CHAPTER XXV--GOOD-BY TO AIRSHIP ANDY

"A visitor for yo', Marse Andy," announced Scipio.

"It's only me," said Mr. Chase, stepping into the sitting room of the aerodrome at the Parks' camp.

"Well, no one is more welcome, Mr. Chase," declared Andy heartily. "Come in, sit down, and make yourself at home."

"Not till I ask a certain question," dissented the grizzled lockup-keeper of Princeville.

"Fire away," smiled Andy. "What's the question?"

"Can you get me a job?"

"Right off, and a good one," responded Andy promptly. "My employer, Mr. Parks, is going into the airship line as a regular professional, and I don't know a better all-round handy man I would recommend sooner than you."

"All right," said Chase, with a sigh of relief, dropping into a chair and placing a bulging, ancient carpet bag on the floor. "I'm done with lockups."

"Is that so, Mr. Chase?"

"It is, and with that conscienceless old grafter, Talbot. You know I told you I was waiting for something when I last saw you."

"Yes," nodded Andy.

"It was Wandering Dick."

"So you told me."

"I sent that tramp after him. He found him. I got from Dick what I wanted, paid for it, resigned my position, and now I am here."

"Quick work."

"And here's what I got from Wandering Dick."

Chase extended to Andy a neatly folded paper.

"And what is this, Mr. Chase?" asked Andy.

"A confession and affidavit."

"How does that interest me?"

"Read and see."

Andy's face grew interested and then startled as he perused the sheet of paper. It was a legal document attested to by Wandering Dick before a regular justice of the peace at Princeville.

In his affidavit the tramp stated that on the night that the barn of Farmer Jones burned down, he was in its hay mow. He saw distinctly the two boys who set the fire--Gus Talbot and Dale Billings. He got out of the way for fear of being charged with the crime, sought later shelter at the jail, and told Chase about it.

The latter was so dependent upon Talbot and in dread of the garage keeper, who held his position at his mercy, that he made no move to right Andy with the public until the latter was arrested.

"You have done nobly, Mr. Chase," said Andy with deep gratitude, "and where is your bill of expenses to settle?"

"Settle nothing!" flared out Chase stormily. "You ever mention it again and I'll get out of here bag and baggage, double quick."

"Well, well," answered Andy, "we'll try to find some way to make it up to you."

Two days later Andy learned that the attention of Seth Talbot had been called to the affidavit. Runaway Gus Talbot and Dale Billings had returned to Princeville. In some way the garage keeper settled with Farmer Jones, hushed up the matter, and sent his graceless son on a sea voyage. The charge against Andy was, of course, dismissed.

Andy went to visit Duske in the town hospital. His accomplice, Tyrrell, had been driven out of the aviation camp and threatened with a coat of tar and feathers if he ever returned. The rest of Duske's party disappeared, and creditors seized what little property he had.

Duske would never drive a balloon or airship again. One arm and one foot were broken, and he had sustained other severe injuries. Andy found him a dispirited, wretched man.

He had an object in visiting the crippled aeronaut. He began by telling Duske that deeply as he tried to wrong Parks, the latter had ordered and paid for the best care during his stay in the hospital.

"I am circulating a subscription paper among the aviators," added Andy. "We expect to raise a thousand dollars for you to go to some quiet town and buy some small business that will give you a living."

No person could resist the kindliness of Andy under the circumstances. Duske broke down completely. He was as sincere and penitent as a man of his rough mould of mind could be.

"I don't deserve it, I've been a bad man," he declared, with tears in his eyes. "What can I do for you for all your kindness to me?"

"You can do something, Mr. Duske," said Andy. "There is a man named Morse. Do you know him?"

"Why, yes, I do," replied Duske, with a great start. "Do you?"

"I happen to."

"What has he got to do with you and me?"

"Just this," said Andy, "you have treated him badly. He is my friend. You had a hold on him. What was it?"

"A forgery he never committed."

"Are you willing to prove that, and clear him?"

"Yes, indeed. I've done enough wickedness in the world."

"Then clear his name of an unjust charge, so he can stand before the public the good, noble man he is."

"I will," declared Duske earnestly, and he did.

One week after the airship race Mr. Webb, to whom Andy had sent the old leather pocketbook by registered mail the day he recovered it, came down to the Parks camp.

"I have been too busy to come before," he explained to Andy. "That document in the old leather pocketbook took up my time. I tell you, Nelson, it has brought brightness and comfort to two orphan children in a grand way."

"I am very glad," said Andy.

"I got back the two hundred dollars you left at the bank in Princeville," continued Mr. Webb. "I have added something to it, and my attorneys have directed me to pay you what they intended to give the finder of the pocketbook--five hundred dollars."

