CHAPTER VI
THE MISSING BLUE-PRINTS
The Air Derby created interest all over the world. People in foreignlands talked about it and read about it in their newspapers, just asthey had done in the United States and Canada. With the keenest kindof interest they had followed the reports of its progress and itsfinish. Several nations had hoped to have their own representativescome in first, only to be disappointed.
All this interested world pricked up its attention anew when the boldeditorial of the _Daily Independent_ was widely copied. As John Rosshad predicted, and as probably Mr. Giddings knew before he wrote it,this particular article caused a furore of comment editorially andotherwise. Much of this,--indeed, it seemed the most of it--wasfavorable to the stand taken by the New York publisher. But when therival sheet, the _Clarion_, arrayed its strong force in opposition, theconservative element of the public felt vastly encouraged, and manywere the heated personal arguments as well as newspaper duels, whichensued. Aviators all over the land were particularly concerned, and itgoes without saying that the winners of the late competition were alllined up with the _Clarion_ contingent. This paper's challenge to the_Daily Independent_ for a two-party race around the world on the_Independent's_ own conception of what it considered a fair route awokegreat joy in the hearts of the leave-things-as-they-have-beenadherents. Few, if any of them, particularly the publishers of the_Clarion_, thought Mr. Giddings would ever take up the challenge.
Therefore, judge of the surprise of everybody, and the dismay of the_Clarion_ staff, when a few days following the flaunting of itschallenge, the front page of the Giddings paper contained thefollowing, under a heavy black type heading:
THIS PAPER ACCEPTS THE "CLARION'S" CHALLENGE
A short time ago the _Daily Independent_ in an editorial stronglycriticized the methods or rather routes used in the past in makingworld tours for a time record, stating that such journeys had all beenmade unfairly, in that the routes adopted were about a third less thanthe actual circumference of the globe, and that in our opinion the onlylegitimate around-the-world record could be made by followingapproximately the equatorial line.
We expected a good deal of criticism, of course, when we came out thusboldly against a custom which had prevailed since the beginning ofso-called "around the world" record trips. But we did not expect to bechallenged to prove our sincerity by ourselves making such a journey incompetition with our esteemed but rabid contemporary, the _Clarion_.
To show the _Clarion_ that we are not "bluffing," and that we areperfectly willing to demonstrate practically any position we ever take,we herewith accept its challenge. Even now we have in process ofconstruction a new type of airplane, by means of which we are confidentwe can fly approximately straight around the belly of this old worldentirely by air. A little later we shall announce a time, place, androute, in our columns, and sincerely trust the _Clarion_ will besatisfied with them.
It is quite unnecessary to say that Paul and John Ross read theforegoing article with the keenest pleasure the night they reached homefrom the hangar and found their mother just finishing its perusal.Naturally Mrs. Ross felt all of the average mother's anxiety at thethought that her sons would be exposed to the perils such a longjourney would invite, but on the other hand she was very proud to thinktheir talents had placed them in such an honored position. It had onlybeen an evening or two before that Mr. Giddings, in company with hisson Robert, had called at the Ross homestead, and after a longconference with the boys as to the suitability of the new Sky-Bird IIfor making a world cruise, had taken his departure with his mind fullymade up as to how he should meet the rival paper's challenge.
A few days subsequently, Bob Giddings found, upon reaching home forlunch, that his motorcycle, which he was in the habit of riding backand forth to work, so that he could rush into town on short notice andget emergency materials for the airplane, had a flat tire. As he couldnot fix the tire then, he decided to walk back to the fair-grounds.
As he emerged from the big front yard of his home, he chanced to looktoward town, and observed an orange-colored taxicab standing near thefirst crossing. This would not have especially attracted Bob'sattention, except for the fact that a man sitting on the front seat wasjust at that moment pointing his index finger toward the Giddings'place, and a slender-looking man just descending from the cab waslooking that way and nodding his head.
It seemed to Bob that he had seen the passenger before, but a secondlook made him think he must be mistaken; at least he could not placehim.
"It's probably somebody to see dad. If so, he'll get disappointed, asdad won't get back from the city before evening."
Dismissing the incident from his mind with this thought. Bob hurrieddown the road, eager to reach the hangar and get to work again on thenew airplane.
A few moments after he had passed the home of a youth he knew, he hearda familiar salutation, and turned around to wave his hand in a greetingto this friend, who had come to the front door. As he turned, his eyefell on a slender figure some distance behind, a figure which steppedbehind a tree and stopped.
"Humph! that's funny," mused Bob. "It looks a lot like that fellow whogot out of the taxi back there by our house; I wonder what he's up to,anyhow?"
