rburetor do. I
guess we'll have to keep on a little higher," he added, as he glanced
at the barograph.

"Say! Hold on!" yelled Uncle Ezra in his ear. "You--you can have that
money for the carburetor! Go on down where we were before."

"Oh, all right," assented Larson, and he winked the eye concealed from
his employer.

The aircraft went down, and flew about at a comparatively low
elevation. Really, there did not seem to be much the matter with the
carburetor, but then, of course, Larson ought to know what he was
talking about.

"She's working pretty good--all except the carburetor," said the former
army man, after they had been flying about fifteen minutes. "The motor
does better than I expected, and with another passenger we'll be
steadier. She needs a little more weight. Do you want to try to steer
her?"

"No, sir! Not yet!" cried Uncle Ezra. "I can drive a mowing-machine,
and a thresher, but I'm not going to try an airship yet. I hired you
to run her. All I want is that twenty-thousand-dollar prize, and the
chance to sell airships like this after we've proved them the best for
actual use."

"And we can easily do that," declared Larson. "My mercury stabilizer
is working to perfection."

"When can we start on the race?" Mr. Larabee wanted to know.

"Oh, soon now. You see it isn't exactly a race. That is the competing
airships do not have to start at the same time."

"No?" questioned Uncle Ezra.

"No. You see each competing craft is allowed to start when the pilot
pleases, provided an army officer is aboard during the entire flight to
check the results, and the time consumed. Two landings will be
allowed, and only the actual flying time will be counted.

"That is if the trip is finished within a certain prescribed time. I
think it is a month. In other words we could start now, fly as far as
we could, and if we had to come down because of some accident, or to
get supplies, we could stay down several days. Then we could start
again, and come down the second time. But after that we would be
allowed no more landings, and the total time consumed in flying would
be computed by the army officer."

"Oh, that's the way of it?" asked Uncle Ezra.

"Yes, and the craft that has used the smallest number of hours will win
the prize," went on Larson. "I'm sure we can do it, for this is a fast
machine. I haven't pushed her to the limit yet."

"And don't you do it--not until I get more used to it,"