Lost In The Air | Page 3

after reaching the office the boys worked in silence. At last Barney straightened his tired shoulders and glanced at Bruce. He was in a brown study.
"What's on your mind, Bruce?" he asked. "That money?"
"Thinking what it would do for La Vaune; five thousand seven hundred and twenty-four dollars." Bruce rolled the words out slowly. Though they said no more about it, the old man's story was the inspiration of many a wild plan. The truth is, it was destined to play an important part in shaping their future.
* * * * *
"He's here! She's--it's here!"
Bruce burst into the office all excitement and half out of breath.
"Who's he, she, it?" grinned Barney, slipping his pen behind his ear.
"The Major and the airplane! And the plane's a hummer!"
It was Barney's turn to get excited now. He jumped from his stool so suddenly that his pen went clattering.
"Let's have a look at her." He grabbed his cap and dashed out, Bruce at his heels.
Some Greek freight handlers were unloading the car when they reached the track. The work was being done under the direction of a rather tall man, erect and dignified. He, the boys felt sure, was the Major. His face bore some peculiar scars, not deep but wide, and as he walked he limped slightly.
"Might be he's lost some toes," muttered Barney. "Had a cousin who limped that way."
"The machine's a Handley-Page bombing plane, made over for some purpose or other," said Bruce, with a keen eye for every detail. "That's the plane that would have bombed Berlin if the war had lasted long enough. They're carrying mail from Paris to Rome in 'em now. Those machines carried four engines and developed a thousand horse-power. This one is a lighter model and carries two engines. One's a Rolls-Royce and one a Liberty motor. The fellow that planned the Major's trip for him has selected his equipment well. They don't make them any better."
"Just look at the sweep of the planes," exclaimed Barney. "They were made for high altitude work--up where the air's thin. No one would be coming up here for a high altitude test, would he?"
"Surely not; there's no particular advantage at this point for that."
The boys watched the unloading with eager and experienced eyes. As Barney put it, "Makes me feel like some shipwrecked gob on a desert island when he sees a launch coming ashore."
"Yes," grinned Bruce, "and soon you'll be feeling like your gob would when the launch came about and put out to sea again. No chance for you on that boat, Barney."
"Guess you're right," groaned Barney. "Little enough we'll have to do with that bird."
As he spoke several of the men recklessly jerked a plane to free it from its wrappings. The Major, his back to them, was superintending the unloading of the Liberty motor.
"Hey, you! Go easy there!" Barney sprang forward impulsively and showed the workmen how to handle the plane. When the job was done he stepped back with an apologetic air. The Major had turned and was watching him.
"You seem to understand such matters," he smiled.
"I've worked with them a bit," said Barney.
"Would you mind letting me know where you are located?" asked the Major. "My aviator and mechanic have disappointed me so far. You might be of some assistance to me."
"We're over at the bookkeeping shack--the office of the construction company," said Barney, red with embarrassment. "He--that is, my bunkie here, knows more about those boats than I do. Say, if we can be any help to you, we'll jump at the chance. Won't we, Bruce?"
"Surest thing," grinned Bruce, as they turned regretfully toward the dull office and duller work.
"Say, you don't suppose," exclaimed Barney that night at supper--"you remember those awful wide planes of the Major's? You don't suppose he's starting for--" Barney hesitated.
"You don't mean?--" Bruce hesitated in turn.
"Sure! The Pole; you don't suppose he'd try it?"
"Of course not," exclaimed Bruce, the conservative. "Who ever thought of going to the Pole in a plane through Canada?"
"Bartlett's got a plan of going to the Pole in a plane."
"But he's going from Greenland," said Bruce. "That's different."
"Why"
"Steamboat. Farthest point of land north and everything."
"That's just it," exclaimed Barney disgustedly. "Steamboat and everything. You're not a real explorer unless some society backs you up with somebody's money to the tune of fifty thousand or so; till you've got together a group of scholars and seamen for the voyage. Then the proper thing to do is to get caught in the ice, you are all but lost. But--the ice clears at the crucial moment, you push on and on for two years; you live on seal meat and whale blubber. Half your seamen get scurvy and die; your dogs go mad; your Eskimos prove treacherous, you shoot one or more. You take long