“Next town we stop at,” spoke Hiram, “I want to get some pancake flour. I’ve been just hankering for some old fashioned flapjacks. I’ve got a griddle among the traps, and I know I can turn out some elegant pancakes.”
“This is good enough for anybody,” insisted Elmer, his teeth deep in a piece of luscious ham cooked to a turn.
“Say,” spoke Hiram a few minutes later, “I strolled around the end of that grove of trees yonder before I woke you up. There’s a road just beyond them, and there’s a town not half a mile away.”
“Is that so?” questioned the young aviator. “That suits my plans precisely.”
“How is that?” asked Elmer.
“I will show you after breakfast,” replied Dave.
He got a pad of writing paper from the supply aboard the biplane. Dave was busy writing for some time. Then he got the repair outfit of the Comet.
“Come on, you can help me,” he said to Hiram and Elmer.
The young airman partially upset the captured airship. His comrades very soon understood what this manœuvre meant. Dave removed a dozen or more screws and bolts. Then he unhinged alternate struts and set to work on the engine. The parts removed were stored aboard of the Comet.
“I guess that will cripple the craft enough to serve our purpose,” said Dave. “I don’t want to be a vandal and wholly destroy as pretty a machine as this is.”