CHAPTER II.
BILLY AS A DIPLOMAT.
A few minutes after Fred Reade had left the _Planet_ offices he wasfollowed by Billy Barnes. The young reporter boarded an open MadisonAvenue car, preferring it to the stuffy heat of the subway, and in duetime found himself at the home of Mr. Chester, the wealthy banker, andfather of Frank and Harry Chester, the Boy Aviators. The lads need nofurther introduction to our readers, who have doubtless formed theacquaintance of both the young air pilots in previous volumes of thisseries. To those who have not it may be as well--while Billy Barnes isringing the doorbell--to say that Frank and Harry Chester were graduatesof the Agassiz High School and the pioneers among schoolboy aviators.Beginning with models of air craft they had finally evolved a finebiplane which they named the _Golden Eagle_. The first _Golden Eagle_was destroyed in a tropical storm off the coast of Nicaragua, as relatedin The Boy Aviators in Nicaragua; or, In League with the Insurgents. Tocarry out an important commission affecting a stolen formula the ladsthen constructed a second _Golden Eagle_, in which they met manyadventures and perils in the Everglades of Florida. These were set forthin The Boy Aviators on Secret Service; or, Working with Wireless, thesecond volume of the series. In the third and fourth volumes the boyshad aerial adventures in Africa, and in the Sargasso Sea. What thesewere will be found in The Boy Aviators in Africa; or, An Aerial IvoryTrail; and The Boy Aviators' Treasure Quest; or, The Golden Galleon.
Before the servant who answered Billy's ring had time to announce himthere was a rush of feet down the hallway and two tall lads, with crispwavy hair and blue eyes, were wringing Billy's hand till he laughinglyshouted:
"Hey, let up! I'm not the India-rubber man with the circus."
At this moment a door opened and a gray-haired man stepped out. It wasMr. Chester.
"Why, how do you do, Billy Barnes," he exclaimed heartily, "glad to seeyou; but I hope you haven't come to take my boys off again on somewonderful trip or other. You know their mother and I like to see them athome sometimes."
"Well, sir," began Billy somewhat abashed, "the fact is I--you see--Imean--well, the long and short of it is, sir, that I _have_ anadventurous proposal to make to them."
"Hurray!" shouted Harry. "Good for you, Billy!"
Mr. Chester, however, assumed his--what Frank called--"official face."
"Really, I----" he began.
"Now, father," interjected Frank, "don't you think it would be a goodidea if we heard what Billy's proposal, or whatever you like to call it,is before we say anything more?"
"Perhaps you are right, my boy," said his father, "but I am busy now,and----"
"We'll take Billy out to the workshop and make him tell us all about it,and then we'll submit it to you," suggested Harry.
"That's a good idea," assented his father.
Five minutes later the three boys were closeted in the big room abovethe garage of the Chester home, which served them as a workshop, studyand designing plant all rolled into one. The blue prints, aeroplaneparts, chemicals, and tools scattered about or ranged in neat racksagainst the walls in conjunction with a shelf of books on aviation andkindred subjects, the table illumined by movable drop lights shaded bygreen shades, gave the room a very business-like appearance. It wasclearly a place for work and not for play--as a sort of framework newlyerected in one corner showed.
"What's that?" asked Billy, indicating it.
"Oh, just an idea we were working on for a wireless adapted for autouse," rejoined Frank, "but never mind that now. What's this wonderfulplan of yours?"
"Simply this," replied Billy briskly, "how'd you fellows like to get$50,000?"
"Would we?" exclaimed Harry. "Lead us to it."
"You'll have to lead yourselves," laughed Billy.
"Oh, come on, Billy, put us out of our suspense. What do you mean?" saidFrank.
"Well, my paper, _The Planet_, you know," began Billy, "has decided tooffer the amount I named for a successful flight from here to SanFrancisco, or as near to that city as can be attained. There are noconditions--except get there first, or travel furthest."
"Well?" said Frank.
"Well," repeated Billy, "I've come here to interview you. Are you readyto announce yourselves as competitors for the _Planet's_ contest?"
Not so much to Billy's surprise Frank shook his head.
"I don't know what to say," he rejoined. "It isn't a thing you can makeyour mind up to in a minute. I'd like to do it, but it would require alot of preparation. Then, too, there would be maps to get up and athousand and one details to arrange. It's a big task--bigger than youimagine, Billy."
"Oh, I know it's a big proposition," said the young reporter, "that'sone reason I thought it would appeal to you," he added subtly. "As forgasolene, why not carry a supply of it in the automobile?"
"What automobile?" asked Harry.
"Why, didn't I tell you," exclaimed Billy, "the auto I'm to follow youfellows in and send out accounts of your progress. Oh, Frank, please sayyou'll do it--it would be bully."
