“Sure enough,” cried Andy, “I never thought about that. Everybody knows that we expect to give our little trap a trail soon. And what a feather it would be in the cap of Puss and Sandy if, instead of the Bird boys, they sailed over Bloomsbury first! Oh! what schemers they are! Always jealous of everybody else, and wanting everything to come their way!”
“Well, after all, there’s really no damage done,” laughed his cousin.
“Ain’t, eh? How d’ye make that out?” asked Andy, ruefully handling the tattered material of the planes.
“Why,” said Frank, “have you forgotten what we decided about this stuff—that it was a bit too flimsy, and not to be depended on, when a fellow was risking so much? And didn’t I go and order another lot through Spencer’s drygoods store last week? They ought to have it in by tomorrow, or the next day at most; when we can get busy, and cover these wings with canvas that will hold.”
Andy had his turn to laugh, which he did most heartily, as usual.
“What d’ye think of that, now? After all, they only helped us cut the old stuff away, to make ready for the new. Of course, they don’t happen to know about your order. And they think we’ll have to wait a week before we can get anything worth using. And come to think of it, that’s the way the schemes engineered by Puss Carberry generally do turn out. They kick at the wrong end, like a gun that isn’t pushed up against the shoulder. Well, this is a joke on them, after all.”
“All the same, their intentions were bad enough!” declared Frank, sternly.
“Sure they were,” Andy echoed. “In the first place they busted open our locked doors, and looked our machine over. That was treachery of the first water. Then they tried to hold us back, so they could show the town people that the Bird boys weren’t the only smart chaps in Bloomsbury. That was about the way Sandy bragged. And Frank, what d’ye think he accused me of wanting to do?”
“Stealing his freight, you said,” returned the other.
“Huh! worse than that,” grumbled the other. “He declared he believed I meant to throw some acid on their cylinder, so that it would eat in, and make the blooming thing crack, just when they were up in the clouds, boring for altitude.”