“Of course we will be glad to learn.” Curt was more sober. “That ought to be one of the first things for anybody to do who means to be a pilot.” Mr. Wright nodded and Curt proceeded. “A good grounding in airplane construction will be fine. But—for the detective part—I think we ought to be very serious and consider it carefully.”
“Indeed you should,” agreed Mr. Wright. “There is a deeper mystery to be solved than appears on the surface.”
“I see that,” agreed Curt. “And we must be sure that we will be a help and not a hindrance to you——”
“Fine lad!” broke in Barney.
“Oh, we won’t be a hindrance!” Al was almost bouncing on the divan springs in his eagerness. “We’ll watch, and catch whoever you want caught—maybe learn to fly a ‘crate’ and hop off and fly after him and ride him down and force him to land—and there you are!”
All the party laughed. Al, realizing his childish lapse into silly chatter, laughed, finally, himself, a little ruefully.
“I see what Curt meant, now,” he said, more quietly; but his excitement was hard to hold. “But, anyhow, Mr.——”
“Barney!”
“Anyhow, Barney, we will try to help. We can learn about airplane construction, and that will be fine; but we will give all our minds to watching and listening and doing whatever is wanted of us—we ought to form some kind of club or order, so we would have a head to get orders from father—especially if he is too busy to take part himself.”
“That’s sensible, even if it does seem boy-like to want to have a secret association,” said the older detective.