" "I jumped up, and sure enough I glimpsed a biplane passing over, and headed up the lake at a pretty good height, I thought it looked like your machine, but as I remarked to Frank later on, whoever steered it had a different way about him from your method.

"Because that promises to play quite a figure in the pursuit of the smart thieves; though they may be fifty miles away from here by now, if they know how to handle that fine biplane right.

But did you hear what he said about going down there to South America, visiting a plantation his mother partly owns and taking his biplane along with him?" Andy was all excitement now.

The thing is done, and, after hours in the freezing air, the machine makes for home; through a winter evening, perhaps, as we saw the two splendid biplanes, near the northern section of the line, sailing far above our heads into the sunset, that first day of our journey.

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.

That would give him a pain to be sure, for he was horribly envious of their local fame as successful aviators; but at the same time he hated to lose that beautiful biplane, which he had not owned very long, and which had taken his heart by storm.

As they followed Roy and Jimsy in an irregular procession through the air, their thoughts flew ahead, outdistancing the biplane and the Red Dragon and speeding confidently toward the happy realizations of the future.

" "Of course it's Casper who's piloting the biplane?" remarked Frank.

Frank's first action was to move a lever that would change their course and place the biplane directly behind them.

He pretends to have taken flying lessons from an institute of correspondence, and I have promised him a biplane of one hundred horse power!

"You will at once remove to a hangar the biplane of Monsieur Power," I told him, "and disconnect the ignition.

"Then you can see it?" asked the other, himself more than anxious, because of the fact that the fleeing bank robbers who had stolen the biplane of Percy Carberry apparently intended to escape over the line into Canada, even if to accomplish their purpose they had to daringly cross Lake Ontario, many miles wide, a feat as yet only successfully done by one or two bold fliers of national repute.

With a quick turn of his wrist Roy swept the big biplane aside, but a wing tip brushed the stout man, toppling him over in a twinkling.

In due time Puss and Sandy turned up, minus their biplane, which the government of Colombia had seized on some plausible pretext, though paying liberally for the same.

"Why, I was thinking we could use that big biplane I was building for Mr. Bell's use out in Nevada," spoke up Roy; "it will seat three, and is as steady as a church, thanks to that balancing device Jimsy and I figured out.

"I want a strong, swift biplane, and a mechanic to attend to it.

"And that fellow is in hiding somewhere, perhaps watching the biplane, and ready to fight before letting it be retaken, because they depend on it for their get-away to the great lakes and Canada;" Andy further observed.

"I ought to know the way it glides, and the whole general look; and I'd be willing to take my affidavy that was the Canvas-back, as he calls his biplane.

Do you think they aim to steal some one's expensive car nowthat they've gone and wrecked Percy's biplane, and must have another means for getting away?"

They wanted that machine, and wanted it so bad, that, as a last resort, they went over to your place, and confiscated your biplane.

"So, you see, Percy," broke in the eager Chief just at that point, "we've got a pretty good clue already about the direction the rascals took, who broke into the safe of the bank, and carried off a bagful of money, and valuable papers; and then followed that up by cribbing your biplane.

However, if you will be so good as to deliver the biplane we will see.