“Well, I should say we’d thank you for the chance,” spoke up the Small boy.
“It’s hard to believe we’ve got such a great chance to see something of that country down there among the mountains and deserts and plains of Arizona,” Andy went on to say, as though he wanted some one to stick him with a pin, so as to find out whether he were really awake, or only dreaming.
“And I never dreamed we’d have such a great opening to visit that country,” the other Bird boy went on to say, while his face beamed with delight which refused to be repressed. “That uncle of yours must be a fine old chap, Andy. His letter is a peach, and I’m as sure as anything we’ll like him from the word go. Think of his throwing you a check for a thousand just like it might be thirty cents; and telling you to draw on him to any amount. He must think we’ll be wanting to charter a special train to take us and the aeroplane along.”
“Chances are he’d stand for it,” ventured Larry. “Say, why didn’t some rich old uncle of mine think of me, and send a little piece of paper this way? I’ve got half a dozen wealthy ones, but they don’t know I’m on the face of the earth.”
“Well,” said Elephant, “get busy then, and make the name of Geohegan famous, and then they’ll all break their necks trying to get you to let ’em adopt you. The trouble is, Larry, you hide your light under a bushel too much. Fly high, like the Bird boys do, and everybody ’ll see what you are.”
The other gave a dismal groan.
“That’s just what ails me,” he complained, “I can’t fly at all. Why, I get dizzy in a swing; and even when I go out on the lake, if she’s the least bit rough, you’ll find me hangin’ over the side right away, tryin’ to see how deep it is, and wonderin’ if drowning’d stop my troubles easy like. I reckon I’ll just have to make up my mind that if ever I set this old world afire, it’s got to be by doin’ some stupendous intellectual stunt. That seems to be my long hold, just as eatin’s yours, Elephant.”
“Rats,” jeered the other, contemptuously, “as if you couldn’t stow away twice as much as me any day you felt like it. I talk a heap about the grub racket; but you can work them jaws of yours to beat the band, Larry Geohegan.”
“Well, do we start off now, or fuss around and chatter like a lot of monkeys?” demanded the party thus referred to by Elephant.
“What about your wheel, Andy; you don’t want to lug that along through the timber by that snaky trail?” asked Frank.