“Say, pard,” he drawled, “tell us, honest, how you like flying?”
Four days later Dick Merriwell read the following item in a Denver newspaper with absorbing interest.
“Miles City, Montana:—Word was brought to this city last night of the discovery, by a party of prospectors in the mountains of Cook County, of a wrecked aëroplane. The affair has been the cause of a good deal of curiosity and speculation, since the presence of an air craft in this vicinity was totally unsuspected. The machine was completely wrecked, having apparently struck the rocks from a great height, so that scarcely a part remained entire. A curious feature which will, perhaps, lead to its identification, was the fact that every portion of the machine, planes, metalwork, framework, and even the engine, had been painted black. There were no signs of the unfortunate occupant, but it is hardly to be hoped that he escaped the fall alive, the supposition being that his body was eaten by wolves.”
Dick gazed silently out of the window of the Denver Club, where he was taking lunch.
“I wonder!” he murmured presently. “Eaten by wolves, eh? I don’t believe Scott Randolph was the man to be eaten by wolves.”
CHAPTER XX.
THE OUTLAWS.
Bob Harrison, manager of the famous “Outlaws,” was angry. His swarthy face expressing intense exasperation, he glared at the tall, quiet young man before him and flourished a huge fist in the air.
“Now, look here, Loring,” he rasped, “what do you take me for? Do you think I’m an easy mark? I’m carrying around the greatest independent baseball team ever organized, every man a star with a reputation, and it costs me money. The expense is terrific. The terms on which I agreed to play your old Colorado Springs bunch were perfectly understood between us when we made arrangements over the phone—two-thirds of the gate money to the winner; one-third minus local expenses, such as advertising, the sum paid for the use of the park and so forth, to the losers. You know this was distinctly understood; now you’re trying to squeal. You’ve got us here in Colorado Springs ready to play to-morrow, and you think you can force me into divvying up with you.”