CHAPTER V
THE "FOOL-PROOF" AEROPLANE
"That was a good breakfast, all right, but I'm glad it's over," Budremarked some time later.
Ralph, of course, did not exactly understand what this meant, butHugh knew. He was in the confidence of the young inventor far enoughto appreciate his eagerness to be at work. He knew what had broughtBud all the way up to this lonely spot, in order that none of thetown boys might spy upon him while trying out his latest wonderfulinvention.
Truth to tell, Bud had taken a most intense interest in aviation oflate. Everything that bore upon the subject fascinated the boy, andhe dreamed of making the name of Morgan famous through someremarkable invention connected with the work of the daring airmen.
He had confessed to Hugh in strict confidence that he had managed tofashion a little model aeroplane that he believed to be uncapsizable.Many more mature minds than that of Bud Morgan had been wrestling withthis important question for years, because it was pretty generallyunderstood that when this condition had been really attained, thesport of aviation would advance with great bounds. Make navigatingthe upper air currents practically safe, and thousands would take upflying just as they had the driving of automobiles when the roadracers had been perfected as they are to-day.
The huge packages which the two scouts had staggered under duringtheir weary hike from the road where the accommodating farmer haddropped them, really contained the said model. It was not of verylarge size, and the little engine which was to drive it reallyweighed as much as the rest of the thing; but Bud declared that itwould answer all his purposes, and prove whether he had been wastinghis time and spending money uselessly of late or not.
Once the breakfast had been disposed of, Bud was trembling witheagerness to get started. He could not understand why the othersshould delay so, when time was slipping away.
Presently they left the cabin, closing the door behind them. All ofthe blankets, as well as their food supplies, had been left inside,and they did not want any wandering wild animal like a 'coon or a foxto make way with the latter during their absence at the provinggrounds. It was this same caution that urged Hugh to cover up theaperture through which they had obtained fresh air during the nightjust past, and which went by the name of a window.
The open field which Bud had once before mentioned as the very placefor the trial spins with his aeroplane model was not very far distant.The man who had originally started to make a farm away up here haddiligently cut down trees for a space of several acres. He had alsogrubbed the ground so thoroughly that it had remained clear all theseyears, save for an annual crop of grass, now withered and dead.
"If we can help any, Bud, just tell us what to do," Hugh said to theinventor, after the three boys had come to a halt on the border ofthis open space.
"That's the kind of talk I like to hear, Hugh," the other replied,looking up with a smile on his anxious face. "Just wait till I getthese covers off, and then you'll see what I've been doing all thesemonths when some of the fellows were kidding me on being a regularold book worm and not wanting to come out and play even footballwith them. It was the hardest kind of work, but if she even goes alittle, I'll think it wasn't time wasted. All I want is encouragement;I've got the bull-dog grit to carry it on all right."
"I reckon you have, Bud," was the only comment Hugh made; and he oughtto know, because Bud was a member of the Wolf patrol and the leaderhad watched him work many a time as though there were no such word as"fail" in his lexicon.
So Bud busied himself in undoing stout cords and opening both bundles.When Hugh saw the nature of the load he had been packing up the sideof Stormberg Mountain, he shook his head and laughed.
"What did you think I was, Bud, a mule, or a Chinese porter used tocarrying as much as half a ton on his back?" he demanded. "Why,that engine would have given me a bad scare if I'd seen it beforehand.And I toted that all the way up here from the road, did I? Well,anyway, I've earned the right to boast after this. A motor is nolight load, I don't care how small it may be. Don't you agree withme, Ralph?"
Ralph was chuckling to himself, seemingly much amused.
"I should say yes," he replied; "and I don't wonder you complained offeeling a touch of pain in the muscles of your back last night, Hugh.But really the load Bud took himself was larger and just about asheavy as yours, you see."
"Oh! he gave me my choice. I saw it was six of one and half a dozenof the other, so I took the smaller one. I reckon I'll be ready totackle a house next time, after having a motor on my back."
Bud set to work assembling the various parts of his model. In somerespects it was rather a crude imitation of a monoplane, but forpractical purposes no doubt it would answer just as well as the mostelegant model. What Bud wanted to find out most of all was whetherhe had been working on the right principle. If that turned out tobe correct he could afford to have a better model made; then hecould take up the idea with some of those capitalists who wereinterested in building airships of all kinds.
For once Bud was supreme. He gave his orders and the others obeyed.Even Hugh, accustomed to being the leader, willingly assumed the airof a novice, though Bud knew very well that the other had studiedthe subject of aviation very thoroughly and was competent to advisein a pinch.
By slow degrees Bud managed to get his planes adjusted and the tinymotor installed. Hugh, in a quiet and unostentatious way, oftenassisted him to overcome some difficulty that arose; so that Buddeclared he did not know how he could have managed without theother's help in tightening wire stays and installing the motor.
At last the work seemed to have been accomplished. Bud said he couldfix the rudder of the model so that when once it was in the air, itwould continue to make revolutions for a certain time. He declaredit would actually fly around the field slowly until the measuredstock of gasoline had been exhausted, when of course it would dropto the ground as the engine ceased to work.
