Produced by Roger Frank, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: Young Dill had seized Jupe by the back of the neck and dragged him, half drowned, to the shore.--_Page 98_]
THE BOY INVENTORS’ ELECTRIC HYDROAEROPLANE
AUTHOR OF “THE BOY INVENTORS’ WIRELESS TRIUMPH,” “THE BOY INVENTORS AND THE VANISHING GUN,” “THE BOY INVENTORS’ DIVING TORPEDO BOAT,” “THE BOY INVENTORS’ FLYING SHIP,” ETC., ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ _CHARLES L. WRENN_
The Boy Inventors’ Electric Hydroaeroplane.
“Are either Mr. Chadwick or Mr. Jesson about?”
“Humph!” and the gangling, rather disagreeable-looking youth who had answered the summons to the door of the Boy Inventors’ workshop, gave a supercilious look over the dusty and worn, although carefully mended, clothes of the dark-eyed, dark-haired, slender youth who confronted him.
“What do you want to know that for, anyhow?” and upon the personal pronoun he placed a contemptuous emphasis.
“That is a question to which I can only reply when I can see either Jack Chadwick or Tom Jesson personally. My name is Ned Nevins,--not that either of them knows me,--but will you be so kind as to find out if they’ll see me?”
“If you can’t tell me your business, you can’t see them. State what you want to me. If it’s money----”
The dark-eyed young visitor’s eyes held a warning flash which the other lad, who was half a head taller and far stouter of build than Ned Nevins, affected not to notice.
“Well, you can’t speak to them.” This with an air of finality.
“I do, perfectly. They are both far too busy to bother with any inquisitive kind of tramp that happens along.”
“Then you won’t let them know I would like to see them?”
“I said ‘No’ once. N-O-_no_! Isn’t that enough?”
Ned Nevins turned away. As he did so, the other lad, an employee of the Boy Inventors, and a former school chum, noticed that he had under his arm a box which he appeared to handle with unusual care. But Sam Hinkley noted also Ned’s dejected and downcast air. He decided to humiliate him still further.
Ned hastened his pace. He felt too disappointed and tired to retort to the bully as he should have done. Sam Hinkley interpreted this as cowardice on Ned’s part, and being a natural bully he decided to improve the occasion according to his own delight. He came up behind Ned and gave the slightly-built lad a strong shove.