“Why, I’m willing to scrub floors, work as candy butcher, tar ropes, wash dishes, peddle programmes, anything honest to reach that first rung,” he had told Dave back at Fairfield. “I’ll make good every step I take, no matter how slow or hard it is, I’m going to become an aviator, like yourself, Dave.”
“Me an aviator?” smiled Dave. “You flatter me, Hiram.”
“Do I?” retorted Hiram. “Well, then, so does Mr. King. And your teacher, old Grimshaw. He says he never saw a person take to the business like you do. Mr. King was bragging about you, too, down at the office yesterday. He actually talked about entering you in one of the races next week.”
Dave flushed with pleasure. He was too sensible to imagine himself a full-fledged aviator, or anything like it. At the same time, he could not deny that he had learned a great many new things within the past ten days.
He did not look much like the tired, dusty and threadbare boy who had left Brompton hungry, barefooted and practically penniless. The one hundred feet descent from the Aegis in the old inventor’s parachute garment had been a complete success. It had put Dave in funds, too, for Mr. Dixon had given him a ten dollar bill for his services.
“I don’t pretend to be much more than a rediscoverer as to my parachute device,” Dixon acknowledged. “It’s up to date, and it does what I claim for it, though. Tell you, Dashaway, I’ll be over to the Dayton meet, and I’ll add a five dollar bill to every one hundred feet you drop with my apparatus.”
“It really does work, doesn’t it, Mr. King?” Dave asked of the aviator a little later.
“Oh, yes,” replied the airman, somewhat indifferently. “It won’t sell much, though, outside of amateurs.”
“Why not?”
“A professional won’t admit any lack of skill or pluck, any more than a crack swimmer would use a life preserver. Another thing, a crack operator can’t be hampered with a suit tied around his ankles. Still another thing, when the moment arrives for an airman to desert the ship, things are so desperate he hasn’t much chance of jumping clear of the machine.”