“What do you think of it?” asked the inventor proudly.
“It’s great!” exclaimed Jack enthusiastically, and his chums echoed this sentiment.
“Would you like to try a ride in it?” asked Will’s uncle.
“Well—er—not just now,” stammered Jack, and Mr. Swaim laughed.
“No, I wouldn’t want you to risk it, until I have perfected it a little more, though Stephen and I have gone twenty miles in it.”
One of the workmen ran up, and whispered something to Mr. Swaim.
“Is that so?” he asked, in some surprise. “Well, that simplifies matters. I have just been told,” he went on, turning to the boys, “that Jerry Chowden has disappeared. I guess he did not want to meet you lads.”
“I guess not,” said Jack significantly.
The boys spent some time further, examining the aeroplane, and visiting the machine shop, whence came the throbbing of a gasolene engine—the same sound they had heard when on their second visit to the camp.
Jack asked Will’s uncle if on any occasion he and Stephen had not landed near the camp, for Jack had in mind the occasion when the meat was stolen from the tree by the bear.