The Bird boys

“Well, perhaps he has fellows,” laughed Frank Bird, promptly. “At any rate, my poor cousin’s heart is nearly broken into flinders, just because he can’t for the life of him reme...

“Look at the vandal, would you, ripping the cover off our cylinder just as cool as you please! Hey! Sandy, see anything of the yard watchman around? We ought to have him pinch t...

Andy had turned white, and looked weak. A dreadful foreboding seemed to have suddenly seized upon him. It was as though a cold hand had been brought in direct contact with his w...

“I tell you what,” suggested Andy; “let’s cook our supper here. What’s to hinder, when we’ve got a stove handy, and there’s no great amount of gasolene around? I’m just hungry e...

When Andy thus wildly rushed out of doors he fell over some object which he did not chance to see. Perhaps in his excitement he even imagined some one had given him a clip along...

“It seems like a dream. I just can’t understand it all. Yet there’s the message all right that dropped down from the clouds. And we sure heard voices. Tell me I’m not seeing thi...

“Oh, what if it is about father?” gasped Andy, turning pale, for the unrevealed fate of the daring aviator had always borne heavily on the poor lad’s mind, and in the silent wat...

There no longer existed the slightest doubt in the mind of Frank Bird that their rivals had indeed stolen a march on them and were the first of the Bloomsbury brand of aviators...

“Don’t you take too much stock in Larry bringing news,” observed Andy, still letting his eyes rove all around the walls of the shed, as though striving to discover somewhere the...

“Shucks! I only wish I had,” replied his cousin. “But I was referring to what Larry told us about those bold, bad men, who cleaned out poor Leffingwell. You know he said they mu...

Andy would have undoubtedly cried out on being so suddenly aroused by a shake, only that Frank hissed in his ear; and also held a hand over his mouth, so that he could not utter...

“But look at them, Frank! The skunks are stealing our neat little trick! They mean to fly away in her!” answered Andy. And perhaps his husky voice might have been heard only tha...

Even the usually cool Frank felt a thrill pass over him, as he contemplated the frantic efforts of the aeroplane to leave its anchorage, and take a maiden spin through the balmy...

“Ain’t this the greatest thing ever?” cried Andy, as with trembling fingers he started to unfasten the cords by which the suit-cases had been secured, so they might not drop out...

“Fair enough, but from the little fleecy white clouds I see I’m afraid we’re going to have a lot more breeze than yesterday,” replied Frank, who was washing his face in the tin...

Many a skilled aviator would hesitate to take up a second person with him in a monoplane. True, in building the machine they had figured on this matter. And there was now a dead...

Frank never lost his head in this emergency. He had a faculty for thinking out all these sort of things and planning his move in case he ever found himself up against such a cri...

With the exception of Sunday, the two wide-awake Bird boys put in all the time possible in learning the ropes. Whenever the weather was favorable they might be seen careering ar...

“I’m positive about it,” the other went on. “Of course, it would be hard to tell a fellow standing up when you were sailing over his head and two hundred feet high, but in this...

“Here it’s past noon on the great day! Six thousand good people have gathered on the field here and on the neighboring fences just to see us fly, and there isn’t a mite of wind....

Instantly, as it seemed, there were loud exclamations, accompanied by all signs of bustle and excitement. The engines began to snap, and both aeroplanes started down the slight...

It was taking a big chance; but there was nothing else to be done. No matter what it was Sandy had let slip, expecting that it would fall upon the monoplane, to at least cause c...

“Hurrah! found at last! Didn’t I tell you I’d run it down sooner or later, Frank? And just to think that this sneak had it all the while; grabbed it some time when perhaps it fe...