He waved his hand about him, to include perhaps ten thousand persons who had paid their money to see the airship.
Mr. Elder looked at his watch, swept the horizon with his eyes and scowled again. It was just three o’clock. “I reckon you’re in it as deep as I am, as far as the crowd knows,” the president finally replied, in a low voice. “I—”
A sudden murmur ran through the surging crowd. Mr. Elder paused and looked quickly about. He saw nothing approaching, but before he could continue, an arm shot out from the field of spectators and pointed almost directly overhead. Then the mass of people began to melt away with thousands of “Ahs,” and “Ohs” and “There she comes.”
At least fifteen hundred feet in the air, Bud’s stolen aeroplane was rushing forward to make its advertised exhibition. Where it had come from, no one seemed to know. Not one of the men most interested had seen it until that moment, and it was swooping down upon the fair-grounds as if it had come from above the clouds. So high was it that, at the angle it was traveling, it had to pass over the grounds. The sight set the crowd off in a frenzy of excitement. In a cloud of dust, the eager spectators ran forward as if to follow the aeroplane. In its wake were the lawyer, his client, and the deputy sheriff.
Mr. Elder stood as if transfixed.
“I guess I’ll wait developments right here,” he said, turning to Jim Hoarr. “Get the shed ready.”
“I seen it,” said Jim, “but I thought it was a bird.”
“Where did he come from?” asked the fair official.
“Plumb out o’ the north, but about a mile high. An’ it sailed right over the ground afore it turned. Not fur me,” added Jim, shaking his head.
Having passed out over the grounds again, the aeroplane was seen sweeping in a long curve on the turn. The scrambling crowd slackened, and the airship, five hundred feet above the trees, headed back again. For an instant, it darted upward, and then, settling once more, made a curving swing toward the waiting thousands.