the town
making and flying the most successful models of aeroplanes in a public
competition. To win the first prize it would be necessary for the model
to fly more than two hundred feet, and not lower, except at the start
and end of the flight, than fifty feet above the ground. The second
prize was for the next best flight, and the third for the model
approaching the nearest to the winner of the second money.

"Now, Paul, you are an aeronautic fiend," went on Frank, "So am I, and
Hiram has the fever in a mild way. What's the matter with you two
fellows forming a team to represent the Boy Scouts, and I'll get up a
team of village boys, to compete for the prizes."

"That's a good idea," assented Hiram Nelson. "I've got a model almost
completed. It only needs the rubber bands and a little testing and it
will be O.K., or at least I hope so. How about you, Paul?"

"Oh, I've got two models that I have got good results from," replied
the boy addressed. "One is a biplane. She's not so speedy, but very
steady; and then I have a model of a Bleriot. I'm willing to enter
either of them or both."

"And I've got a model of an Antoinette, and one of a design of my own.
I don't know just how well it will work," concluded Frank modestly,
"but I have great hopes of carrying off that prize."

"Let's see who else there is," pondered Hiram.

"There's Tom Maloney. He'll go in, I know; and Ed Rivers and two or
three others, and then, by the way, I almost forgot it, I met Sam
Redding, Jack Curtiss and Bill Bender, reading a notice of the
competition, just before I came up. Of course, as there is a chance of
winning fifty dollars, Jack is going to enter one, and Bill Bender said
he would put one in, too."

"What do they know about aeroplanes?" demanded Paul.

"Not a whole lot, I guess; but Jack said he was going to get a book
that tells how to make one, and Bill said he'd do the same."

"How about Sam?" inquired Rob.

"Oh, I guess he's got troubles enough with his hydroplane," responded
Rob, whose father had told him at dinner that day of Sam's vain visit
to the bank.

"It would be just like those fellows to put up something crooked on
us," remarked Paul, who had had much the same experiences with the
bully and his chums as his schoolmates generally.

"Oh, there'll be no chance of that," Frank assured him. "A local
committee of business men is to be appointed to see fair play, and I
don't fancy that even Jack or Bill w