He continued his way, but as he reached the fair-grounds gate and gotout his key to unlock it, the whim to look back again seized him. Ashe turned, his gaze once more rested on the slender form of thewayfarer, who had crossed to the opposite side of the road, and whonow, finding himself observed once more, promptly stopped and began tofuss with his shoe-lace.
"Say now, this is funny!" ejaculated Bob under his breath, vainlytrying again to recall the identity of the lean figure and darkcomplexion. "I believe that chap is trying to shadow me. I wonderwhat in the dickens he really is up to?"
It was the second time Bob had asked that question of himself, but ashe was a poor source of information just then, he was forced to passinto the fair-grounds and relock the gate in as mystified a state ofmind as before he put the query.
A little later, when he reached the big hangar he whirled about again,as if half expecting to see the stranger still skulking behind him inthe grounds. To his relief he did not detect this situation exactly,but he did see a dark face, which had been peering over the top of thehighboard fence near the gate, drop down from view on the other side.
Bob gave a grunt as he passed into the hangar and took off his coat."As I live, I believe he's up to some sort of mischief," growled theboy. And when, shortly afterward, John and Paul Ross appeared he toldof his experience and repeated his suspicions.
"That is funny," asserted John; "Paul and I saw nothing of any such manwhen we came along, and we passed down the same road. Perhaps hemistook you for somebody else."
"I hope so, but I don't like his actions a little bit," declared Bobstoutly.
With that he picked up a try-square and pencil and began laying outsome work for Paul to cut on the circular saw, while John busiedhimself at the boring-machine in putting a hole through the center ofthe big twelve-foot balsa-wood propeller which a little later would bereinforced with a thin jacket of a new metal called "salinamum," whichwas made chiefly from salt but whose fused components made it as lightas aluminum and stronger than tool steel.
Soon the queer actions of the stranger were quite forgotten in the deepinterest of the three young men in their work. With the prospect of aworld tour before them if the Sky-Bird turned out well, they now hadmore incentive than at the beginning to build the machine with theutmost skill and attention to every detail. Some changes, calculatedto make the craft better adapted to the peculiar conditions she wouldbe likely to meet in such a varied temperature were put into effect,but on the whole they found their original plans so well laid that noimportant features seemed to require modification or abandonment.
But if the man who had followed Bob dropped out of their minds the restof that day, he was soon to occupy a prominent place in their thoughts.For the
very next morning, when Paul and John arrived at the hangar,they were met at the door by a very agitated Bob Giddings.
"Fellows, what do you think has happened?" cried Bob, clearly very muchexcited. Without giving his friends time to answer the question heblurted out: "Somebody got in here last night and stole our plans!"
"Stole our plans!" reiterated Paul and John in the same gasp.
"That's it," said Bob,--"stole the set of blue-prints we have beenworking from. What's more, they must have seen the airplane beforethey got out. I went to take the plans out of the bench drawer herewhere we have kept them locked up, and there was the drawer wide open,the lock picked, and the drawings gone. I'll bet a herring we canthank my dark-skinned shadow of yesterday for this little visit!"
"It does look as if he might have had something to do with this,"agreed John soberly. "I wonder how the rascal, whoever he is, couldhave gotten in the building. There's a heavy Yale lock on the doors."
"The doors were locked all right when I came this morning," vouchedBob. "I don't see myself how--"
"Here you are, gentlemen!" called Paul, who had stepped to a good-sizedwindow near the head of the workbench. "Here's the fellow's privateentrance!" And he pointed to where a heavy nail locking the lower sashhad been forced aside, also to a series of indentations in the outersill, where some prying tool had obviously been recently at work.
"It's a clear case of theft, that's sure," observed John; "and sinceits only our plans that have been taken, it goes to show that this chapis very much concerned about this new airplane."
"Perhaps he wishes to beat us out in getting the patent rights," Bobhinted darkly.
"No, I don't think it's that," differed Paul; "our application was sentin to Washington some weeks ago, and you know the first one to applyfor a certain patent gets the attention."
"Well, then, he could use our plans and make and sell airplanes oftheir pattern, couldn't he?" asked Bob, whose ideas of patent laws werestill a little vague.
"Not at all; if he did we could sue him for infringement," was Paul'sanswer. "The only way he could profit by this theft, so far as I cansee, would be to construct a machine for his own private use, or togive to another person. We could not touch him for that."
"And that would be bad enough for us--if such a machine were usedagainst us in this proposed race around the world, wouldn't it?"demanded Bob Giddings.
Paul and John Ross looked at him in dismayed astonishment. They hadnot thought of this contingency before.