Two days after the mysterious disappearance of the plans of the Electric Monarch the promised entry blanks for the AËro Carnival at Portstown arrived. Inclosed with them the worthy captain had sent a copy of a Portstown newspaper in which there was announced in flaring capitals the following:

“Captain Abe Sprowl, in charge of the AËro Carnival, announces that he has engaged, at unprecedented expense, the newest marvel of the air, the motor-driven hydroaeroplane, The Electric Monarch, owned and invented by Ned Nevins, the youthful inventor. The machine will make a flight from Nestorville to the show grounds, and will be on view daily during the carnival.”

“Well, what do you think of that?” gasped out Jack, as he read this flamboyant announcement out aloud to his companions. “As a press agent Captain Sprowl is certainly a wonder. It looks as if we’d have to go now, boys, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does,” agreed Tom, “but I wish he hadn’t run that fool notice. We don’t want all that notoriety just now.”

“No, indeed. Not till the plans are all safely filed in the patent office,” agreed Ned, with a serious look. “Queer, that whoever took the other set hasn’t tried to place them on record yet, isn’t it?”

“Yes, I can’t understand it,” agreed Jack; “it looks as if they had something up their sleeves that we know nothing about. However, there is no use worrying over it. I guess we ought to be thankful that things are as they are.”

Heiny Dill arrived a few moments later. In honor of his new job he had purchased a more flaring tie than ever, and his socks were of a lurid purple.

“Any news of Sam, Heiny?” inquired Jack, as the young German sauntered up, whistling blithely, to where the lads stood grouped about the Electric Monarch, on which some minor adjustments were being made.

“Nodt a vord,” responded young Dill, “he hass made idt a vanishment as if he hadt dropped der eardt off.”

“Well, I don’t hear any complaints about his absence,” declared Tom. “So far as we are concerned we don’t care if he never comes back. I’m sorry for his father, though.”

“Veil, der oldt man is bearing oop midt remargable composure alretty,” declared Heiny, cocking his head on one side and giving a “yodle” more remarkable for vigor than harmony.

“When do we start, fellows?” asked Jack that afternoon when he had filled out the entry blanks and they had been mailed by Heiny Dill.

“The Electric Monarch is ready to go this minute,” said Tom. “I was just talking to Joyce.”

“Then what do you say about to-morrow?” asked Jack.

“Suits me,” said Ned, who wanted nothing better than to be riding in the Electric Monarch again.

“Me, too,” said Tom. “I’m tired of being on terra firma.”

So it was arranged that the start for the Portstown Fair should be made the next morning. Professor Chadwick was still too weak to attempt to accompany the boys, but he wished them all sorts of luck and a good time.

“We’re sure to have a good time, anyhow,” Tom assured him.

Till late that night the boys worked on stocking up the larder of the Electric Monarch with all manner of canned foods. Heiny Dill, who was as fond of good things as most boys, watched these preparations with glittering eyes. He smacked his lips visibly as he stowed away the provisions on shelves in his domain.

The boys slept little that night, awaking early to find it a slightly overcast morning with a promise of fair weather later on. There was but little wind, however, and everything appeared to be propitious for a speedy, uneventful voyage to Portstown.

Before leaving, Jack affixed to the “navigation-desk,” in the pilot house, an “aËrial map” of the route. This was a map on which various landmarks, easily discernible from a height, were noted down, and it was issued by the AËronautical Society of America. Maps such as these are of the utmost use to airmen who naturally would find little to guide them in an ordinary map or chart. Marked in red ink on the aËrial map were various arrows showing the probable direction of the wind in crossing various bits of high ground or in passing over cities.

The air is by no means, as might be imagined, a smooth road to travel. It is full of “billows,” aËrial “cliffs” caused by up-drafts, and vast, empty pockets wherein nothing but a vacuum exists, and which many airmen claim are the greatest source of danger to aviators that the atmosphere contains.

As there was nothing to cause delay, the Electric Monarch’s motors were started spinning almost as soon as it was broad daylight. Everything proved to be in perfect order, and after the tuning-up process the boys took their stations on the craft. As before, Joyce had the bow lookout and Ned Nevins alternated between the pilot house and the motor-platform.

Professor Chadwick and Jupe waved them farewell as they shot upward, and before very long the village of Nestorville and High Towers lay far behind them. Jack sent the Electric Monarch straight up on an inclined aËrial staircase till she had gained the height of five thousand feet. At this altitude they proceeded steadily along, the height being sufficient to avoid any danger from upward thrusting air currents.

The morning passed uneventfully, and shortly before noon Heiny Dill announced that lunch was ready. They took this in relays, Ned relieving Jack at the wheel while the young skipper ate. They passed over several towns and small villages, and through the glasses they could plainly see the flurry they were causing down below. It amused them to watch the scurrying atoms which they knew were human beings rushing about and pointing upward as the Electric Monarch passed high above their heads.

Not long after lunch, as they were passing over what seemed to be a large farm, they saw several men running along below them. Suddenly one elevated and aimed a gun at the fast flying craft. Of course the Electric Monarch was far too high for the charge to reach her, but the boys could see the puff of smoke that accompanied the discharge, and knew that if they had been lower they would have felt shot pattering about them.

“That’s a specimen of what Atwood, the trans-continental flier, had to contend against,” said Jack. “The more ignorant people are, the more they dislike to see modern inventions. I’ll bet if that fellow with the gun could have hit us he would.”

“His intentions seemed serious, anyhow,” laughed Ned, “but the Electric Monarch is a hard bird to bring down.”

About an hour later Jack decided to drop down closer to the earth. He wished to test the effect of the currents near to the heated surface on the Electric Monarch. Accordingly the craft was brought down till at times she was rushing along at not more than two or three hundred feet from the earth.

They were flying over a large, prosperous-looking farm at a fair rate of speed when there came a sudden check in the air craft’s movement. She plunged violently and pitched forward as if about to capsize.

“It’s the grapnel line!” shouted Ned, “it’s gotten loose and hooked on to the roof of that barn!”

At the same instant there came a sound of rending and tearing wood as the steel points of the grapnel dug into the roof of a rickety old barn and tore it loose from the rafters. Jack acted like a flash. He set his descending planes and came to earth in a beautifully executed dive in a stubble field just beyond the farm buildings.

“The grapnel must have torn loose from its fastenings,” he said; “lucky it was no worse. As it is——”

He broke off short. Running toward them from the farmhouse came the farmer and two of his hired men. The farmer carried in his hand a formidable looking gun. As he drew close to the boys he leveled it at them. At the same time he cried out angrily:

“Stay right where ye be. Don’cher move, doggone yer, er I’ll shoot.”

The look in his eye, as well as the menace in his voice, convinced the boys that the threat was no idle one. The man was thoroughly angry over the accidental damage to his barn. On he came with leveled gun, shouting threats, while the two hired men kept up a steady accompaniment.

“Well, this is a fine fix,” commented Jack. “I guess we’ll have to settle for that roof before we leave here.”

“You kin jes’ bet ye’ll hev ter,” roared the farmer, who had overheard him.