“Certainly not!” agreed Bob. “We’ve learned enough about airplane construction at the Tredway plant to know they don’t do such careless things as that!”
“Then somebody deliberately did it,” concluded Al. “It’s part of the scheme to damage the crates.”
“It’s worse than that!” Bob climbed to the ground and faced his companions. His face, hard to see in the dark, because he was saving his electric battery, was very serious. “It’s worse than just tampering! Fellows—this is Mr. Tredway’s own airplane!——”
“I see,” commented Curt soberly. “Some one wanted harm to come to the owner of the plant.”
“And the ‘some one’ made sure it would. In daylight,” Bob stated, “that spark wouldn’t be noticed. It was only by being out in the dark of night, that I could see it.”
“But crossed wires ought not to rub enough to wear out the insulation in a short time,” objected Al.
“Neither they did. Al—Curt—the insulation was scraped away!”
They were silent for a long moment. The full wickedness of that deliberate act made each of the youths feel rather cold. They were dealing with something more sinister than an attempt to make away with small airplane supplies, to damage airplanes for the purpose of injuring the reputation of the manufacturers, as they had decided the conditions seemed to indicate.
“Well,” Curt became practical, “you can’t fly that ship home, not in that condition.”
“If we had some adhesive tape,” Bob said, “I could tape the wires and get back to the aircraft field.”