Hiram had spoken of two rough looking characters in the company of Jerry Dawson. Here were a couple who filled the bill, strangers to Dave, and yet speaking his name in a way that was sinister.
“They’re gone, whoever they are,” said Dave a few moments later, and dismissed them from his mind for the time being.
He walked down the row of automobiles and other vehicles lining the main entrance road. There was quite a crowd. General admission to the grounds was free to any one respectable that day and evening.
Outside of the curious visitors who had gone the rounds of the hangars, there were groups of airmen and others discussing the features of the morrow’s flights.
Dave passed along through the crowds, interested in all he saw. When he got to that part of the broad roadway where the booths and crowds were sparser, he deviated to cross towards the hangars at one side of the great course.
He met a few people and here and there came across tents given to the exhibiting of some new model, or occupied by employees who worked about the field. Most of those who ate and slept on the grounds, however, were down at the center of animation near the big gate, and Dave’s walk was a rather lonely one.
“It’s going to be the week of my life,” thought the youth. “I wonder if there’s any hope at all of my taking a flight, as Hiram hinted. Not but that I believe I could manage a biplane as well as any amateur. Hello!”
Dave was rudely aroused from his glowing dreams as he passed a tent where a man with a lantern was tinkering over a motorcycle. Happening to glance back, Dave saw two stealthy figures in the dim distance.
“They are the men I noticed at the entrance,” decided Dave. “There, they’ve split up. One has gone out of sight around the tent, and the other has made a pretence of stopping to watch the fellow mending that motorcycle.”
Dave hastened his speed, making straight for the hangars. The row in which Mr. King housed his machine was quite remote from the others. It was bright starlight, and glancing over his shoulders several times Dave was sure that he made out the two men he was suspicious of following in his tracks.