“Works like a dream. The ship’s as steady as a Rolls Royce on Fifth Avenue and she stays that way. Also, it’s easier to hold her head up. And the ailerons can be used when she’s throttled way down—that’s somethin’ that’s improved with the new prop and stabilizer. She’s ready for any race now, Mr. Alton.”
“Good!” said the Boss.
The boys’d been helpin’ me to roll the plane tail-to into the hangar, and then, leavin’ Mr. Alton, Jane, Ned and me in there alone, they went back to work. I tore off the old ignition wires while Mr. Alton talked.
“Ned, are you ready to fly your best tomorrow? Goin’ to reach Curtiss ahead of all the other entries, are you?”
“Sure he is!” spoke up Jane. “I’m his mascot!”
“I think your plane is a better flyer than any other in the line-up, Mr. Alton,” Ned answered. “The Stormbird will tail us, but we’ll win.”
“I hope so!” Mr. Alton came back, sighin’. “Ned, I’m goin’ to take you into my confidence. You’re goin’ to pilot that ship tomorrow, and Benny will be along with you, and you both ought to know that I’m bankin’ on you boys heavily. Aside from the purse—which, of course, the pilot is goin’ to keep, for he’s the man that is goin’ to earn it—the reputation of the Alton is at stake. The number of accidents that have happened recently in Altons has given us a black-eye, Ned—you know that.”
“People’ll forget that when we zip across the finish field first,” Ned answered.
“They will—if we win,” Mr. Alton answered. “That will help. But that’s not all. That ill will has hurt our business. We have been runnin’ on a shoestring—and we’ve just about reached the end of it. We need the winnin’ place in this race because of the good it will do our business. If we don’t come in number one, Ned, I’m afraid that we’ll have to be closing up the plant soon.”
Ned got pale, and I forgot work, and Jane listened plumb excited. Mr. Alton was talkin’ in a low, serious tone. Since the Alton plant was all any of us had in life right then, it was serious. We knew business had been bad, but we never suspected it was that bad—never suspected that this air derby was becomin’ a life and death matter for Alton planes.