CHAPTER V.
THE BOYS DECIDE.
Their strange experience of the preceding night was naturally the topicof the day with the boys the next morning. That Fred Reade was concernedin it there seemed no reason to doubt, though just what part he hadplayed was more shadowy. A perusal of the two newspapers, the _Planet_and the _Despatch_, the next day, however, gave the boys an inkling ofone of his motives for his desperate attempt--if, indeed, it had beenengineered by him--to gain possession of the Joyce gyroscope. This wasthe announcement that the two papers had agreed to start theircontestants off in a spirit of rivalry by naming the same day for thestart and imposing exactly the same conditions, the prizes to be lumped.Among other things in the _Despatch's_ article the boys read that Slade,the noted aviator, was an entrant.
"Mr. Reade," the paper stated, "will accompany Mr. Slade as thecorrespondent of this newspaper. He will ride in an automobile whichwill carry supplies and emergency tools and equipment. Every step of thetrip will be chronicled by him."
There was more to the same effect, but the boys had no eyes for it aftertheir sight lighted on the following paragraph:
"Those remarkable and precocious youths, the Boy Aviators, are, ofcourse, not equipped for such a contest as this, requiring, as it does,an excess of skill and knowledge of aviation. A noted aviator of thiscity, in speaking of the fact that they have not entered their names,remarked that boys are not calculated to have either the energy or thepluck to carry them through an enterprise like the present."
"That's Fred Reade, for a bet," exclaimed Billy, as he read theinsulting paragraph. "He's crazy sore at you and everyone else besidehis sweet self. I suppose he wrote that just to make himselfdisagreeable."
"Moreover, he knows in some mysterious way that we have the first optionon the Joyce gyroscope," put in Harry, "and maybe he wouldn't give hiseyes to get it for the principal _Planet_ contestant."
"He's certainly shown that," said Frank. "I've heard of the Slademachine, and it is reputed to be a wonder. In whatever way Reade heardthat we had the gyroscope, there is little doubt that he realizes thatfitted with it the Slade plane might win the race."
"And there's another reason," burst out Billy Barnes. "You see now thatthe two papers have agreed to run the race off together it eliminatesthe two prizes, and according to the conditions both will be massed andawarded to the winner."
"Well?" questioned Frank.
"Well," repeated Billy, continuing, "this means that if Reade has beenbacking Slade to win the _Despatch_ contest, and there is little doubthe has--now that the two contests are massed if Slade has a better manon the _Planet's_ list pitted against him the _Planet_ man may win, andthen Reade gets nothing."
"You mean that Slade was almost certain to win the _Despatch's_race--that the $50,000 was as good as won with the class of contestantshe had against him before the two offers were massed?" asked Frank.
Billy nodded. "And that now, for all they know, the _Planet_ may havesome dark horse who will beat Slade and get the combined prize?"
"Precisely, as Ben Stubbs would say," laughed Billy.
"It would serve them right for the mean trick they tried to play on usby attempting to steal the gyroscope plans if we were to enter in therace at the last moment and be the _Planet's_ dark horses." mused Frank.
"Oh, Frank, do you mean that?" shouted Billy.
"I haven't said I mean anything, you wild man," laughed Frank, "butinasmuch as my father was talking of going to Los Angeles--you know hehas some orange groves out there--I've been thinking that we mightcombine business with pleasure and take a trip to California byaeroplane."
"Then you'll do it," eagerly demanded Billy. As for Harry, he was soentranced at the idea that he was capering about the room like anIndian.
"I think that it is almost certain that we will not," teased Frank.
"Not what?" groaned Billy.
"Not be able to resist the temptation of going."
At this point a maid entered the room with a telegram.
"This is for you," she said, holding it out to Frank.
Frank tore it open and his face flushed angrily as he read its contents.He handed it to the others. The message was not signed, but even so theboys all guessed who it was from.
"You got away from us by a neat trick last night," it read, "but puppieslike you cannot balk us. Men are in this race, not boys, so keep yourhands off it."
"I suppose he means by that, as we are not contestants, we have no rightto interfere with their attempts to steal the gyroscope attachment forthemselves," exclaimed Frank. "That's a fine line of reasoning."
"That telegram ought to decide us," burst out Harry.
"It certainly ought to," chimed in Billy.
At that minute the Chester boys' father entered the room.
"What are you boys all so excited about?" he asked.
"What would you say if we joined you in Los Angeles?" asked Frank.
"What do you mean? I don't quite understand," said Mr. Chester, puzzledin spite of himself, though he knew the boys' sudden determination tohave adventures and suspected that something of the kind was in the windnow.
"If we flew to California, for instance," said Frank.
"Flew there," repeated Mr. Chester. "My dear boy, how could you dothat?"
"In the _Golden Eagle_, of course," exclaimed Harry.
"But--but what for?" questioned the amazed Mr. Chester.
"For a hundred thousand dollars," put in Billy.
"You mean for that newspaper prize?"
The boys nodded.
"I don't like the idea of your entering a contest of that character,"said Mr. Chester; "there is a great deal of danger, too."
"No more than we have been through," remonstrated Frank; "besides, thinkof the experience. Why, we would fly over a dozen states."
"A dozen--fifty, at least," cried Billy, with a fine disregard forgeography.
"But how would you go? How long would it take you?" demanded theirfather.
"I haven't figured out just the time we would consume," said Frank, "butI have a rough idea of our route. The object, of course, would be toavoid any big mountain chains, although if we have our Joyce automaticadjuster I think we could manage even those cross currents with ease.But this is to be a race and we want to get there first. The newspaperroute is from here to Pittsburg, from there to Nashville, crossing theOhio and Cumberland rivers, thence, due west almost, across the northernpart of Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona andthen across California to San Francisco."
"Hurrah," cried Billy, his eyes shining. "Indians, cowboys, gold minesand oranges."
When the laugh at the jumbled series of images the mention of thedifferent states Frank had enumerated aroused in Billy's mind had dieddown Mr. Chester wanted to know how the boys were going to carry theirsupplies.
"Well," said Frank, "as you are going to California and leaving the carbehind we thought that perhaps you wouldn't mind letting us use it. Wewill be very careful----"
"Oh, very," repeated Harry.
"Most," supplemented Billy.
Mr. Chester laughed.
"I never saw such boys," he said, "but even supposing you had theautomobile--I say supposing you had it, could you carry enough suppliesin it for the aeroplane?"
"I am sure we could," Frank asserted. "You see, automobiles are in suchgeneral use nowadays that it would only be in the desolate parts of thewestern states that we should have to carry a large supply of gasolene.Almost every village nowadays has it in stock."
"You seem to have the whole thing thought out," laughed Mr. Chester.
"It will be the trip of a lifetime," shouted Harry.
"Well, I shall have to consult with your mother," was Mr. Chester'sdictum.
Mrs. Chester objected very much at first to her sons' plan.
"You are always going off on dangerous trips. I do wish you'd spend alittle time at home," she sai
d.
But the boys assured her they would be very careful and would keepconstantly in touch with their parents by telegraph and not take anyunwarranted risks.
"Well, I suppose I shall have to yield," said Mrs. Chester at length.
"Hurrah!" cried the boys.
And thus it came about that one week before the big race across thecontinent was due to start the names of the Chester Boys were enrolledon the _Planet's_ lists as contestants.