"He certainly is, and he's working hard on my craft. I'm going to be an aviator, and win that twenty-thousand-dollar government prize!" Mr. Larabee said, as though it were a certainty. "Whew!" whistled Dick. "Then we'll be rivals, Uncle Ezra." "Humph! Maybe you might think so, but I'll leave you so far behind that you won't know where you are!" boasted the crabbed old man. "Building an airship; eh?" mused Dick. "Well, that's the last thing I'd ever think of Uncle Ezra doing." Then to his relative he added: "But if you're going to compete for the prize your airship will have to be seen. Why are you so careful about it now?" "Because we've got secrets about it," replied Mr. Larabee. "There's secret inventions on my airship that haven't been patented yet, and I don't want you going in there, Nephew Richard, and taking some of my builder's ideas and using 'em on your airship. I won't have it! That's why I won't let you in. I'm not going to have you taking our ideas, not by a jugful!" "There's no danger," answered Dick quietly, though he wanted to laugh. "My airship is all finished. We've used her, and she's all right. I wouldn't change her no matter what I saw on yours." "Wa'al, you might think so now, but I can't trust nobody--not even you, so you can't come in," said Uncle Ezra. "Oh, we won't insist," answered Dick, as he passed over the bonds. "Father said you wanted these, Uncle Ezra." "Yes, I do," and an expression, as of pain, passed over the man's face. "I've got to raise a little money to pay for this airship. It's costing a terrible pile; a terrible pile!" and he sighed in despair. "But then, of course, I'll get the twenty thousand dollars, and that will help some. After that I'm going to sell plans and models of my successful airship, and I'll make a lot more that way. So of course I'll get it all back. "But it's costing me a terrible pile! Why, would you believe it," he said, looking around to see that the door to the factory was securely closed, "would you believe I've already spent five thousand, six hundred twenty-seven dollars and forty-nine cents on this airship? And it ain't quite done yet. It's a pile of money!" "Yes, they are expensive, but they're worth it," said Dick. "It's great sport--flying." "It may be. I've never tried it, but I'm going to learn," declared Uncle Ezra. "Only I didn't think it would cost so much or I never would have gone into it. But now I'm in I can't get out without losing all the money I've put up, and I can't do that. I never could do that," said Uncle Ezra with a doleful shake of his head. He gave a sudden start, at some noise, and cried out: "What's that? You didn't dare bring your bulldog in here, did you, Nephew Richard? If you did I'll--" "No, I left Grit at home, Uncle Ezra." Then the noise was repeated. It came from the part of the factory where the airship was being constructed, and was probably made by some of the workmen.