"Oh! my! where do they all come from?" gasped Elephant, as he looked around at the sea of faces.
"Thank goodness," remarked Larry, "Chief Waller is on deck with all his force, to keep the crowds back. Only for that how would the aeroplanes ever get started?"
"L-l-look y-y-yonder!" said Stuttering Nat, pointing, as he stood beside his wheel. "T-t-there he is, f-f-fellows!"
"You mean the mysterious Mr. Marsh?" echoed Larry. "So I see, and his friend the great editor is with him too. If I get a chance to have a few words with that Mr. Longley I'm going to ask him just why it is we haven't received a copy of his paper containing the account of Jules' capture. He didn't keep his promise to me, and I don't like that way of doing things."
"There's Percy with his biplane over yonder, holding a levee," remarked
Elephant.
"He looks as happy as a clam," said Larry. "You know his way, fellows? Ten to one he's dead sure he's got this race clinched already. See him shake hands with Bessie Clinton! I can just guess how he's saying what he means to do to Frank and Andy. Huh!" finishing his sentence with a snort of disgust.
"The feller that crows last crows loudest," observed Elephant.
"Well, you ain't got that just correct, Elephant," remarked Larry, letting his frown disappear in a grin; "but it means the same thing anyhow. Let's find a place to stack our wheels, and get around. The Chief will let us go inside the lines, for he knows we belong to Frank's crowd, and are needed in the push-off."
Just as Larry had said the big police head met them with a warm smile of welcome. His sympathies were positively with the Bird boys, though he would do his duty impartially as he saw it. But Larry and his friends had brought him a piece of rare good luck in the capture of the escaped convict, and for this alone the Chief had a warm feeling in his big heart for them all.
Presently a cry went up.