“Yes, I know they are delicate affairs at best when used for sailing a mile above the earth,” admitted the patrol leader; “and that a sudden gust of wind, if it takes the voyager unawares, is apt to bring about disaster.”
“That’s just it,” said Hiram triumphantly. “Rob, I’ve discovered a way to prevent all these accidents, and made an aëroplane as safe for a novice to run as it would be for an experienced pilot with a license.”
“If you have done that, Hiram, you’ve got a feather in your cap!” Rob told him. “Some of the biggest inventors have been lying awake nights trying to fix things that way, so as to take away most of the terrible risk of flying; but so far it doesn’t seem they’ve met with much success.”
“Wait till they hear from Hiram Nelson, that’s all,” declared the happy scout, as he smote himself on the chest in rather a vainglorious fashion, which, however, the other two boys hardly noticed, for they knew Hiram’s fondness of boasting, as he had always been afflicted in that way.
“Tell us the rest, Hi,” said Andy, just as if it bored him to hear so much about the “preliminaries,” when as the inventor proclaimed the best was yet to come.
“All right,” said Hiram promptly. “Now you know what the scheme is I can go on and get deeper into my yarn.”
“Wish you would,” muttered Andy, pretending to stifle a yawn back of his hand, but that was only done in order to hurry the long-winded talker.
“I call my wonderful invention a stabilizer, because that’s the use it’s really intended for,” continued Hiram, as though wishing to fully impress that fact upon their minds. “To tell the truth, I’ve had the legal documents showing that a patent had been applied for, quite some time now, though for reasons of my own I kept it all a dead secret from everybody. Mebbe yeou fellers may have noticed that I’ve been looking kinder mysterious the last month or two? Well, guess with such a tre_men_jous secret on your mind either of you’d a been equally absent minded. But that is past now, and I’ve accomplished my aim.”
“Good!” Andy burst out with. “Let go your bowstring then and shoot, for goodness sake, Hiram.”
“Well, of course I had it all laid out,” continued the other composedly, as if it was beneath him to pay any attention to these pins that Andy was sticking into him, “and my first thought was to get in communication with some enterprising big corporation that manufactured aëroplanes for the market. All inventors have to sell their first few patents, you know, so’s to get money enough to push other ideas; and if I could pick up a few thousand that way, why I’d have to let my stabilizer go.”