helper thrust the Humming-Bird forward. Over the smooth
ground it rushed. Tom looked eagerly ahead. On a line with him were the
other machines, including Andy Foger's Slugger.

Tom pulled a lever. He felt his craft soar upward. The other machines
also pointed their noses into the air.

The big race for the ten-thousand-dollar prize was under way!

Chapter Twenty-Four

Won by a Length

Rising upward, on a steep slant, for he wanted to get into the upper
currents as soon as possible, Tom looked down and off to his left and
saw one machine going over the ground in curious leaps and bounds. It
was the tiny Demoiselle--the smallest craft in the race, and its
peculiar style of starting was always thus manifested.

"I don't believe he's going to make it," thought Tom.

He was right. In another moment the tiny craft, after rising a short
distance, dove downward, and was wrecked. The young inventor saw the
two men crawling out from the tangled planes and wings, apparently
uninjured.

"One contestant less," thought Tom, grimly, though with pity in his
heart for the unfortunates.

However, he must think of himself and his own craft now. He glanced at
Mr. Damon sitting beside him. That odd gentleman, with never a thought
of blessing anything now, unless he did it silently, was watching the
lubricating system. This was a vital part of the craft, for if anything
went wrong with it, and the bearings overheated, the race would have to
be abandoned. So Tom was not trusting to any automatic arrangement, but
had instituted, almost at the last moment, a duplicate hand-worked
system, so that if one failed him he would have the other.

"A good start!" shouted Mr. Damon in his ear.

Tom nodded, and glanced behind him. On a line with the Humming-Bird,
and at about the same elevation, were the Bleriot monoplane and a
Wright biplane. Below were the Santos-Dumont and the Antoinette.

"Where's the Slugger?" called Tom to his friend.

Mr. Damon motioned upward. There, in the air above Tom's machine, and
slightly in advance, was Andy Foger's craft. He had gotten away in
better shape than had the Humming-Bird.

For a moment Tom's heart misgave him. Then he turned on more power, and
had the satisfaction of mounting upward and shooting onward until he
was on even terms with Andy.

The bully gave one glance over toward his rival, and pulled a lever.
The Slugger increased her speed, but Tom was not a second behind him.

There