscope stabilizer work?" asked Paul, who with
Innis, had made Dick's house his home while the airship was being
built.
"It does better than I expected," replied the inventor. "I was a
bit doubtful, on account of having to make it so much larger than
my first model, whether or not it would operate. But it does,
perfectly,--at least it has in the preliminary tests. It remains
to be seen whether or not it will do so when we're in the air, but
I trust it will."
"At any rate, Larson hasn't had a chance to tamper with it," said
Jack Butt, grimly.
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