“Hah—gr-r-r-r-rumph!” he said.
“Exactly!” said Martin Trigg.
CHAPTER XVI
PARTNERS
At two A. M. they were over Ayre, Ohio. The lateness of the hour made no difference in their welcome. Apparently all the able-bodied persons in the city had decided to make a night of it, and most of them had come out to the landing field to greet the silver ship. Big searchlights and hundreds of flares surrounded the field. The mast wore a crown of colored lights. Just as they reached the field, all lights were extinguished long enough to display the words “Welcome, Moonbeam” laid out on the ground in electric letters six feet in height.
They flew so low that the watching throngs could see the passengers waving. The engines were stopped, and they hung for a minute in the white glare. They could hear, as once before, the crowd roaring a greeting to their own ship. “Moonbeam! Moonbeam!” rose the cry. Then darkness swallowed them again.
“David,” said Red, “you just gotta tell Mr. Hammond.”
“I don’t see it,” said David, stubbornly. “Think what a surprise it will be for him when we reach Lakehurst. We are bound to make the record he wants. I want you to tune her up to a hundred miles now.”
Red leaned against the bench, twirling the screw on his wrench.
“Look, David, if you do that, he’ll think you’ve held out on him. I would in his place. He knows all about the accelerator. Don’t you think he naturally wants to try it out, too? After all, Dave, he’s the chief—the commander of this ship, and he’s treated you darned white.”
“You are right, of course,” said David after a long pause, reluctantly. “I sort of wanted to make him a present of the record at Lakehurst, but you are right.”