On a Torn-Away World | Page 9

"Very well," agreed Professor Henderson. "If you boys say the word, we will start. Is
Andy here?"
"He is already aboard--asleep in his bunk," said Jack, "with his best rifle cuddled in the
hollow of his arm. He does not propose to be left behind," and the young fellow
chuckled.
"And where is Washington White?"
"He's done yere," answered the darkey for himself, and he appeared bearing the traveling
coop of Christopher Columbus And-so-forth in his arms.
"Here, Wash!" ejaculated Jack. "Surely you are not going to clutter up the flying machine
with that thing?"
"An' why fo' not?" sputtered the darkey. "Whatebber has Buttsy done ter yo', Massa Jack,
dat yo' should be obfendicated at his 'pearance in de present state ob de obsequies?"
"Then the rooster accompanies the expedition," chuckled Jack. "Only remember, if we
have to throw out anything to lighten ship, Buttsy goes first--even before we are obliged

to dispense with your services, Wash!"
"Den we are ready to start," declared the darkey, solemnly. "Nottin' will now disturb de
continuity ob de ebenin's enj'yment. Forward, march, is our motter!"
And he marched away to the flying machine and got aboard with the coop and Buttsy in
his arms.
The professor had found the last of his possessions he wished to take with him. He
followed the negro aboard. The Snowbird was already outside the hangar and on its
wheels, ready for the start. This time they dispensed with the professor's catapult, for it
would be necessary to have the trucks attached to the aeroplane to enable her to start
properly from any point on which they might land. The workshop and plant in general
were left in charge of a watchman and caretaker, and only this man was present when
Jack took his place in the controller's seat and Mark started the powerful motor and
clambered aboard.
The craft ran across the field, at first slowly and then more rapidly as Jack increased the
speed. The flying machine began to lift almost immediately.
"Hurrah!" shouted the irrepressible Jack. "We're off!"
"About nor-norwest is the course, Jack," cried Mark Sampson, likewise inspired by the
flight of the Snowbird.
As for Washington White, he gazed down to the dusky earth below them and his eyes
rolled.
"Gollyation!" he muttered. "If Buttsy should fall down dere, he'd suah jounce himself
some; wouldn't he?"
CHAPTER IV
"WHO GOES THERE?"
With the moonlight lying like a benediction over the fields and forests of Maine, the
Snowbird, her motor humming like a huge bumble-bee, and her propellers and controls
working in perfect order, swept on her course into the northwest. The lights of Easton, ten
miles from their home, melted into the earth-shadow behind the sky-voyagers within the
first hour of the sure-to-be eventful journey.
Jack Darrow did not force the pace of the flying machine. They had a long and trying
flight before them. The machine as a whole had been tried out only two or three times
during the few days that had elapsed since she was completed and this present expedition
had been planned. These short flights had served merely to put the parts in good working
trim; but the lad knew better than to make the pace that of top-speed from the start.
He wanted her to "warm up." He knew that the Snowbird could make one hundred

twenty-five miles an hour. But such speed was likely to shake something loose and
cripple the mechanism.
A flight of seventy or eighty miles an hour would bring them well into Canada by noon
of the next day. They would have to there descend at, or near, some town, and report
themselves and the nature of their flight to the authorities. This was to be done as a
precaution in case they had a breakdown somewhere in crossing British possessions. A
passport would then aid them if they were obliged to call upon the authorities in the heart
of Canada for aid.
But at present none of these things bothered the party much. Sudds and the professor
slept as though they were in their beds at home. The old hunter could sleep anywhere,
and awake instantly with all his faculties about him. And the scientist slept profoundly
because his body was exhausted.
Under the brilliant moon the Snowbird swung along the air-way like a veritable bird. Jack
increased the revolutions of the propellers a trifle and the ship responded like a spirited
horse to the spur. She darted ahead at a ninety mile speed and Washington White emitted
a mournful groan.
"What's the matter with you now, Wash?" shouted Mark, for they all wore ear-tabs and
had to shout to make one another hear.
"Oh, lawsy-massy on us!" groaned Wash. "I'se got sech a misery, Massa Mark, I dunno
but ma time