, she thinks I am----"

"Yes, I suspicioned she was some sore on you," says I. "But what sort of
a flyer is this, double or single winger?"

"It's a biplane," says Tuttle, "on the Farnham type, only an improved
model."

"Of course it's improved," says I. "Tried her out yet!"

"Hardly," says he. "I couldn't buy an engine, you see. That's what I've
been waiting for. Say, you really think the Corrugated will take that
option, do you? If they only would!"

"You must be in a hurry to break your neck," says I.

Before I left, though, he'd shown me all over the thing, explained how
it was goin' to work, and did his best to get me as excited as he was.
Also I makes him give me the full details of how he come to get this
option, and I advises him if he does manage to cash it in for two
thousand, to take an ax to his flying machine and hike out for some lung
preservin' climate where he'll have a chance to shake that cough.

"Thanks," says he, grippin' my hand and chokin' up. "You--you've been
mighty good to me. I'll remember it."

Course, I gives Mr. Ellins the whole tale in the mornin', about Tuttle
and his bum air pumps, and his batty scheme of buildin' the flyer; but
all that interests Old Hickory is the option and the price.

"Good work, Torchy," says he. "I've wired our Western agents to
investigate, and if they report an O. K., Tuttle shall have his two
thousand to do what he likes with."

It must have been two weeks later, and I'd almost forgot the case, when
one mornin' I gets a note from Tinkham J., askin' me to come over to the
shed as quick as I could. Well, I didn't know whether he was havin' a
final spasm or not; but it seemed like I ought to go, so that night I
does. I finds him waitin' for me at the yard gate. He don't look any
worse than usual, either.

"Well," says I, "didn't the deal go through?"

"It did," says he, pattin' me on the back. "Thanks to you, it did. The
check came two days later, and I've spent it all."

"What!" says I. "You don't mean to say you blew all that in on an engine
for that blamed----"

"All but a few dollars that I put into oil and gasoline," says he. "But
the machine is all hooked up, Torchy, and it works. Do you hear that? It
works! I've been up!"

"Up?" says I.

"Not far," says he; "but enough to know what I can do. Started right
here from the yard, just at daylight, and landed here again. I've told
no one else, you know. Come in and see how smooth the engine work