“What is the name of the chief?” asked the Professor.
“His given name is the same as his; the full name is Bohunkus Foozleum.”
“I can’t say I ever heard of him,” remarked the Professor without cracking a smile.
“I sent him a letter a month ago, in de care ob Colonel Roosevelt and it’s ’bout time I got an answer. I’m sure de Colonel will call on him while he’s hunting in Afriky.”
“Well, when my machine is perfected, I’ll take you with me and it sha’n’t cost you a penny,” said Professor Morgan.
Bohunkus chuckled with delight and settled down to listen. The visitor now ignored him and addressed the others.
“Aviation is the theme that fills nearly all minds and it is daily growing in importance. The possibilities are boundless; it will revolutionize travel, social life and the methods of warfare. It will render the destruction of life and property so appallingly easy that no nation will dare array itself against another. You and I are likely to see that day when:—
“‘The war drum throbs no longer and the battle flags are furled
O’er the parliament of nations, o’er a reunited world.’
“We can remember the universality of the bicycle; then came, and it stays with us, the automobile, and now it is the aeroplane. The day is near when there will be numberless routes established between cities and countries and when the ocean will be crossed east and west by a procession of heavier-than-air machines, and every family will have its hangar and its occupant awaiting the wish of the owner.”