“It depends on what part of the West you’d aim for,” came from Ned. “Go ahead, Jerry, and tell us some more.”
“Sure,” agreed the tall lad, pleasantly. He glanced quizzically at his two chums. Bob was idly chewing a leaf, and Ned was gazing up into the blue sky through the leaves of the maple tree.
The three chums, whose devotion to vehicles of the gasolene type, from motor cycles to airships, had gained for them the title of “The Motor Boys,” lived in the town of Cresville, not far from Boston. Bob Baker’s father was Andrew Baker, a rich banker; Ned was a son of Aaron Slade, who was the proprietor of a large department store, and Jerry Hopkins was the only child of Mrs. Julia Hopkins, a wealthy widow.
The boys had had many adventures together, and the beginning of them was told of in the first book of this series, entitled “The Motor Boys.” Their activities started in a bicycle race, but they soon exchanged their wheels for motor cycles, and a short time after that they won a touring car, offered as a prize. In that they made a long trip overland, and, later, went to Mexico, to which trip Ned referred when he mentioned the buried city, for the boys actually did discover one, for which a friend of theirs, Professor Uriah Snodgrass, a noted scientist, was in search.
They returned home from Mexico across the western plains of the United States, and then, using some money they had made from a gold mine they had located, they bought a speedy motor boat.
The fifth volume of this series, entitled “The Motor Boys Afloat,” took up their adventures in connection with the speedy craft Dartaway. They had some stirring times around home, and then took quite a long trip along the Atlantic coast. From there they journeyed to the mysterious Florida everglades, to which Ned had also referred. But the happenings there, strange and weird as they were, seemed, to the boys at least, to be more than equalled in a trip they made on the Pacific, though this voyage was in a motor boat they hired, as their own was smashed in a freight wreck.
The growing interest in aeronautics soon led the motor boys to investigate the possibility of navigating through the air, and, shortly after their return from their trip on the Pacific, they began to build an airship. In this they were assisted by a Mr. Rupert Glassford, and in the ninth book of this series, called “The Motor Boys in the Clouds,” there was related the particulars of a trip they took for fame and fortune.
Their airship, a combination of dirigible balloon and aeroplane, was called the Comet, and was one of the most completely fitted-up air craft devised in recent years. There was ample accommodation for a long trip, and the travelers could keep afloat in it a long time, provided no accident occurred. In it, as related in the ninth book, they won a substantial prize in competition with a number of balloons and aeroplanes.
It was about this airship that Bob, Ned and Jerry were talking the pleasant summer afternoon, on which I have, once more, brought them to the attention of my readers. As they sat there on the grass, their minds went back to the wonderful air trip they had made and they thought of the efforts of Professor Snodgrass to capture strange insects and bugs, for that was the one hobby of the scientist. They also recalled the dastardly attempt made by Noddy Nixon, a town bully, to injure them, by firing at their craft. Noddy had made an attempt to build a sort of airship, but had failed.
Now the motor boys were on the point of planning a second flight in their craft, only, as has been indicated, they could not seem to agree on where to go. The long summer vacation had arrived, bringing a cessation of studies, and in the blood of the three chums there was a desire to be doing something.