Andy made some demur at the largeness of the amount, but Mr. Webb was persistent, declared he was simply acting as agent for the lawyers, and Andy had to take the money.

"As to myself," observed the gentleman, "I want to say what you must already know, Nelson--I am greatly interested in you. I wish you could suggest some way in which my means can benefit you."

"So do I," broke in John Parks. "The lad is a genius in the aviation line, and I want him to keep on at it."

"Don't I intend to?" challenged Andy.

"Not when you say you are going to leave me next month," declared the aeronaut.

"Yes, but why?" said Andy. "I'll leave it to Mr. Webb here if I have not decided in a sensible, practical way."

"What is it, Nelson?" inquired Mr. Webb.

"Why, I have over two thousand five hundred dollars in the bank. I want to put one thousand of it aside for my half brother, when he turns up. He was good and kind to me in the old days, and I must not forget it. Then I want to go through college and learn something so I may be of some use in the world."

"An excellent idea," commended Mr. Webb.

"Yes," growled Parks, but playfully, "and spoil a good aviator!"

"Not at all," declared Andy quickly. "I love the airship business, Mr. Parks, but I want to learn every branch of the science that covers it. It looks as if airships are to be the coming vehicles of travel, you say, Mr. Parks. If that is so, everybody will be flying in time, and the professional aviator will be just a common, everyday person."

"Well, I suppose that's so," admitted Parks.

"Then, the wise man will be the one who knows how to build the airship. Why, I'll go through college, come out with my head chock full of new ideas, and Mr. Webb and you and I will get up the World's Airship Construction Co."

"That's a pretty grand scheme, Nelson," said Mr. Webb.

"Mayn't it become a true one?"

"Yes, it may," said John Parks, "but I'll always think most of you just as you are--Airship Andy."

THE END

The Webster Series

By Frank V. Webster

Mr. Webster's style is very much like that of the boys' favorite author, the late lamented Horatio Alger, Jr., but his tales are thoroughly up-to-date.

Cloth. 12mo. Over 200 pages each. Illustrated. Stamped in various colors.

Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid.

[Image]

Only A Farm Boy or Dan Hardy's Rise in Life The Boy From The Ranch or Roy Bradner's City Experiences The Young Treasure Hunter or Fred Stanley's Trip to Alaska The Boy Pilot to the Lakes or Nat Morton's Perils Tom The Telephone Boy or The Mystery of a message Bob The Castaway or The Wreck of the Eagle The Newsboy Partners or Who Was Dick Box? Two Boy Gold Miners or Lost in the Mountains The Young Firemen of Lakeville or Herbert Dare's Pluck The Boys of Bellwood School or Frank Jordan's Triumph Jack the Runaway or On the Road with a Circus Bob Chester's Grit or From Ranch to Riches Airship Andy or The Luck of a Brave Boy High School Rivals or Fred Markham's Struggles Darry The Life Saver or The Heroes of the Coast Dick The Bank Boy or A Missing Fortune Ben Hardy's Flying Machine or Making a Record for Himself Harry Watson's High School Days or The Rivals of Rivertown Comrades of the Saddle or The Young Rough Riders of the Plains Tom Taylor at West Point or The Old Army Officer's Secret The Boy Scouts of Lennox or Hiking Over Big Bear Mountain The Boys of the Wireless or a Stirring Rescue from the Deep Cowboy Dave or The Round-up at Rolling River Jack of the Pony Express or The Young Rider of the Mountain Trail The Boys of the Battleship or For the Honor of Uncle Sam

CUPPLES & LEON CO., Publishers, NEW YORK.

The Boy Ranchers Series

By Willard F. Baker

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors

Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid

[Image]

Stories of the great west, with cattle ranches as a setting, related in such a style as to captivate the hearts of all boys.

1. THE BOY RANCHERS, or Solving the Mystery at Diamond X

Two eastern boys visit their cousin. They become involved in an exciting mystery.

2. THE BOY RANCHERS IN CAMP, or The Water Fight at Diamond X

Returning for a summer visit to their western cousin's ranch, the two eastern lads learn, with delight, that they are to be allowed to become boy ranchers in earnest.

3. THE BOY RANCHERS ON THE TRAIL, or The Diamond X After Cattle Rustlers

Our boy heroes take the trail after Del Pinzo and his outlaws.

4. THE BOY RANCHERS AMONG THE INDIANS, or Trailing the Yaquis

Rosemary and Floyd visiting their cousins Bud, Nort and Dick, are captured by the Yaqui Indians. The boy ranchers trail the savages into the mountains and eventually effect the rescue.

5. THE BOY RANCHERS AT SPUR CREEK, or Fighting the Sheep Herders

Dangerous struggle against desperadoes for land rights brings out heroic adventures.

Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue

CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers New York