LITMIR.BIZ

      The Airplane Chums

      CHAPTER I

       Table of Contents

      THE AIRPLANE CHUMS

       "Now then, good luck to you, Tom! Tell me how it feels to look down on the world from the clouds."

      "Oh, I expect to have a high old time, Jack—three thousand feet of it, in fact. And my nerves seem to be as steady as ever."

      "You're a lucky boy, all right, to get this chance to try for altitude after being in the harness at the aviation field for only two months."

      "But my instructor tells me I was born for the life of a birdman, Jack."

      "I know you've talked, read, and dreamed of little else these two years back. And now, Tom, at last the germ has caught me almost as fiercely in its grip."

      "Yes, old boy, it means the pair of us working tooth and nail now, learning to fly, so when the time comes, we can take our places for Uncle Sam in the great game. And it isn't going to be so very far off now, with that fearful war raging across the sea."

      "Well, look out for yourself, Tom. I'm going ​to keep you in focus with my binoculars every minute of the time. Whenever you take a dip my heart will jump right up into my throat, I know. Lieutenant Carson gave you a limit, of course?"

      "I'm to keep one eye on my recording barometer, and when it registers a full three thousand feet in height I'm to commence to volplane down. And my instructor is a man whose orders you've got to obey to the letter."

      "No trouble for you to do the trick, Tom, because you come of a family of inventors and dabblers in mechanics. It's different with me, for I have to pound things into this dull head of mine. I'll wait around till you drop down again."

      "Wish you would, Jack, for I've got something to tell you; news that has been giving me something to worry about."

      "I knew that letter you had must have contained bad news, Tom; and I've been waiting to hear you say something about it There! Lieutenant Carson is waving his hand for you to get a move on. I envy you, that's a fact. So-long, Tom."

      Another minute, and the airplane in which Tom Raymond sat was trundling along over the even surface of the aviation field, gaining speed as its engine warmed to the work.

      ​Jack Parmly stood and watched with keen interest. Not that he entertained the slightest doubt concerning the ability of Tom Raymond to accomplish this new test which the flying-master had imposed on the aspiring students. Jack believed Tom equal to anything that any other aviator could carry out, given a little time for practice.

      They were great friends, and had been ever since childhood. They lived in the town of Bridgeton, Virginia. As Jack had hinted, Tom's father was an inventor, and several successful labor-saving devices were associated with his name. He had also perfected more than one apparatus useful in the saving of life at sea and in time of accident.

      Since the great World War had broken out in Europe Mr. Raymond was devoting his talents to an altogether different task—that of discovering means for bringing the conflict to a speedy close by giving the advantage to the side whose cause he favored.

      Tom, usually a quiet, reserved lad, had always been deeply interested in aeronautics. From childhood he had read every book or article he could get hold of that contained accounts of balloon voyages, and later on records of the progress made in airplane building and manipulation.

      ​When the Wrights were starting on their wonderful experiments with a heavier-than-air flying-machine Tom began to lose interest in his school studies, for his brain was filled with the amazing possibilities that awaited a successful termination of their work and that of the French experimenters who were working along similar lines.

      Time passed on, and with the breaking out of the European

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