“I am glad he did, for I am interested in both you and your father,” spoke up the aviator. “Your ambition is most laudable. I have entered the Dart for the race to-morrow, and I fully expect you will get ready for it.”
Ben was once more at the aviation field at Blairville and the Dart was with him. That splendid little machine had arrived from Woodville the day previous.
Two weeks had been devoted to its completion, and a perfect monoplane was the result. It had many new features that evoked the interest and admiration of some of the leading aviators at the meet.
Mr. Hardy and Caleb Dunn had accepted excellent positions at Martinville. Tom Shallock had carried out his boasts. He was now head machinist at the Saxton Automobile Works. A week after he had taken charge three men left the Saxton employ, and Ben heard incidentally that Shallock had become generally disliked by his fellow employees and was under the influence of liquor most of the time.
It was said that Saxton nearly had a fit when he found out how his evil plots had been circumvented by the Hardys in securing the airship patents first. Saxton troubled them no further. The report that Mr. Hardy had been guilty of stealing found few believers. One day Ben met the big manufacturer skulking down the street, as if he feared every minute being served with the papers by lawyer Pearsons.
When Ben made his second visit to the aviation field, he found Dick Farrell still in the employ of Rollins. Ben always spoke pleasantly to Dick, but the latter greeted this courtesy with a sullen nod only. There was a vindictive look in Farrell’s eye that Ben distrusted fully.
Several times Ben went into Blairville and finally located the home of Knippel. This man lived in a retired cottage, had a small family who associated with no one in the village, and he was considered to follow some mysterious business that took him away from home most of the time.
Now Ben’s thoughts were so completely on aviation and all of its alluring features, that he forgot all his past trouble and present complications.
That day he had made several trial flights. He had the advantage of the experience and direction of Mr. Davis and Bob. He understood the Dart perfectly. Ben could hardly sleep for excitement that night, and he and Bob were among the earliest arrivals on the aviation field next morning.
The day was warm and still, but there were lowering clouds. After a critical decision as to weather conditions, Mr. Davis told Ben that the same were not very favorable for either a high or a rapid flight. Eight biplanes and four monoplanes were to take part in the test. Ben chose his own course away from the others. Bob, after urging up the Dart, uttered an enthusiastic hurrah as he noted the splendid start his friend had made.