Of
course it was nothing like Dick's, and, after all, the former army
man was more interested in his stabilizers than he was in the
airship itself. But he had to build it right and properly to give
his patent a good test, and he used his best ideas on the subject.
In general Uncle Ezra's machine was a biplane, a little larger than
usual, and with a sort of auxiliary cabin and platform where one
could rest when not in the seats. Three passengers could be
carried, together with some food and supplies of gasolene and oil.
It was an airship built for quick, continuous flight, and it really
had a chance for the prize; perhaps not as good a chance as had
Dick's, but a good chance compared with others in its class. The
one weak point, and this Lieutenant Larson kept to himself, was the
fact that it was only with the best of luck that the flight could
be made with but two landings.
Finally the former army man announced that the craft was ready for
a flight. He had spent all the money Uncle Ezra would give him
--nearly ten thousand dollars--and I suspect that Larson himself had
lined his own pockets well.
"She's ready," he announced to Uncle Ezra, one day.
"Well, take her up."
"Will you come?"
"Not till I see how you fare. Go ahead."
"Ezra, be you goin' up in that contraption?" asked Aunt Samantha,
as she came out in the meadow where a starting ground had been laid
out.
"I'm aiming to, if he comes back alive with it," Uncle Ezra made
answer, grimly.
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