Walker looked plenty sick. Alton looked at him, and he couldn’t look back. He might ’ve killed Ned Knight and Jane--Jane!--with his trick, done for pay. He couldn’t face the man that had hired him out of good faith. “Walker, you look guilty!” Alton spoke up. “You’ve tried to cripple us in favor of the Stormbird people--so they can win over us, of course, in the air derby tomorrow. Thank the Lord you won’t have a chance to get in any more of your dirty work! The Stormbirds are so afraid that we’ll outfly them that they have to hire crooks to beat us, eh? Do you know, Walker, that you could be jailed for what you’ve done?” Walker was white around the gills. “Walker, I don’t want to bother with you. I think too little of you and what you’ve done to prefer charges against you. Now, Walker, get off this field. Get off! If you show your face on it again, man, I’ll break you with my bare hands!” Alton didn’t usually say much, but this was plenty for the occasion, and he meant every word. Alton’s contempt was worse than a lickin’ for Walker to take. Let loose, he shambled away, looks of disgust and hate followin’ him. When he disappeared around the hangars, the field seemed like a better place to stay. Mr. Alton spoke quietly now to the boys, askin’ ’em to look over the planes careful, suggestin’ that a guard be put around the hangars tonight so that nothin’ could happen to the planes before the start of the air race the next day; and they’d better keep a gun handy; and-- “Ned!” Jane called out, not bein’ able to hold herself in any longer. “Please, let’s get another plane out and go right back up!” * * * * * “Jane,” Mr. Alton said, “I want to talk with Ned a little, so you’d better let the flyin’ go a while. Benny, is that ship damaged much?” “No, sir,” I answered. “By adjusting the timer and putting in a screen, and some new ignition wires--they’re burned off--she’ll be shipshape again.” “Start on it right away,” Mr. Alton told me. “Ned, how did the ship feel today?” “Better than ever before,” Knight answered. “Jane was at the stick, but I could feel the pull of the new prop. We get the proper revs now when we’re climbing.” “The stabilizer?” “Works like a dream. The ship’s as steady as a Rolls Royce on Fifth Avenue and she stays that way. Also, it’s easier to hold her head up. And the ailerons can be used when she’s throttled way down--that’s somethin’ that’s improved with the new prop and stabilizer. She’s ready for any race now, Mr. Alton.” “Good!” said the Boss. The boys’d been helpin’ me to roll the plane tail-to into the hangar, and then, leavin’ Mr. Alton, Jane, Ned and me in there alone, they went back to work. I tore off the old ignition wires while Mr. Alton talked. “Ned, are you ready to fly your best tomorrow? Goin’ to reach Curtiss ahead of all the other entries, are you?” “Sure he is!” spoke up Jane. “I’m his mascot!”