"Umph!" grunted Ned, who was already deep in his books. "You'd better get to work and study. We've lots of hard work ahead of us."
"And excitement too, I guess," said Herc, dragging a bulky volume toward him.
Neither of the two lads at the time fully appreciated how much of both was shortly to be crowded into their lives.
[CHAPTER V.]
UNCLE SAM'S MEN-BIRDS.
"Py golly, dot feller Neddie he fly like vun birdt, alretty, ain'd it?" exclaimed Hans Dunderblitz one day two weeks later.
He was standing by the side of Herc Taylor, watching the evolutions of the bi-plane of Bright-Sturgess model, which Ned Strong was manipulating far above them.
"You're pretty good yourself, Hans," encouraged Herc.