"It would be bully, no doubt of that," rejoined Frank; "but I have a lotof experimental work on hand that I want to finish. I should have toleave that, and Harry is preparing for college. No, Billy, I'm afraid weshall have to call it off. There are lots of other aviators you can getto take part. The prize is big enough to call out the biggest of them."
Bitter disappointment showed on Billy's face.
"Then it's all off?" he murmured dejectedly.
"I'm afraid so--yes," replied Frank. "What do you say, Harry?"
"I'd like to go," decided Harry promptly; "but, as you said, Frank, itwould delay us both in our studies, and then we would have a lot of workto do on the framework of the _Golden Eagle_, wrecked as she was."
"Hold on there!" cried Billy. "I was coming to that. I was going to saythat maybe the reason you refused was that you couldn't build a new'plane in time, but did I understand you to say you had recovered theframe?"
"Of the old _Golden Eagle II_," put in Frank. "You recollect thatfollowing the fight with Luther Barr's dirigible in the Sargasso we hadto abandon her."
"After that rascal Sanborn tried to blow a hole in the pontoons thatmade her float and sink her."
"I shall never forget the look on his face as that devil fish seized himand bore him to the depths of the sea," shuddered Harry.
"Nor I," said Frank; "but here's your story, Billy. Having, as you know,left the _Golden Eagle_ drifting on her pontoons we never thought weshould see her again, but a few days ago a message reached us fromFlorida saying that the government derelict destroyer _Grampus_, whileon the lookout for dangerous wrecks in the Caribbean Sea, encountered astrange-looking object scudding over--or rather through--the waves. Theyset out in chase and soon made it out as the framework of an aeroplane.You remember that I advertised the loss of our air craft prettyextensively in marine and naval journals, and offered a reward, so thatwhen the drifting aeroplane was sighted every man on board thegovernment vessel was eager to capture it. As the wind dropped soonafter they sighted it they were enabled to get alongside the derelictand found that it was indeed the _Golden Eagle_. Her planes were riddledwith bullets and her pontoons covered with green seaweed, but theframework was as solid and the braces as taut as the day we put hertogether. Moreover, the engine, beyond being badly coated with rust, wasas good as the day we set it on the bed plate."
"Say, why didn't you tell me about this before?" demanded Billy.
"Too much of a hurry to get her back, I guess," rejoined Frank. "But,say," he broke off, "the frame was shipped from Florida and arrived herethis morning. Want to look at it?"
"Want to look at it? You bet I do!" gasped Billy. "That's the finest oldair ship in the world."
"So we think," laughed Harry, as Frank led the way down a flight ofsteps into the garage below the room in which they had been discussingthe _Planet's_ offer.
Frank switched on the lights and there stood revealed in the r
ear of theplace a shadowy framework that glistened in places where the lightcaught it. It towered huge, and yet light and airy-looking, like theskeleton of a strange bird.
"It wasn't shipped that way?" asked Billy.
"Not much," was Frank's reply. "They took it down in Florida and boxedit."
"And a nice mess they made of it," said Harry; "but, thank goodness,they didn't harm the engine."
He pointed to the motor which was out of the machine and lay in acorner.
"Doesn't look very big for the work it's done, does it?" laughed Frank,gazing lovingly at the eight-cylindered, hundred horse-power engine thathad performed such good service since the boys installed it.
"There's certainly a lot of cleaning to be done about the 'plane,"remarked Billy, as he handled the rusted frames and tarnished bronzeparts.
"Oh, that won't take long," replied Frank lightly; "anyhow, we've gotlots of time to do it."
"Unless," put in Billy.
"Well, unless what?" demanded Frank, though he guessed the youngreporter's meaning.
"Unless you go in for that $50,000 prize," cried Billy skillfullyevading the playful blow Frank aimed at him. "In all seriousness, Frank,won't you?" he pleaded.
"In all seriousness, no," was Frank's rejoinder. "I'd like to do it.Billy," he went on. "I'd like to do it for your sake, if it would do youany good--we both would, wouldn't we, Harry?"
"You bet," replied the younger brother with effective brevity.
"Well, of course, I know you fellows too well to try to urge you," saidBilly; "but I would like to be able to announce in the _Planet_to-morrow that the Boy Aviators announce they will compete for thepaper's big prize."
"To tell you the truth, Billy," laughed Frank, "we've had about enoughnewspaper notoriety lately. It's mighty good of you to write accounts ofour adventures, but I guess the papers can get along for a while withoutanything about us."
"Not at all, you make good copy," declared Billy, with such comicemphasis that the boys went off into shouts of laughter.
And so it came about that Billy said good-night without having shakenthe Boy Aviators in their determination not to engage in any publicflights, but all the time, though they little knew it, events were soshaping themselves that little as they dreamed it they were to take partin the record flight.