CHAPTER XIII
THE CHALLENGE
Frank laughed heartily, so that Andy turned toward him in surprise. Of course it was silly to think of such a thing as a bomb, in connection with the object Sandy had dropped. Then again, Frank had seen that it was bound to fall at some little distance away from the shed. He also caught the unmistakable flutter of paper, and could give a pretty accurate guess as to what it all meant.
"It's dropped, Frank, and didn't go off!" exclaimed Larry, having himself been more or less influenced by the panic into which timid Elephant had fallen.
Frank started forward as if bent upon approaching the object that lay upon the ground; while the biplane was now heading straight away, as if it might be the intention of the pilot to seek new pastures.
"Be careful, Frank!" called out Larry.
"Yes, go mighty slow, please!" added Elephant, thrusting his head out from cover, much as a cautious old tortoise might do, to see if the coast were clear.
They saw Frank reach the object, and immediately pick it up. He seemed to be examining it with more or less interest.
"Why, I declare if I don't believe it's only a block of wood after all," remarked Larry, in disgust.
"Sure it is; anybody could see that!" declared Elephant, who had managed to slide out from under the woodpile most adroitly, and was rubbing his cheeks to induce a return of his customary color.
"Frank's reading something, fellows!" cried Andy. "I know what it must be; and just like that sassy Perc Carberry to send it in that way. He wants to do everything just like he was on the stage, you know."
"A challenge!" burst out Larry.
"Sure thing!" piped up Elephant, grinning now, and ready to make it appear that he had guessed this from the very first, and that his actions had been in the light of a huge joke.
Frank had turned around now, and was approaching them, still engrossed with what he had found on the paper Sandy had dropped, with a heavy block of wood to carry it direct to the earth.
"What is it, Frank?" asked his cousin.
"Yes, tell us before we burst, please!" Elephant pleaded.
"Me too!" said Larry, feeling that he ought to be heard.
"D-d-do it, F-f-frank!"
"All right, fellows," replied the other, nodding and smiling, as if something had pleased him. "Suppose we sit down on that long bench in front of the shed."
He had no sooner dropped upon the wooden settee than there were a couple of eager boys hanging over either shoulder.
"It's a challenge, all right?" said Andy, his eyes sparkling.
"Yes, that's where you hit the nail on the head," replied the other. "And like everything that Percy manages, it is gotten up in a way to sting. We might decline an ordinary, everyday challenge; but he manages to fix it so that you've just got to accept, or be set down as afraid."
"Huh! no danger of our not taking him up on anything that's half way fair," said Andy, promptly. "And now suppose you read it out to us, Frank."
"Here goes then. He's got it headed 'A Challenge!' And then right below he gets down to business in this way: 'Frank Bird and Andy Bird, Aviators!'"
"Wow!" cried Larry, "that sounds all the good; but he's giving you that taffy only because he wants to claim the same title himself; ain't it so, Frank?"
"You'll see presently. Here's the way he goes on, fellows: 'Greeting: I hereby challenge you to a trial of skill and speed with our respective biplanes, same to take place within three days from date, at an hour to be selected mutually. Said test to include first, a thirty mile straightaway race, and circle the liberty pole on the Commons at Hazenhurst; next altitude, to be decided by the barograph carried on each biplane; then three times around the peak of Old Thunder Top; and finally the feat of volplaning from the greatest height, to land on Bloomsbury high school campus. Other rules for this race to be arranged between us at a meeting to be held later on. If you decline to accept this challenge I propose to go over the aforesaid schedule alone, and claim a victory.' And then underneath it all he signs himself: 'Percy Carberry, Aviator.'"
The boys looked at each other.
"Sounds like a real good test, Frank!" suggested Larry, cautiously.
"Just what I was going to say," Elephant put in, watching Frank's face, and seeing what he considered favorable signs there.
"And I move for one that the challenge be immediately accepted, so that further arrangements may be made!" Andy observed, grimly.
"Well," remarked Frank, slowly; "we'll consider it. As a rule, you know, fellows, I'm not much in favor of racing, when there's so much danger involved, but just as I said a bit ago, Percy knows how to fix things so as to stick pins in you. He's written his challenge in a way that makes us accept, or be branded for cowards."
