“Thank you, Larry,” said Frank; “it makes a fellow feel good to have his friends express confidence in him. We mean to practice hard and learn all the ropes we can. Then, if our fine little engine can develop the speed I think she will, we’ll show a clean pair of heels to our rivals on that big day of the race.”
“Oh, I forgot something!” exclaimed Elephant just then, and he straightway began fumbling at his pocket as though trying to get a grip on an object concealed there. “I found some property belonging to you, Andy, and in the funniest place you ever heard of. Perhaps you remember losing it?”
Andy turned pale, then rosy red and expectant.
“My little aluminum monkey wrench?” he exclaimed, eagerly.
Even Frank looked up, waiting to see what happened. But Elephant shook his head in a disappointing fashion.
“Shucks, no!” he said; “but that tennis ball you lost last year, you know, over in the lot back of our court. We hunted high and low for it and gave the thing up. Well, would you believe it, if I didn’t come on the ball stuck tight in a crotch of a tree, and here it is, hardly worth anything, but I thought you’d like to see it again.”
But Andy groaned and waved him away.
CHAPTER XVIII.
A SCOUT, AND A DISCOVERY.
Several days passed.
With the exception of Sunday, the two wide-awake Bird boys put in all the time possible in learning the ropes. Whenever the weather was favorable they might be seen careering around the aviation field in their gallant little Bleriot monoplane, now rising to greater heights than they had ever dared venture before, and anon coming down in some daring “spiral” that evoked loud cheers from those who, from below, witnessed the new maneuver.