.

"Well, I'll be gum-swizzled!" cried Dick, faintly. "Come on, fellows.
The world must be coming to an end, surely."

As he started to enter the part of the factory whither he had been
directed, his uncle, plainly much excited, came out.

"Stop where you be, Nephew Richard!" he warned. "Don't come in here!
Stay back!"

"Why, what in the world is the matter?" asked Dick. "Is something
going to blow up?"

CHAPTER XVII

OFF FOR THE START

Uncle Ezra Larabee stood fairly glaring at his nephew. The crabbed old
man seemed strangely excited.

"No, there ain't nothing going to blow up," he said, after a pause.
"But don't you come in here. I warn you away! You can go in any other
part of my factory you want to, but not in here."

"Well, I certainly don't want to come where I'm not wanted, Uncle
Ezra," said Dick, with dignity. "But I hear you are building an
airship, and I thought I'd like to get a look at it."

"And that's just what I don't want you to get--none of you," went on
Mr. Larabee, looking at Dick's chums. "I don't want to be mean to my
dead sister's boy," he added, "but my airship ain't in shape yet to be
inspected."

"Well, if it isn't finished, perhaps we can give you some advice," said
Dick, with a smile.

"Huh! I don't want no advice, thank you," said Uncle Ezra, stiffly. "I
calkerlate Lieutenant Larson knows as much about building airships as
you boys do."

"Larson!" cried Dick. "Is he here?"

"He certainly is, and he's working hard on my craft. I'm going to be
an aviator, and win that twenty-thousand-dollar government prize!" Mr.
Larabee said, as though it were a certainty.

"Whew!" whistled Dick. "Then we'll be rivals, Uncle Ezra."

"Humph! Maybe you might think so, but I'll leave you so far behind
that you won't know where you are!" boasted the crabbed old man.

"Building an airship; eh?" mused Dick. "Well, that's the last thing
I'd ever think of Uncle Ezra doing." Then to his relative he added:
"But if you're going to compete for the prize your airship will have to
be seen. Why are you so careful about it now?"

"Because we've got secrets about it," replied Mr. Larabee. "There's
secret inventions on my airship that haven't been patented yet, and I
don't want you going in there, Nephew Richard, and taking some of my
builder's ideas and using 'em on your airship. I won't have it! That's
why I won't let you in. I'm not going to have you taking our ideas,
not by a j