“You don’t mean an aeroplane?” broke in Mrs. Leighton.
“They’re very simple,” answered the captain, shrugging his shoulders.
“All that work to test a little model!” ejaculated Andy’s mother. “All that trouble to see if an idea is worth anything!”
“It would be some trouble,” explained the captain, “but you don’t get anything without some trouble—”
“I can help him, mother,” interrupted Andy, trying to suppress his eagerness.
But Mrs. Leighton shook her head, and the boy’s hopes died. Then his mother turned to the captain with a suggestion.
“I couldn’t consent to that,” she began, “because Andy is too young to give much assistance. But, if you’ll let Mr. Leighton pay you—”
“I’ll tell you what we can do,” exclaimed the boy, with new hope. “Let’s go havers. If Captain Anderson can make a thing out of that model that will guide an aeroplane, it’ll surely be worth something. Let’s all go partners: we’ll take half because it’s uncle’s idea, and Captain Anderson’ll take half because he works it out.”
Mrs. Leighton looked questioningly at her host.
“That’s fair enough,” answered the captain. “But there’s one objection. I don’t know much about engines. Andy knows all about ’em—”