[CHAPTER VI]
OFF FOR THE WEST
The next morning Roy went to the factory with his father and saw every piece of the aeroplane crated. As the parts would have to be transported over nearly one hundred miles of desert, the machine was taken entirely apart. Even the rubberized silk plane surfaces were unlashed from the ribs. The section frames and plane strips and ribs were numbered and made into compact bundles. On a blue-print drawing of the Model No. 1 machine, Roy made careful notes relating to each dismounted piece.
“One thing is certain,” said his father, when the packing was completed, “you’ll save money on your freight bills but you’re piling up trouble at the other end.”
“That’s where I earn my pay,” answered his son, laughing. “I reckon there ain’t any great supply of spruce and bamboo out there in Bluff to duplicate smashed parts.”
In his red memorandum book Roy also set down the number and contents of each parcel and box in order that he might check up the shipment at the end of its journey. After luncheon in the shop, Mr. Osborne, with the approval of Mr. Atkinson, made an extra crate of various sized pieces of spruce timber, several yards of silk plane cloth with gum for pasting in making patches, wire, screws, bolts, reserve engine batteries and last and most important, a small box of such tools as would be most useful.
When the wagon of the company backed up to the shipping room to transfer the formidable looking boxes, crates and bundles to the express office, Roy was a lively assistant in the loading. The engine, covered with waterproof canvas and braced in a steel-hooped box, was the last package to be lifted into the van. Roy patted the box and exclaimed, as he wiped his perspiring face:
“Good bye, old boy, till I see you again. Meet you at Dolores.”
The wagon rolled away, and Roy crossed the assembling room to the corner where the painter did his work. Having been put on the market as a commercial product, no detail was omitted that would add to the salability of the company’s machines. In addition to the lacquering of bolts and metal work, each bit of timber was coated with an aluminum varnish.