“Why, Mrs. Gregg’s a nice woman. Don’t you think that I should have invited her?” asked the Captain, with a twinkle. “Oh, but you must have some other reason,” said Bob. “You don’t want her to come over just because you want an audience for your story.” “Well, to tell the truth,” the Captain answered, “I have a motive. Can I count on you to help me?” “If it’s not murder,” said Bob. “Nothing like it,” the Captain said. “This is my plan, Bob. You know that we want Hal to come along with us on our trip, now more than at any other time. If we leave him now, all the good that flying and being with us has done him will be wasted, and Hal will be the same fraid-cat that he was before we began to educate him. Now, I’m going to tell the story of Byrd tonight. Byrd started on his adventures when he was very young. He had a brave mother, who saw that following his own inclinations was good for her son. That much is for Mrs. Gregg. Second—Byrd had to overcome a great many obstacles before he reached his goal. That part is for young Hal. Now, if the Gregg family takes my story seriously tonight, I think that we may have Hal with us on our flight. And Hal will be a new boy. How about it?” Bob looked admiringly at his uncle. “Gee,” he said, “that’s a great idea. But I think that you’ll have to tell a pretty convincing story.” “Don’t you think that I can?” “Golly, I’m not going to worry about that,” said Bob. “I’m sure you can.” When they got in, they found Mrs. Martin sewing, and lost no time in telling her first the events of the day, and second, their plans for the evening. “But why didn’t you invite her to dinner?” asked Mrs. Martin. “I’m sure we’d enjoy having them with us.” “I didn’t think of that,” said the Captain, “or rather, I thought that I was taking enough liberty in just inviting somebody to your home for the evening.” “I’ll call her,” said Mrs. Martin firmly. A far away look came into her eyes. “You know,” she said, “I think that I shall do some talking to Mrs. Gregg myself, I have some things to tell her about raising her own son. I suppose she will resent it, but I shall at least have the satisfaction of getting it off my chest, and perhaps of helping poor Hal.” “Hal’s the one I’m interested in,” said the Captain. “He acted like a real hero in that plane today. Kept his head, and saved himself and the plane. He’s got the stuff, all right, and he can handle a plane.” “I’m with you, Captain,” said Bob. “And with you and Mom on the job, I don’t see how anybody can possibly get away with anything. You two could convince anybody of anything.” His mother looked at him speculatively. “Can I convince you right now that you ought to go up and wash? Believe me, young man, you can’t get away with looking that dirty, if that’s what you mean.” Grinning sheepishly, Bob went out of the room. “You win,” he called. “And I’m betting on you tonight, too.” CHAPTER VIII—North Pole and South