I admitted.

"Just so! It does not seem to me that there can be anything very
difficult in what a girl can do. However, if you will be so good as to
deliver the biplane we will see."

Under that clear, steady gaze of his I was powerless to protest.
Behind him I could see the good Georges struggling palpably for
breath, and waving his hands to the rafters. I contented myself with
a profound bow; whereupon, with the same quick, alert movement with
which he had appeared, this strange young man departed. Georges and I
fell gasping upon each others' necks, and stared together after his
tall, receding figure.

"Without doubt he is mad, this Monsieur Power," I said at last. "You
remember that he has just made two millions in a bear raid. Doubtless
it has turned his brain. Name of a name! He pretends to have taken
flying lessons from an institute of correspondence, and I have
promised him a biplane of one hundred horse power! Georges, _mon ami_,
you must yourself accompany it and give him counsel lest he break his
neck!"

Not satisfied with this precaution, I myself flew the biplane over
to Westchester on the morrow, and explained the controls to Monsieur
Power in an extended passenger flight. He was, it appeared, an amateur
of the balloon, and accustomed to great heights. When I handed the
machine over to him, with the engine throttled down so that he might
try rolling practice on the ground, he waited until he was out of our
reach, whipped the motor into its full power, heaved himself into the
air, and flew back the whole length of his grounds--alighting gently
as a falling leaf.

"It seems pretty simple," he said, as he swung himself out of the
nacelle. "I do not think I need detain you, Monsieur Lacroix, if your
assistant Georges will be good enough to consider himself my guest,
and keep the motor running."

It was in vain that I besought him to have patience. He replied only
that his time was limited, and that he had given the subject careful
study in theory.

And with that assurance I had to depart, little content. First,
however, I warned him of one or two pitfalls--as, for instance,
that he must never stop his engine in an emergency, as one does
instinctively in an auto, because the greater the danger the more need
he would have of motive power to get him out of it. Also, I told him
not to fly above trees or water, where the currents would suck him
downward, but to steer over the darkest patches of land, where