“Why, it is a regular banquet,” declared the pleased lad. “What with that and my reading there’s no danger of my going to sleep.”
Hiram picked up a book lying on the shelf and read its title.
“H’m,” he remarked, “‘Advanced Aeronautics—1850.’ Say, this must seem queer along with the flying machines of to-day.”
“It’s almost funny in places,” explained Will. “I wonder what those old fellows with their big awkward gas bags would think of the nifty machine here, and a trip around the world in it, easy as a Pullman sleeper.”
“We don’t know that yet,” observed Dave. “There are probably some very unusual experiences ahead of us.”
“Oh, well, we’ll take it as it comes, a section at a time,” said Hiram. “With Dave Dashaway at the helm, we simply can’t fail.”
They were a sanguine, light-hearted group. The crew of the Comet chatted in a friendly way with Will for a few minutes. Then the trio repaired to a little hotel just outside the grounds. The association had made arrangements for them there. The young airman left word to be called at daylight and the comrades were shown to a doubled-bedded room.
“This is pretty fine,” observed Hiram, bunking in with Elmer and stretching himself luxuriously. “There won’t be a lot more of it for some time to come, so let’s see who can sleep soundest.”
Our hero was certainly the expert aviator of the group. He did not carry off the laurels in the slumber field, however. His comrades wrapped in profound sleep, Dave awoke and with a shock.
It must have been about three o’clock. It seemed to the young airman as though a cannon had gone off near by. His ears still rang with the echoes. Dave found the window frames of the room were still rattling.