“I don’t know,” spoke the clerk doubtfully. “They told me they didn’t want to be bothered with a crowd, and they stored their machine in an enclosed lot back of the carriage sheds. There is a high fence all around it, and the gate is locked. But as long as you boys are air navigators yourselves I guess Mr. Brown and Mr. Black won’t mind if I let you look at their machine. They are busy talking now, anyhow, so you can slip out and take a peep at it. Here’s the key to the gate. Go out this back door, down the alley, and open the first gate you come to. Don’t let any one else in.”
The boys eagerly promised, and making sure that the two strange men were deep in a conversation, our friends slipped out of the hotel rear door, Jerry taking the key.
“Who’d ever think those fellows were birdmen?” asked Bob, as they went along.
“No one,” agreed Ned. “There’s something mysterious about them. Why are they so afraid of any one seeing their machine?”
“Give it up,” answered Jerry. “We’ll soon have a peep at it, and perhaps we can tell then. But I don’t blame them for not wanting a lot of farmers crowding around when they’re trying to land or make a flight. You know what trouble we’ve had at times.”
“That’s right,” agreed Ned. “Well, there’s the gate in the fence. Now for a look.”
In the midst of a small enclosure they saw the air machine—a large-sized biplane of an up-to-date model. It took but a glance to disclose this, and with expressions of admiration the boys hurried up to it, to inspect it more carefully.
“Say, that’s a beaut all right!” declared Bob.
“Some class to it,” exclaimed Ned. “Look at that engine! Why it’s almost as powerful as the first one we had.”