rvices were
furnished free by the aviation officials.

Jess and Jimsy emerged from the hangar at the same time, in company with
a boyish figure in aviator's clothing, leather trousers cut very baggily,
fur-lined leather coat and big helmet of leather, well padded, completely
obscuring the features. After a few words in a low tone with its
companions, this figure clambered lightly into the aeroplane, leaned
forward, adjusted some levers, and the next instant, amidst a shout from
several hastily gathered onlookers, the Golden Butterfly skyrocketed
upward, her engine roaring like an angry giant hornet.

All this was watched by Fanning Harding, Jukes Dade, and Gid Gibbons.

"A nice mess you've made of it," growled Harding angrily to his
companions. "You've succeeded in getting me suspected, and in trouble,
while the boy is safe and sound and on the scene."

"Wonder how he got back," grunted Gid speculatively; "he must have looked
a sight when he crawled out of that swamp."

"Say, Dade, you'd better be off," said Fanning suddenly; "you were the
only one of us whose face wasn't covered. He would swear to you."

"Oh, I ain't worrying yet," grinned Dade easily.

"You're not, eh? Well, you are a cool hand," rejoined Gid admiringly. "If
I were in your shoes I'd clear out before that aeroplane lands again."

"You would, eh?" scoffed Dade. "Well, what would you say if I told you
that that ain't Roy Prescott in the Golden Butterfly at all?"

"That you were crazy with the heat," was the prompt and impolite answer.

"Then you'd be crazy yourself. That's his sister in that aeroplane, and
if he don't show up in time for the race she's going to fly it herself
and win it."

If a bombshell had fallen at Fanning's feet he could not have been more
thunderstruck. But he recovered in an instant.

"If she does I'll protest to the judges," he said angrily; "they can't
prove that I know anything about her brother's disappearance, and that
Golden Butterfly won't win this race if I can help it."

CHAPTER XIX.

BROTHER AND SISTER.

The first gleam of the summer dawn shining into Roy's place of
imprisonment at the bottom of the old well revealed to him only too
clearly into what a trap he had fallen. The well seemed to be about fifty
feet or more in depth, and the sides were smooth and slippery.

The chill he had felt spreading through his limbs earlier was gone now,
but a numb sensation was setting in which did not leave th