Able to do nothing about the accident, the staff went on with its accustomed work, sadly, more seriously, to be sure, but steadily.
However, when Bob returned to his engine assembling work, he met a new character, and one of whom he at once formed an unsatisfactory opinion.
By association of ideas Griff Parsons fell under his suspicion because the youth, about eighteen or nineteen, was the son of the man Bob had seen in Barney’s office—Mr. Parsons. Griff, whose handclasp was flabby, whose eyes were even more shifty, whose manner was still more uneasy than his father’s had been, did not impress Bob favorably at all.
He had something on his mind, Bob decided.
Assigned by the engine department foreman to help Griff fit piston rings onto the small pistons, to fit the piston assembly into the cylinders, before the final assembly was made, Bob learned much, and somewhat more about Griff than about the nice adjustments of machinery.
If he turned suddenly, Griff almost jumped, having hard work to control his muscles.
When he spoke of the morning’s accident, Griff, with a scowl, told him to “Keep your mind on what you’re doing! That other ain’t any of your business!”
Bob had hard work not to show his antagonism to the gruff, snappish young man; he was grateful when a summons took him out into the yard.
“I think it is a good idea to have you fellows treated as though all you are here for is to learn about airplanes,” Barney greeted him. “Your Cousin Langley is going to take up the sister ship to the cracked up Silver Flash, this afternoon, and I’m sending all three of you with him. It will give you a chance to understand what the designer told you about how carefully he had estimated the shape and weight of the new type longerons and how some mistake that he hasn’t been able to figure out yet makes the new crate tend to slip off sideways too easily. Langley will show you how he checks and reports, and then you will understand how every one of us works in harmony with every other one, to build our ships airworthy, safe and steady.”
When they joined Lang, who was busy checking his dashboard instruments as the engine warmed up on the line, Bob, Curt and Al did not hook safety belts on. They had every confidence in Lang’s ability to handle the ship, and they were more anxious to be near him so they could talk than to sit along the cabin sides unable to communicate their news to him over the roar of the engine.