"Let's get a hand car, or one of these gasoline speeders, and go over the branch to Sykestown," suggested McGlory.
Matt's eyes sparkled at mention of the gasoline speeder, for as yet he had had no experience with one of them.
"We wouldn't be liable to find such a thing as a 'speeder' in a small place like Carrington," said he.
"Then we'll get an automobile from Devil's Lake City," put in Cameron. "By Jupiter, Matt, I'm pretty nearly as warm about this business as you are. An automobile, that's the thing!"
"It might be hard to get one," continued Matt. "You fellows can come in an automobile, but I think I'll go by air line."
"Air line?" echoed the lieutenant, puzzled.
"Yes," was the quiet reply. "Two hours' work will finish the aëroplane, and——"
"Great Scott!" exclaimed the lieutenant, aghast; "it's a new and untried machine. You don't know whether it will fly or not."
"If it won't fly, then the government won't buy it, and it will be a good thing for us to know that as soon as possible. But it will fly, Cameron."
"But, listen," proceeded Cameron gravely. "You're proposing a two-hundred-mile flight, straight away—something unheard of in the use of aëroplanes. Heavier-than-air machines have only been tried over a prescribed course, up to now—from the starting point, through the air, and then back to the starting point again. This plan of yours, Matt, looks like madness to me."