Hike and the aeroplane

Two boys were riding on horseback along a little trail that overhung Canyon Diablo. They were exploring the lonely country miles below Monterey, on the California coast. Above t...

“Star of the gridiron, I ain’t making po’ms. I’m beating the job and getting in a loaf on you,” Poodle Darby assured him, as, with chin in hand, he looked across the wonderful g...

Major James Griffin, commander of the Army Signal Corps at the Monterey Presidio, did not know that the two boys who came riding up to the door of his office were bearing a grea...

There is no use denying it—Hike felt a little nervous. He had flown with the Lieutenant several times, in well-tested Jolls ’planes, but with this new machine, that looked like...

“Hike,” he cried, “there’s a yacht going to pieces down the coast. Belongs to a rich guy that lives at Pacific Grove. She’s sending out an S.O.S. by wireless. The Presidio wirel...

It was the day before the date on which the Army Board of Aviation would meet at Washington—a Monday in August. Hike Griffin sat with Poodle and Martin Priest at the _Hustle’s_...

The _Hustle_ was hurling herself through the night at a hundred miles an hour. The roar of the great Kulnoch motor filled the air; and through it sounded a sharp whine as the wi...

It takes nerve not to slow down when, for hours at a time, the earth rushes so fast and so far beneath you that hills and towns and fields all blur together in one brown smear,...

Tearing off Poodle’s coat, ripping up his shirt sleeve. Hike found that the wound was not very deep, but that some blood had been lost. With quick, careful fingers, he bathed th...

Hike had scarcely gone a hundred miles before he found that he was going to be too tired to send the _Hustle_ as fast as he should; and he immediately started teaching Major Tom...

Two boys lay a-bed till the disgracefully late hour of ten, in twin beds, at the New Willard Hotel, Washington. They didn’t feel like great aviators, not they; but like lazy you...

In the afternoon before, Hike had been reading in the Washington papers all the things he _hadn’t_ said to the reporters, and a great many things he hadn’t done, with some thing...

General Thorne grew alarmed. The police were quietly notified, without letting the newspapers know; and two police detectives were put on the case. Besides them, two operatives...

Poodle had ridden seven miles behind the Jolls automobile, but he had to walk twelve, for it was five miles from the hill where he had left his own car to “the next town,” where...

“Those guards out of the way, all right? What’s that behind that pile of furniture?” Captain Welch was talking to P. J. Jolls, in the lonely cabin on the hill, while Poodle and...

There were three very quiet persons as the victors hastened back to Washington in the _Hustle_, driven by Lieutenant Adeler. The General was nursing his twisted ankle; Hike was...

Santa Benicia Military Academy, California. It is a peaceful, beautiful place, with no signs of hurrying tetrahedrals or busy Army Boards. White and purple figs overhang the wal...

Oh, I’m an aviator, I’m a number seven slob, And when it comes to heroism, I am on the job. The only way that ordinary mutts can mix with me Is take me out and haze me till I lo...

“Look here, Griffin, what’s the trouble between you and the team? Looks to me as if they are still jealous of you for your aviating, and trying to show they’re as good as you ar...

Most of the California schools and colleges play Rugby football, like the English and the Australians. But a good many schools which prepare students for eastern colleges still...

Left Eared Dongan, Sophomore, jester of the Fig Tree Celebration and candidate for football-end, was not a Great Man, just then. He was an aeroplane. It may have looked as thoug...

Lieutenant Jack Adeler, dressed in riding breeches and khaki Norfolk jacket, was pacing the lobby of the Palace Hotel, waiting. As he saw a tall youngster enter the revolving do...

Night on the desert. There seemed to be millions of new stars in the sky, as they whirred over the dead world of sand and cactus, in the _Hustle_. The Lieutenant was taking a na...

They were making a tour of inspection, about the high fence of close-set barb-wire that had been built around the buildings of Adeler’s ranch. They were dressed like cowpunchers...

It was fifty-seven and one half miles from the ranch at Aguas Grandes to Torreas, where a regiment of Mexican government or “federal” infantry, with a company of artillery, were...

“Hike!” cried Lieutenant Adeler, suddenly. “There’s a horrible possibility. Most of the revolutionists are going northwest—and the Widow Barston’s rancho is off in that directio...

Hike got off the train at Santa Benicia, weary now and looking a little worn. It seemed strange to alight at this familiar dowdy wooden station, after the brilliant desert night...

The Santa Benicia team came on the field, after the first half, with Left Eared Dongan in the line-up. Pink Eye Morrison had hurt his ankle, at left end, and had been replaced b...