"Oh, he needn't have worried about that!" cried Andy, angrily. "If he knows anything about the Bird boys he ought to make sure they never take water. Didn't we see whatever he did before, and go him one better? And down in the land of revolution he knows who carried off the honors, as well as saved him from those men who had him in their power. Frank, we've just got to do it!"
"I suppose so, Andy," returned his cousin; "but if you think that another win on our part is going to close Percy up like a clam you're away off. He makes me think of a medicine ball—every time you hit it and send it flying, it comes back again as chipper as ever. He just won't stay down, that's all."
"I don't agree with you there," said Andy. "If we can only rub it into him hard enough, Percy will never have the nerve to hold up his head again in Bloomsbury."
"But we can't expect to do that, you know," Frank went on. "He seems to have a splendid machine there, that will make us hustle all we know how to pass ahead. And even you give the fellow credit for knowing his business. He's a bird boy all right, even if his name happens to be Carberry. No overconfidence, Andy. That's lost any number of races that ought to have been won, hands down."
"Oh! I understand that, Frank," the other said; "but I believe in you, and that Perc ain't in the same class. Count on him to make a mistake when the crisis comes. And if he thinks he's going to be passed there ain't any low down trick he wouldn't be guilty of. I leave it to Larry, Nat and Elephant if that isn't right."
"I've known him to do lots of mean things," spoke up Elephant, promptly; "and if I had to enter a race with him I tell you right now I'd keep out of his reach, all right."
"The best way is to get the lead in the start, and never let him come within striking distance. Then you could snap your fingers at his games," declared Larry.
"Say, there is something in that, Frank," Andy admitted.
"I believe it," returned the other young aviator. "The only trouble I can see is that Percy usually starts off with a furious rush, and takes the lead. He believes it gives him an advantage, and perhaps it does. Every fellow has his pet theories in a race, and no two of them may be alike."
"I guess the main idea with him is that he can get in some of his dirty work if he sees the other is passing him," Andy sneered.
Frank shook his head at him; but on the whole did not know that he could blame Andy for feeling so bitterly toward the other. Their experiences with Percy in the past had been far from pleasant; and many times had he attempted some unscrupulous game that had stirred Andy's fighting blood to the boiling point.
As for Sandy Hollingshead, Andy's opinion of him as a sneak was known to every boy in Bloomsbury; nor did the party most interested seem to care to knock off the chip aggressive Andy had long carried on his shoulder.
The aeroplane had vanished beyond the high fringe of trees. Possibly Percy had headed for town to show off his new purchase to the gaping Bloomsbury crowds, certain to come rushing from houses and stores as soon as the word was passed around that a flying machine was hovering overhead.
As the afternoon passed, the boys debated pro and con concerning the challenge. Frank had agreed to accept, much to the delight of the others, and his answer was carefully prepared, so as to cover every point in question.
He and Andy realized that after all, their prediction as to a storm had failed, for the clouds seemed to have passed away, leaving the day hotter than ever.
"Whew! ain't I glad though I can camp on a night like this," said
Elephant, as started in to assist Larry get dinner ready.
"Just what I was thinking," added the chief cook, looking up from his task with a grin of pleasure. "I've got the peskiest hot room ever, on a still summer night like this is goin' to be; right under the roof, cold as a barn in winter; roasting in July and August. Say, I've often said they'd find me fried like a doughnut some fine morning; or froze stiff. This thing just suits me to a whiz."
"Heard Frank ask the Colonel to eat with us tonight; so I s'pose we're going to have an extra good spread," Elephant went on, scraping the potatoes industriously.
"That's what," chuckled the other. "You just leave it with your uncle, and the chances are you won't be disappointed much. I like good things myself. Used to say I was going to study to be a great chef when I grew up. May yet, who knows? What's Frank and Andy doing with that wire right now?"
"Why, you see the Colonel made 'em promise to connect him with the shed; so in case any row happened to be pulled off here he'd know it. Hard for him to understand he's out of the game with that crippled leg. He's been doing things all his life. I think he's the most wonderful old codger I ever knew."
"And that's where you're just about right, Larry. We must make him tell us some of his travel yarns tonight while we sit around," Elephant declared.