“That you were crazy with the heat,” was the prompt and impolite answer.
“Then you’d be crazy yourself. That’s his sister in that aeroplane, and if he don’t show up in time for the race she’s going to fly it herself and win it.”
If a bombshell had fallen at Fanning’s feet he could not have been more thunderstruck. But he recovered in an instant.
“If she does I’ll protest to the judges,” he said angrily; “they can’t prove that I know anything about her brother’s disappearance, and that Golden Butterfly won’t win this race if I can help it.”
CHAPTER XIX.
BROTHER AND SISTER.
The first gleam of the summer dawn shining into Roy’s place of imprisonment at the bottom of the old well revealed to him only too clearly into what a trap he had fallen. The well seemed to be about fifty feet or more in depth, and the sides were smooth and slippery.
The chill he had felt spreading through his limbs earlier was gone now, but a numb sensation was setting in which did not leave them even when the boy wriggled his legs about.
“Phew!” thought Roy. “I stand a fair chance of being turned into a pollywog or something if I stay here long enough.”