_ CHAPTER VI. ABOARD THE HYDROPLANE
"Dashaway, you're a wonder."
"Thank you, sir."
"And I'm proud of you," added Mr. Robert King, the winner of the monoplane endurance prize, and the man who had practically adopted Dave into the aviation field.
"I've got something to say as to the matter of pride," spoke up old Grimshaw. "A lad who can make the run Dashaway did with the Baby Racer, is a boy to holler about."
"If there's anything to be proud about," added Dave, "it's the right good friends I've made."
"My friends, too" put in the impetuous Hiram. "I'm getting along famously. Why, I only tipped out of the dummy airship once yesterday."
All hands were in fine high spirits. It was several days after the wild night race Dave and Hiram had made to Kewaukee. Now the entire party were on their way to the borders of the lake, where the new hydroplane made by the Interstate Aviation Company was ready for a trial trip. Grimshaw knew little of hydroplanes, and the Interstate people had sent an expert demonstrator to the spot to teach their young exhibitor the ropes. Dave had been constantly under this man's tuition.
It was far more easy, he had learned, to acquire a thorough knowledge, of how to run a hydroplane than to operate a monoplane. It was simpler, and besides that his experience with an airship helped wonderfully.
Dave was winning golden opinions from his employers. The way in which he had dosed the Kewaukee contract had pleased them immensely. There was another end to the Kewaukee episode that had brought heaps of satisfaction to all of them, especially to Hiram Dobbs.
The Baby Racer had been quickly repaired at Kewaukee, and had made a speedy return trip to Columbus. Somehow the story of how the Interstate people had outwitted the plots of the Star crowd had gotten noised around the meet. Then a class journal devoted to aeronautics printed the story.
"Well," Hiram had come to Mr. King's hangar that morning to say, "the Dawson crowd are simply squelched. I met Jerry Dawson and his father. You ought to see the looks they gave me when I just grinned at them, and said 'Contract!' It was like a fellow saying 'Baa!' to sheep. Why, those fellows just sneaked away. We've beaten them at every angle, Dave, and I reckon they'll give up their meanness now, and quickly fade away."
"It would be a good thing for honest aeronautics if they would," growled old Grimshaw.
"We'll hasten them with a little help, if they try any more tricks," announced Mr. King.
The hydroplane had been run into a boat house after the practice of the day previous, and was all ready for use. It was equipped to carry two or more passengers, and was driven by a fifty horse power motor. It had two propellers, and these were controlled by chain transmission.
Old Grimshaw had not much use for hydroplanes, he had told Dave. His hobby was air machines. However, because his favorite pupil was going to run the machine, he allowed Dave to explain about the hydroplane, and was quite interested.
The machine had a bulkhead fore and aft, with an upward slope in front and a downward slope to the rear.
"It's safe, comfortable, and quick to rise to control," declared Dave. "See, Mr. Grimshaw, there's a new wrinkle."
Dave touched a little device attached to the flywheel. The latter was made with teeth to fit into another gear, operated from a shaft.
"What do you call that, now?" asked the old airman.
"A self starter. You see, the shaft runs forward alongside the pilot's seat. Here's the handle of it, right at the end of the shaft."
"Looks all right," admitted Grimshaw grudgingly. "Give me the air, though, every time. If you want to be a sailor, why don't you enlist the navy?"
"How about an air and water combination, Grimshaw?" called Mr. King.
"Well, that is a little better," replied Grimshaw.
"I'm dying to see that new aero-hydroplane Dave's people are getting out," remarked the ardent Hiram.
"They wrote me it would be completed this week," said Dave.
"And you are going to run it, Dave?"
"I think so, I hope so. They claim great things for it."
"Well, give your hydroplane a spin, Dashaway," suggested Mr. King. "I want to see how she works, and must get back to the hangars on business."
The Reliance, the new hydroplane of the Interstate people, was twenty feet long and had a fuel gauge and a bilge pump.
Dave got into his seat, and Hiram sat directly beside him. A touch put the machinery in motion.
'There's a puffy eighteen mile wind, Dashaway," cried out Mr. King.
"Yes, I wouldn't venture too far from shore," advised Grimshaw, a trifle anxiously.
The water was quite rough where the flight started. The machine acted all right, however. A crowd had gathered on the beach, and there was some encouraging cheering as the power boat gained good headway.
"Whew I what have you invited me to, Dave--bath?" puffed Hiram.
Dave had neglected to put in place the rubber cover, so that during the preliminary run along the water the waves drenched both of the boys.
Dave stopped the motor and started drifting, at a sudden current or breeze sent the tail before the wind. The rear of the hydroplane was forced under water.
"Look out!" ordered Dave sharply.
"I see--we're in for an upset," spoke Hiram quickly.
The hydroplane was forced over backwards, the tail striking a sand bar.
Dave and Hiram were both ready for the tip. They escaped with only wetting their feet, for they climbed upon the bottom of the upper surface as the hydro capsized.
The hydroplanes prevented the machine from sinking. Almost at once a boat put out from shore. Once back at the boat house, the damage shown was a slight fracture to the main girder and some of the ribs at the trailing edge, and two broken tail spars. Dave sent Hiram at once to the practice grounds to arrange about the repairs.
"It's no weather for a trial, Dashaway," said Mr. King, "I think I would postpone the trial trip until tomorrow, if I were you."
Dave did not commit himself. He stayed about the boat house after the airman and Grimshaw had gone away, watching every move of the repair man.
"She's staunch and sound as she was at the beginning," the latter declared, when he had completed his work.
"Yes, I think that is true," replied Dave.
"What's the programme?" inquired Hiram, "for I see you don't intend to give up."
"Not until I master the Reliance, just as I did the Baby Racer," declared Dave. "That upset was necessary, I guess, to teach me that I must drive on just as little surface as possible in speeding, and make the wings do one half the work."
"Then you are going to try again?" questioned Hiram.
"Yes, Hiram. The waves aren't so choppy now, and the wind has gone down a good deal."
"It's pretty late for much of a run," replied Hiram.
"Oh, we can make the end of the lake and back inside of an hour."
"Well, I'm always ready--with you," laughed Hiram gaily.
From the start this time Dave knew that he had a better grasp of the mechanism than on his first trial. The Reliance behaved splendidly. Once clear of shore obstructions and sandbars, they must have run a stretch at nearly forty miles an hour.
Sand Point, at the rounding end of the great lake, was reached without a mishap. Dave did not wait to try any maneuvering for a crowd that had gathered to watch the Reliance.
"Straight home," he observed, as they made the turn.
"It's time, I'm thinking," said Hiram.
A squall had come up, and the dimness of coming eventide had already spread over the water, but there was no rain. In fact, it had turned too cold for that. A fine baffling mist was falling, however, and this was condensing into a heavy fog.
"Not much to see, eh?" propounded Dave, as they got clear of the shore. "I shouldn't like to run into some stray craft."
It was something of a strain on Dave, the present situation. No air signal had yet been placed on the Reliance, nor was its lighting apparatus installed.
The darkness increased, and the fog became almost an impenetrable shroud.
"What was that?" shouted out Hiram sharply, as there was a heavy jarring shock.
"Grazed a rock, I think," replied Dave. "I don't like this a bit. If I knew my bearings, I'd run straight ashore."
"Do it, anyway, Dave," advised Hiram. "We don't want to wreck the Reliance on her first trip."
Dave gave the wheel a turn. Just then a distinct yell rang out across the muggy waters, and then, in rapid succession, seven quick, snappy explosions. _