Hal was rather surprised. His mother rarely visited, and did not see very much of the Martins. In fact, she had been to the Martins only twice since they had been neighbors, and one of those visits had been to return Mrs. Martin’s formal call upon her new neighbor when the Greggs had moved into the house next door. But Hal said, “Why, I’ll ask Mother. I don’t think she’s busy, and I guess she’d like to hear your story, Captain Bill. I’ve been telling her about the stories, you know.”
“Good,” laughed the Captain. “Don’t tell her too much, though. I want her to come to hear them.”
“I think she’ll like to come,” said Hal. Thinking it over, he felt convinced that his mother should hear Captain Bill’s story that night. He knew she would enjoy the evening with them all. They were a jolly lot, and Mrs. Martin often was lonesome when Hal went off and left her alone. She would be better for a night of company. And perhaps—well, Hal could not dare to hope—perhaps she would approve more of his going on a trip with these men if she knew how splendid they were. But then Hal shuddered. They were going to fly to the mountains. And he was never going to fly in a plane again. He felt that he would rather do anything in the world than put himself in a position again where he might experience the awful horror of feeling himself going into a nose dive.
They let Hal off at his home. When Bob and the Captain were alone, Bob asked why Bill had thought of inviting Hal’s mother to hear his story that night.
“Why, Mrs. Gregg’s a nice woman. Don’t you think that I should have invited her?” asked the Captain, with a twinkle.
“Oh, but you must have some other reason,” said Bob. “You don’t want her to come over just because you want an audience for your story.”
“Well, to tell the truth,” the Captain answered, “I have a motive. Can I count on you to help me?”
“If it’s not murder,” said Bob.
“Nothing like it,” the Captain said. “This is my plan, Bob. You know that we want Hal to come along with us on our trip, now more than at any other time. If we leave him now, all the good that flying and being with us has done him will be wasted, and Hal will be the same fraid-cat that he was before we began to educate him. Now, I’m going to tell the story of Byrd tonight. Byrd started on his adventures when he was very young. He had a brave mother, who saw that following his own inclinations was good for her son. That much is for Mrs. Gregg. Second—Byrd had to overcome a great many obstacles before he reached his goal. That part is for young Hal. Now, if the Gregg family takes my story seriously tonight, I think that we may have Hal with us on our flight. And Hal will be a new boy. How about it?”
Bob looked admiringly at his uncle. “Gee,” he said, “that’s a great idea. But I think that you’ll have to tell a pretty convincing story.”