as well.

CHAPTER XIX

THE MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED

"You fellows have been gone a long time!" observed Elephant,
reproachfully, as the Bird boys came down in the open just before the
workshop.

"And I've had dinner ready nearly half an hour," complained Larry, as
though in his mind their delay consisted of an unpardonable sin.

"Sorry," smiled Frank, "but we found we had to land at the liberty pole
in Hazenhurst, to do some little altering; and it was mighty hard work
getting away again."

Larry's sharp eyes caught the quick, quizzing look which the speaker
shot toward his cousin.

"Hey! be honest now, fellows," he said. "There was a reason back of
that holdup, I just know. Look at Andy turning red, would you?
Elephant, don't he look guilty now? Tell us all about it, Frank. Who
is she; what's the name of the little witch? We're from Missouri, and
we want to know."

"Oh! let up on that sort of soft stuff, won't you?" complained Andy.
"Things have come to a pretty pass when a fellow can't just biff a
measly old bulldog on the jaw, without having a romance made out of the
thing."

"A bulldog?" echoed Larry, grinning immediately. "Listen to that,
Elephant and Nat! He's been having a fight with a terror of a dog.
And believe me, Andy didn't hunt for trouble. Tell us all about it,
Frank. Whose bulldog was it, and why did Andy tackle him? Was he
going to bite the pretty one?"

Of course Frank had to tell the story, as soon as he could recover from
the fit of laughing into which Larry's persistence had thrown him.
Andy wandered away, as though his modesty forbade his remaining where
he could hear his praises sung. Perhaps he also disliked the idea of
having those humorous eyes of Larry keep tabs on his telltale
countenance while Frank was speaking of Alice, and of course remarking
how very pretty the daughter of Hazenhurst's mayor happened to be.

"But you say you left there at eleven," remarked Elephant, when the
story had been completed. "Then it took you all this time to get back
here, did it?"

"Shucks, no," replied Andy, who had now rejoined them, since the danger
of quizzing seemed past. "We tried for height, and managed to get up
to a point that we only beat once with our old monoplane. And this
craft can do much better, Frank says."

"We made as high a point as we dared," Frank said. "It really got too
cold, and we were shivering as if we'd been dropped into winter. Next
time we g