CHAPTER XII
LARSON SEES UNCLE EZRA
Dick Hamilton had not been very friendly with Lieutenant Larson duringthe aviation instruction at Kentfield. In fact the young millionairedid not like the army officer. Added to this the suspicion that Larsonmight have had some hand in tampering with the stabilizer of Mr.Vardon's craft, did not make Dick any too anxious to see the birdman.
And yet he felt that in courtesy he must.
"I'll go in the library and meet him," said Dick, to the servant whohad brought the message. "I don't care to have him out here, where hemight see my airship," Dick added, to his chums.
"I guess you're right there," agreed Paul.
"He might take some of your ideas, and make a machine for himself thatwould win the prize," added Innis.
"Oh, well, I'm not so afraid of that," replied Dick, "as I intend,after I complete my craft, and if she wins the prize, to turn my plansand ideas over to the government, anyhow, for their use. But I don'tjust like the idea of Larson coming out to the work-shed."
Mr. Vardon and his men were in another part of the big barn, and hadnot heard of the arrival of the army man.
"How do you do?" greeted Dick, as he met Larson in the library. "I'mglad to see you."
This was polite fiction, that, perhaps, might be pardoned.
"I don't want to trouble you, Mr. Hamilton," went on the lieutenant,with a shifty glance around the room, "but I have left the army, andhave engaged in the building of airships.
"I recall that you said at Kentfield, that you were going to constructone, and I called to see if I could not get the contract," Larson wenton.
"Well, I am sorry, for your sake, to say that my craft is almostcompleted," replied Dick. "So I can't give you the contract."
"Completed!" cried Larson, in tones that showed his great surprise."You don't mean to tell me you have undertaken the important work ofconstructing an aeroplane so soon after coming from the militaryacademy?"
"Well, I didn't want to waste any time," replied Dick, wondering at thelieutenant's interest. "I'm going to try for the government prize, andI wanted to be early on the job."
Larson hesitated a moment, and resumed:
"Well, then it is too late; I suppose? I hoped to get you to adopt myplans for an aeroplane. But I have been delayed making arrangements,and by resigning from the army.
"Perhaps I am not too late, though, to have you adopt my type ofequilibrizer. My mercury tubes--"
"I am sorry, but you are too late there," interrupted Dick.
"What type are you using?" the lieutenant cried, dramatically.
"The Vardon. I might say that Mr. Vardon is also building my airship.It will contain his gyroscope."
"A gyroscope!" cried the former officer. "You are very foolish! Youwill come to grief with that. The only safe form is the mercury tube,of which I am the inventor."
At that moment Vardon himself, who wished to consult Dick on somepoint, came into the room, not knowing a caller was there.
"I am sorry," went on the young millionaire, "but I am going to use Mr.Vardon's gyroscope."
"Then you may as well give up all hope of winning the prize!" sneeredLarson. "You are a very foolish young man. Vardon is a dreamer, avisionary inventor who will never amount to anything. His gyroscope isa joke, and--"
"I am sorry you think so," interrupted the aviator. "But you evidentlyconsidered my gyroscope such a good joke that you tried to spoil it."
"I! What do you mean? You shall answer for that!" cried the formerlieutenant, in an unnecessarily dramatic manner.
"I think you know what I mean," replied Vardon, coolly. "I need not gointo details. Only I warn you that if you are seen tampering about theHamilton airship, on which I am working, that you will not get off soeasily as you did in my case!"
"Be careful!" warned Larson. "You are treading on dangerous ground!"
"And so are you," warned the aviator, not allowing himself to getexcited as did Larson. "I know of what I am speaking."
"Then I want to tell you that you are laboring under amisapprehension," sneered the former officer. "I can see that I am notwelcome here. I'll go."
Dick did not ask him to stay. The young millionaire was anything but ahypocrite.
"What did he want?" asked Mr. Vardon, when Larson had left.
"To build my airship. He evidently did not know that I had alreadyengaged you. He got a surprise, I think."
"He is a dangerous man, and an unscrupulous one," said the aviator. "Ido not say that through any malice, but because I firmly believe it. Iwould never trust him."
"Nor shall I," added Dick. "I presume though, that he will have somefeeling against me for this."
"Very likely," agreed Mr. Vardon. "You will have to be on your guard."
The young millionaire and the aviator then went into details about somecomplicated point in the construction of the Abaris, with which it isnot necessary to weary my readers.
Larson must have recalled what Dick had told him about Uncle Ezra beinga wealthy man, for, as subsequent events disclosed, the disappointedarmy officer went almost at once to Dankville. And there he laidbefore the miserly man a plan which Uncle Ezra eventually took up,strange as it may seen.
It was the bait of the twenty thousand dollar prize that "took," in hiscase.
Larson had some trouble in reaching Mr. Larabee, who was a bit shy ofstrangers. When one, (in this case Larson) was announced by AuntSamantha, Mr. Larabee asked:
"Does he look like an agent?"
"No, Ez, I can't say he does."
"Does he look like a collector?"
"No, Ez, not the usual kind."
"Or a missionary, looking for funds to buy pocket handkerchiefs for theheathen?"
"Hardly. He's smoking, and I wish you'd hurry and git him out of theparlor, for he's sure to drop some ashes on the carpet that we've hadever since we got married."
"Smoking in my parlor!" exclaimed Uncle Ezra. "I'll get him out ofthere. The idea! Why, if any sun is let in there it will spoil thecolors. How'd you come to open that?" he asked of his wife, wrathfully.
"I didn't. But I was so surprised at havin' someone come to the frontdoor, which they never do, that I didn't know what to say. He asked ifyou was to home, and I said you was. Then he said: 'Well, I'll waitfor him in here,' and he pushed open the parlor door and went in. Ihad it open the least mite, for I thought I saw a speck of sun comin'through a crack in the blinds and I was goin' in to close it when thebell rang."
"The idea! Sitting in my parlor!" muttered Uncle Ezra. "I'll get himout of that. You're sure he ain't a book peddler?"
"He don't seem to have a thing to sell except nerve," said AuntSamantha, "and he sure has got plenty of that."
"I'll fix him!" cried Uncle Ezra.
But he proved to be no match for the smooth sharper in the shape ofLarson.
"Did you want to see me?" demanded the crabbed old man.
"I did," answered Larson coolly, as he continued to puff away at hiscigar. "I came to offer you a chance to make twenty thousand dollars."
"Twenty thousand dollars!" Uncle Ezra nearly lost his breath, he wasso surprised.
"That's what I said! I'm in a position to give you a good chance tomake that much money, and perhaps more. If you will give me half anhour of your time--"
"Look here!" interrupted Mr. Larabee, "this ain't no lottery scheme; isit? If it is I want to warn you that I'm a deacon in the church. Iwouldn't go into any lottery unless I was sure I could win. I don'tbelieve in gambling. As a deacon of the church I couldn't countenancenothing like that. No gambling!"
"This is not a gamble," Larson assured him. "It's a sure thing. I'llshow you how to make twenty thousand dollars!"
"I--I guess I'd better open a window in here, so we can see," saidUncle Ezra, faintly. "That's quite a pile of money to talk about inthe dark," and to the horror of Aunt Samantha she saw, a little later,the sun shamelessly streaming in on her car
pet that had only beentreated to such indignities on the occasions of a funeral, or somethinglike that. The parlor of the Dankville house was like a tomb in thisrespect.