l would have been
complied with.

"I'll get out of going to Uncle Ezra's yet," said the millionaire's son.
"The mine failed, the milk company failed, but the airship will beat
them all."

Herr Doodlebrod was a quick worker. In less time than Dick had believed
possible he had the parts of the machine at the place decided on for the
test. There, under the inventor's directions, men aided him in putting
it together.

In shape it looked like a huge bat, and was built on the principle of an
aeroplane. At the stern an immense rudder was turned by a small gasolene
motor, and there were several smaller rudders for directing the course
of the apparatus. There was a little car, of basket-work, amidships,
where the operator sat.

It was three days before the German was satisfied that all was in
readiness for the preliminary test that was to tell if Dick would spend
five hundred dollars on improvements. In spite of the attempt to keep
the matter quiet the news leaked out, and a big crowd gathered to see
Herr Doodlebrod make an attempt to fly.

"I do not promise so much to-day," he said, as he saw that all was in
readiness. "I vill go up, circle about for a vile, und den I haf to come
down. My engine iss not powerful enough. But vid der new one! Ach, den
ve vill fly far und vin der prize!"

He climbed into the little basket-car. Giving a look over the various
handles and levers, and seeing that all was clear ahead, Herr Doodlebrod
started the motor. It began to revolve rapidly, crackling like a battery
of Gatling guns.

"Now I fly!" exclaimed the German, as he threw on the clutch that
operated the propeller. The big airship trembled as the massive blades
whizzed through the air, and all eyes were fixed on it to detect the
moment when it might leave the earth and sail aloft.

CHAPTER XXX

A DISASTROUS FLIGHT

"There it goes!" cried a score of voices, Dick's among them. And, sure
enough, the airship moved. Slowly, but gathering speed, like some
ungainly creature, it rose into the air in a slanting direction. Up and
up it went, until it was about two hundred feet above the earth. Then
Herr Doodlebrod shifted a rudder and the machine flew along on a level
keel.

"Look at her go!" cried Frank Bender, for he and all of Dick's boy chums
had been invited to the test. "Gee, but I wish I was in her!"

"You'd stand on your head on one of the propeller blades, I suppose,"
commented Walter Mead.

"Look, he's turning ar