a hot rival of dad's paper, but it never got quite so sarcastic as
this before. Dad was good and mad when he read this last night. 'I'll
show both the _Clarion_ and the public whether I'm a bluffer or not,'
he said to mother. 'If it takes the last cent I've got I'll organize
an expedition to meet their challenge and prove my theory to be the
correct one.' Then I woke up to our opportunity. I suggested to dad
that if the Sky-Bird turned out as we hoped, she would be the very
thing to pioneer such a route and give the _Clarion_ people a race to
make their eyes stick out; and I said John Ross was willing to head a
crew including Paul and myself."

"What did he say?" asked John and Paul, almost in the same breath.

"Well, he gave a little gasp; his eyes snapped, and he quit walking the
floor and sat down on the davenport. 'Robert,' he said, 'I'll think
this matter over.' Then he lit a cigar and went to smoking. Dad
seldom smokes except when he's got something heavy on his mind."

John and Paul now joined Bob in putting a knee-brace in the new
airplane body. Somehow they had a feeling that the parts they were
assembling with such care would one of these days go on a very long and
arduous journey.

CHAPTER VI

THE MISSING BLUE-PRINTS

The Air Derby created interest all over the world. People in foreign
lands talked about it and read about it in their newspapers, just as
they had done in the United States and Canada. With the keenest kind
of interest they had followed the reports of its progress and its
finish. Several nations had hoped to have their own representatives
come in first, only to be disappointed.

All this interested world pricked up its attention anew when the bold
editorial of the _Daily Independent_ was widely copied. As John Ross
had predicted, and as probably Mr. Giddings knew before he wrote it,
this particular article caused a furore of comment editorially and
otherwise. Much of this,--indeed, it seemed the most of it--was
favorable to the stand taken by the New York publisher. But when the
rival sheet, the _Clarion_, arrayed its strong force in opposition, the
conservative element of the public felt vastly encouraged, and many
were the heated personal arguments as well as newspaper duels, which
ensued. Aviators all over the land were particularly concerned, and it
goes without saying that the winners of the late competition were all
lined up with the _Clarion_ contingent. Th