The president thought a moment, and then summoned the two boys who were waiting in the outer office.
“I don’t much like to do it,” he began, “but I suppose if air navigation is to become general, we’ll have to trust the youngsters. You’ve selected the right machine for a beginner—the simplest and cheapest. The price of it is twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars. You may have it, crated on the cars here, at two thousand dollars.”
While the negotiations concerning the aeroplane had been going on, Bob and Tom had remained in Newark. Now, with the purchase completed and all arrangements made for shipping their precious machine, the two boys hastily packed their suit cases and returned to New York. It was a great evening for the southern boy. Bob boldly piloted his companion to a nationally known and luxurious hotel, ordered a double room with two beds, and then, before night fell, he took Tom in a taxicab for a long ride through the park and along the drive up the river.
“Why not?” laughed Bob. “You may not be in New York again for some time. So far, we have traveled on the club’s expense. This evening, you’re my guest, Tom. We’re going to celebrate, and I’m going to stand the expense.”
In fact, this suggestion had been made by Mrs. Balfour, who had had no opportunity, she said, to repay the kindness shown her and Bob by Mrs. Allen.
Therefore, when Tom saw Bob pay six dollars for their dinner in the brilliantly lighted café and later buy theatre tickets at two dollars and a half apiece, he nearly lost his breath. They left for the south at two o’clock the next afternoon. All morning, they were too busy to think of cab or street car. When they sank down on their Pullman seats, Tom announced that the thousand things he had seen in the all too short morning were well worth his blistered feet and aching back. A heap of bundles alongside the two happy boys were other tangible evidences of their morning activity.
It gave Tom a thrill of real pleasure to stow away his own parcels, for, carried away by the easy way in which money is spent in New York, he had purchased gifts for his mother and grandmother. There were a silk shirt waist and a gossamer-like parasol for his mother, for which he paid forty dollars, and a silver bound handbag for his grandmother, costing fifteen dollars. Bob had engineered this shopping. In turn, Bob had laid in heavy boxes of the highest priced confections for his mother and Mrs. Allen; a big volume on aeroplanes and aviation for Tom; an outing raincoat for Mac; an imported outing cap for Hal; a combined barometer and thermometer for Captain Joe Romano, and an elaborate, many-bladed knife for Jerry Blossom.
Just before leaving, Bob sent telegrams to his mother and Mrs. Allen that the expedition would reach Pensacola Saturday evening. To the surprise and pleasure of the boys, they found, when they reached the southern city the next evening about eight o’clock, that Mrs. Allen had invited Mrs. Balfour, Bob and Hal Burton to a late supper at her home, and the returned travelers had the pleasure of gift distribution over a meal that Bob announced was far better than anything they had in New York.
The evening of gayety that followed was punctuated with Bob and Tom’s wonderful tales of what they had seen and done. On the blossom scented gallery of the little house, the boys vied with each other in recalling the details of their daring adventures. On their way home at a late hour, Mrs. Balfour said to her son:
“Bob, do you feel any better than you did when we started south?”