“I’ll tell you when I see you—soon!”
Tom told the girl of the proposed trip and Mary hung up the receiver while Tom wondered at the note of anxiety in his sweetheart’s message.
CHAPTER X
A QUEER STORY
The young inventor was out at the flying field in his air togs going over every detail of his machine when Mary Nestor arrived in the auto driven by a messenger Tom often employed.
“Hello!” called the girl, as she leaped out of the car. She, too, wore a leather flying suit, for Tom had told her to put it on.
“Hello,” responded Tom. “All ready?”
“Yes. But I want to talk to you, and we can’t do it very well with the engine going. It makes such a noise.”
“This one doesn’t make as much racket as some do, for I’ve got a muffler on her,” Tom replied. “But still you can’t exactly carry on a whispered conversation in the Hummer.”
“This conversation is going to be—well rather private,” returned Mary in a low voice, with a glance toward the man who had brought her over in the car.
“We might start off, land in some lonely field, and talk there,” Tom suggested. “I could throttle down the engine just enough to keep her turning over, and yet not running enough to make the plane even taxi.”