The main cabin, though, containing the living and sleeping quarters, as well as the machinery, was what most pleased Dick and his chums. "It's like traveling in a first-class motor-boat, only up in the clouds, instead of in the water," declared Innis. CHAPTER XI A SURPRISE "Toss over that monkey wrench; will you?" "Say, who had the saw last?" "I know I laid a hammer down here, but it's gone now!" "Look out there! Low bridge! Gangway! One side!" These, and many other cries and calls, came from the big barn-like shed, where Dick Hamilton's airship was being constructed. Dick himself, and his two chums, Innis Beeby and Paul Drew, had joined forces with Mr. Vardon in helping on the completion of the Abaris. "We've got to get a move on!" Dick had said, after he had sent in his application to compete for the twenty thousand dollar government prize. "We don't want to be held back at the last minute. Boys, we've got to work on this airship ourselves." "We're with you!" cried Innis and Paul, eagerly. And so, after some preliminary instructions from Mr. Vardon, the cadets had taken the tools and started to work. It did not come so unhandily to them as might have been imagined. At the Kentfield Military Academy they had been called upon to do much manual labor, in preparation for a military life. There had been pontoon bridges to build across streams, by means of floats and boats. There had been other bridges to throw across defiles and chasms. There were artillery and baggage wagons to transport along poor roads. And all this, done for practice, now stood Dick and his chums in good stead. They knew how to employ their hands, which is the best training in the world for a young man, and they could also use tools to advantage. So now we find Dick, Paul and Innis laboring over the new airship, in which the young millionaire hoped to make a flight across the United States, from ocean to ocean. "That's what I like to see!" exclaimed Uncle Ezra, as he came out to the shed just before he started back for Dankville. "It does young men good to work. Pity more of 'em don't do it. Hard work and plain food is what the rising generation wants. I don't approve of airships--that is as a rule," the crabbed old miser hastily added, "but, of course, twenty thousand dollars is a nice prize to win. I only hope you get it. Nephew Richard. I like to see you work. I'm going back now. I'll tell your Aunt Samantha that you've at last learned how to do something, even if it is only building an airship." "Don't you call my studies at Kentfield something, Uncle Ezra?" asked Dick. "No sir! No, sir-ee!" cried the elderly man. "That's time and money thrown away. But I see that you can do manual labor, Nephew Richard, and if you really want to do useful work, and earn money, I'd be glad to have you in my woolen mill. I could start you on three dollars and a half a week, and you could soon earn more. Will you come?"