“But it was Poke’s idea,” testified Step generously.
“Maybe, but Step has taken hold like a good fellow and helped a lot,” averred Poke, not to be outdone in fairness.
Sam waved an impatient hand. “That’s all right. Tell me about the machine. What is it? Zeppelin?”
“Of course not!” cried Poke. “Zeppelin nothing! It’ll be a plane.”
“Monoplane or biplane?”
“Why—why, we’re working on two or three plans. We’ll see which works out best. They say a monoplane is faster, and a biplane safer. We haven’t settled all the details yet.”
“Go ahead! Tell me some more.”
“Yes, let him have the whole thing,” Step advised.
“Well, it was this way,” Poke explained. “You know that day out by the lake? When Haskins told us about the machine running away with him, he mentioned that it had a mighty high-speed motor—one that’d do in a flying machine, he said. That set me thinking.”
“Poke’s a crackerjack when it comes to that sort of thing,” Step observed admiringly.