, was horrified to hear his story.

He shook his head sadly after Frank had finished.

"I don't know what people are coming to nowadays," he remarked. "No
matter who did that mean act, it was wicked. Man or boy, he ought to be
severely punished for it. The rights of property seems to be getting
less respect every year. It puzzles me to lay the blame for this spirit
at the right door. But things were not so in my young days, Frank. We
live in fast times, my boy, fast times!"

Frank thought so himself, as he went off to his room. Imagine his
father, some forty years ago, ever dreaming of building an air-ship and
speeding through the upper currents, perhaps thousands of feet above the
earth, at the rate of a mile a minute! And yet that was what he and Andy
had been doing, thinking nothing of the feat, as they became accustomed
to its performance.

Fast times, indeed!

Frank did not allow the startling incidents of the night to keep him
awake. He knew just how to get a grip on himself and put all these
things out of his mind, once his head touched the pillow.

Time enough in the morning to begin worrying about that lost wheel and
trying to figure out who the firebug could have been.

At breakfast Frank had to go over the whole story again for the benefit
of Janet, who had heard enough about it from the doctor before her
brother came down to whet her appetite for more.

Frank could see that she shared the suspicions entertained by
Andy. Janet knew Puss Carberry of old and despised him most heartily. At
one time he had taken a great liking to Frank's pretty sister, but when
she learned what his nature was Janet had cut him dead on the
street. And from that day on she had believed Puss capable of almost
anything.

"Even after you saved his life yesterday, too!" she exclaimed,
indignantly.

"Hold on there, sis," cried Frank, laughing. "You're as bad as Andy, who
is ready to condemn on general principles. We haven't got a scrap of
evidence to prove Puss guilty. Just as like as not he would show an
_alibi_ if we accused him of it, and prove that he was at home all
evening. So please don't mention his name to anybody or I may get in a
scrape."

"But you're going to find out, aren't you!" demanded Janet.

"I surely hope to, and recover my poor bike in the bargain. Luckily I've
got my name and address scratched on the underpart of the frame, if the
finder only takes the trouble to look. And now I'm off downtown, to
s