"How do you think we got the name of Featherton? Before the deluge we were called West Applebury!"
"Then why haven't you attempted lure them into boobytraps outside town? Could detonate them there without even slight inconvenience of picking up feathers."
"Believe me, if there were only a few feathers," insisted Mayor Prince, "few enough for you to pick up by yourself, we wouldn't mind you blowing up a whirlybird."
"Wasn't considering picking up any feathers," replied Five-gun with dignity. "Had supposed a menial or two could be supplied for that."
The mayor shook his head. "It would take everybody in town to clean up. And as for blowing one up outside the city, one of our orchardists tried it. He blew it to bits all right, but eighty acres of his apple trees were smothered under the debris!"
"Now anticipate that the extermination of the whirlybirds will almost certainly take me up to two days," conceded Five-gun DeCrabbe calmly. "However will be all the more interesting to defeat them without recourse large explosives."
"Gee, what a man!" admired the mayor's son. "Only two days!"
"If you will now lead me to your city park will begin campaign of extermination at once."
"It's down that way," said the mayor, pointing. Plainly he had no intention of leaving the shelter of the marquee. "You can't miss it."
As Five-gun Charles DeCrabbe leaped back into his craft and started off, the mayor's son called after him, "Aren't you scared, going out exposed like that?"