"You see I expect to manage by means of this cord," he explained."I'll chase along below, and every once in so often try to upset thething by giving a savage jerk. Then you'll discover whether mydevice is going to work. If it does half way decently in thisclumsy model, it'll pay to install it on a real aeroplane andeither go up myself or else have an air pilot do it for me. Butsay, let me tell you right now that I'm shivering all over as if Ihad the ague! 'Cause why? In half an hour or so I'm going to knowwhether I'm IT, or else a lunkhead that ought to be smothered beforehis fool notions get him into a peck of trouble."
"Oh! I wouldn't put it that way, Bud," advised Hugh. "You mustn'tcall yourself hard names, even if this invention fails to work. Theysay Edison has lots of rank failures that the public never hearsabout; only his brilliant successes become known. Suppose thisscheme doesn't do all that you expect it to, why, perhaps you'll seewhere it falls short and be able to remedy the fault. If you havefaith in yourself, it's going to turn out all right every time. Tryseventy times seven, and never give up as long as life lasts."
"_Nil desperandum_!" quoted Ralph; "or, as we Americans have it, 'if atfirst you don't succeed, try, try again!'"
"You just bet I will, fellows," said Bud firmly; "and now let's makethe first trial spin."
He had elevated the model so that it would start in the air withoutthe necessity of leaving the ground. This was a minor matter, andonly intended to hurry things along.
When the little motor got to work there was an immediate movement ofthe rough miniature monoplane.
"Hurrah! there she goes!" cried Ralph, really excited when he saw theobject of Bud's recent labors actually moving through space, sustainedby the extended pair of planes.
Hugh, too, felt a thrill of delight. He was very fond of Bud, andanything that promised to repay the other scout for his weeks ofarduous labor pleased the leader of the Wolf patrol more than hecould express in words.
Bud was about the busiest boy any one had ever known. To run alongand keep, up with that hurrying model, hanging on to the lon
g stoutcord, was no easy task. The rudder had certainly been fixed properlyto insure a circuit of the field; but as the ground was very rough inplaces, Bud had great difficulty in keeping from falling many times.This was partly on account of the fact that he had to fasten his eyeson the scurrying monoplane model pretty much all the time, and couldtherefore not pay much attention to where he was going, or see thetraps lying in the way of his feet.
He stuck to his task heroically, with grim determination to see itthrough to the bitter end. Every once in a while he would give thecord a savage jerk. In this way he managed to make the little fliertake sudden lurches; but in every instance the model instantly resumedits upright position as soon as the pull was past. It reminded Hughof prank-loving swimmers attempting to sink a boat built with airchambers, which would bob to the surface triumphantly every time.
So far as one could tell from watching these rather clumsy operationson the part of the inventor, his apparatus for steadying an aeroplanewas surely showing signs of being a success. It consisted of a smalliron bar weighing an ounce or so, which was hung as a pendulum froman arm projecting from under the operator's seat. This pendulum wasso delicately set that it seemed to respond to the slightestdeviation of the aeroplane from the horizontal.
As the excited inventor explained to his chums, after he had allowedthe craft to come to earth again, not without some little damagewhich precluded another flight that day, it was a very simple thingafter all. If the craft was thrown from its balance in any way,the movement of this pendulum would cause two little valves to open.This would make the compression from the engine force a piston backand forth, which communicated with the warping levers andautomatically accomplished what had up to that time, Bud went on tosay, been done by the hand of the busy aviator. Thus a mechanicalbalancer had been arranged, so that the pilot need never botherhimself as to whether a stiff gale were blowing or not, sincepractically nothing could upset his craft.
"It looks to me as if you had a good idea there, Bud," said Hugh;"and unless somebody's been ahead of you in the field, it ought tomake you famous as an inventor. Perhaps when you try it againto-morrow, after mending your planes, you'll discover a few waysin which it can be improved. Never believe anything is perfect thefirst time. And now, shall we gather it up again and carry it tothe cabin?"
"You're awfully kind, Hugh!" declared the happy Bud, whose face wasrosy from his recent tremendous exertions and from the glow ofsatisfied ambition. "I am convinced that I haven't been wastingmy time, even if I'm only harrowing in a field some other fellow mayhave plowed before me."
They managed to get the miniature aeroplane over to the shack, thoughit was no light burden, taken all in all. Bud, however, was feelingso pleased that he could have done the work of an ox himself. Thereis nothing like satisfaction to bring out unsuspected powers in a boy;and just then Bud believed he could have carried as great a load asany Turkish _hamel_ or porter.
Leaving the queer looking contrivance outside the door, Bud hurried inas though something that he had suddenly thought of was bothering him.A minute later he burst into view again, a row of wrinkles across hisforehead and words of alarm sounding from his lips.
"I can't find it anywhere," he lamented, "and I'm dead sure I left itthere on the pile of blankets. Hugh, somebody's been in the shackwhile we were away, and cribbed the plan for my aeroplane stabilitydevice!"