"There are no terms to discuss," objected the inventor. "The battleplane belongs to the Empire unconditionally."
CHAPTER VIII
A CROSS-CHANNEL FLIGHT
"I am off to France to-day, lads," announced Desmond Blake on returning to the battleplane after the conclusion of the conference. "It's sharp work, but now these gentlemen have warmed up they are like high pressure blast-furnaces. I suggested handing the plane over to one of the Flying Corps camps and remaining until a military crew had been trained to its use. They weren't keen on that exactly, so they made me promise to fly the machine across to the Front. I have been given a commission as captain in the R.F.C., so the poor neglected inventor blossoms out into a warrior of the aerial blue. Well, lads, the best of friends must part——"
"No, fear," declared Dick stoutly, and Athol backed him up in his protest. "It's not fair."
"On the contrary, it is perfectly fair," said Blake. "You have rendered me great service, and I deeply appreciate it. But when the battleplane goes abroad our implied contract is automatically broken."
"I don't see it," objected Athol bluntly. "We agreed to bear a hand for a definite period. Locality didn't enter into the conditions. Haven't we been entirely satisfactory?"
"Entirely."
"Then why are we to be pushed out of it? We are frightfully keen on the job."