Part 3 (2/2)

We'll stay there until that Irishman rolls in.”

”What will you do about lunch?” asked the practical Mrs. Martin.

”Why, we'll eat at the airport restaurant,” said Bill. ”Don't worry about us, Sis.”

Mrs. Martin looked dubious. She glanced at Hal. She knew that Hal's mother liked to supervise her son's meals, and did not care to have him eat at strange places. Mrs. Martin felt that it would be a shame to spoil the expedition for such a trivial reason, so she said, ”I have an idea. I'll pack a lunch for all of you tonight, and you can take it with you tomorrow. How will that be? You can eat it anyplace around the airport. It'll be a regular picnic. There are some nice places around the port that you can go to. How about that?”

Bob answered for them. ”That will be great. Gee, Bill, do you remember the picnic baskets that Mom can pack? We're in luck.”

”Do I remember?” said Bill. ”How could I forget? You fellows had better be up pretty early tomorrow.”

”You bet we will, Captain,” said Bob.

Then Hal said, ”I guess I'd better be going. My mother will be wondering if I'm never coming home. I hope that I can come with you tomorrow.”

”Hope you can come with us? Why, of course you're coming with us. We won't go without you,” Captain Bill said explosively.

”I'll see,” said Hal. ”I'll ask Mother. Maybe she'll let me go. But anyway, I'll let you know. I'll put up the flags in the workshop window.

All right?”

”Sure,” said Bob, and walked out with Hal. He saw the boy to the door, and warned him again to be sure to come.

When the two boys had left the room, Captain Bill turned to his sister.

”Say,” he said, ”do you think that Hal's mother really won't let him come, or is the boy looking for a way out?”

”Why, what do you mean?” asked Mrs. Martin.

”Just this,” said Bill, and puffed vigorously on his pipe. ”I've been watching the boy, and I think that he's afraid.”

”Afraid of what?”

”Afraid of actually going up in an airplane. I feel that a change has come over him since there has been an actual chance of his learning to fly,” explained the Captain.

His sister looked pensive. ”But he's always been so interested in flying. That's all the two of them ever talk about.”

”Perhaps. When there was no immediate chance of his going up in a plane.

Now that there is, I think he'd like to back out.”

”There is his mother to consider, of course,” said Mrs. Martin. ”She would undoubtedly object very strenuously if he merely went to the airport. You must remember that he's all she has. She's always so careful of him.”

The Captain snorted. ”Too careful,” he said. ”She's made the boy a bundle of fears. Bob has helped him get over some of them, but I think that they're cropping out now. It will be very bad for Hal if he funks this. I think that it will hurt him a great deal. If he succeeds in overcoming his fears now for once and for all, if he learns to go up in a plane, even if he may never fly one himself, he will be a new boy.

He'll never be afraid again. But one let-down now, and he will be set way back-even further back than when Bob first met him.”

”I think you're right, Bill,” said his sister. ”But what are we going to do about it?”

The Captain shrugged his shoulders. ”I think the best thing to do with the boy is not to let him know that we know he's afraid. Treat him just as if he were the bravest lad in the world. I'll take care of that. But I can't take care of his mother. I never was a lady's man,” smiled Captain Bill. ”You'll have to attend to that.”

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