“Don’t you be so jocular and ironical, doctor. You have done me one good turn, and I want you to do another by taking this fresh matter up warmly, and further by introducing it to the Doves.”
“Not I, Mr Falcon. For my part I shall drop it from this moment like a hot cinder, and I strongly recommend you to do the same, and to concentrate your attentions on Miss Dove simply as a financial projector rather than as a man of flight.”
“Well, I do believe, doctor, that you advise me as a true friend, and I will not attempt even a preliminary canter in the park before I have tried an experiment elsewhere.”
“Don’t try to fly, but go at once to Sydenham, Mr Falcon, and see that Eben Croft is set free from durance vile.”
“A bright idea, doctor, and a very suggestive one, too; and, for your concluding hint, I thank you very much, and I promise faithfully to turn it to account.”
CHAPTER IX
A FLIGHTY FIASCO
After following the advice of Doctor Peters by liberating Eben Croft, Mr Falcon determined that he would forthwith turn him to another useful account, as the financier had decided to test Scudder’s scheme if the Pocket Hercules would assist him to do so,—though, in consideration of the objections raised by his adviser Peters, Mr Falcon thought it would be quite as well if he abstained himself from going aloft, should Croft agree to do so and assume the Dutchman’s name.
An immediate proposal was therefore made to Professor Scudder, who soon replied favourably from Rotterdam, in fact he consented to sell his stolen manuscript and invention for the round sum down of one hundred pounds sterling, and these terms, having been arranged, Eben Croft was duly informed that there was one more chance open to him if he really wished to hand down his name to posterity, after which he could see about settling in his promised “pub” near Wedwell Park, but not until his master had united himself in the bonds of matrimony to the squire’s daughter.
Eben having agreed, Falcon promised to remunerate him handsomely if he would assume the rôle of Scudder and make the first trial of the flying machine (of course in disguise, so that no one would know him). As to Mr Falcon, he would pose as a distinguished Dutch director, and would arrange everything at some quiet place where the experiment could come off under the strictest privacy; but the chosen spot would not have to be very far from Wedwell Park in case the wind happened to waft the aerial cruiser that way,—in which case Mr Falcon might like himself to make the flight personally,—but that would not interfere with the stipulated payment to Eben Croft. The entire apparatus, including Scudder’s giant cross-bow, was very soon the property of the flying financier, but, unfortunately, there was a debt on it of fifty ducats,—which had to be cleared off before the contrivance was despatched from Rotterdam.
A suitable place at Haywards Heath was at length hired by the financier, and the flying machine, with cross-bow, appurtenances and propellers, were to be sent by goods train to the Sussex Station, where, in expectation of their arrival, Mr Falcon and Eben Croft duly presented themselves in costume that would defy detection.