Part 7 (1/2)
”The first dividend was five thousand dollars, and grandfather took it and looked at it and then shoved it over to his oldest son and commenced to talk That is, Lee said he spoke _one word_ in the Indian language
It meant the-car-that-runs-by-itself He wanted an autoest he could for the entle around the country he still sits and watches that old gusher keep gushi+ng He gets about two hundred dollars a day out of it”
”That's nothing!” said Horace Jardin
”_Nothing?_” repeated Bill ”Well, it would ?” cried Frank in a tone filled with real pain ”_Nothing?_ My soul! It would be six hundred dollars every three days”
”Why pick on six hundred dollars?” asked Bill ”Why not fourteen hundred a week? Those old wells go right on working on Sunday, you know”
Frank slammed down his fork and shoved his chair back from the table
”Oh, it is a _shame_!” he cried bitterly
Both boys looked at him in surprise
”What ails you, anyhow?” asked Bill
”Nothing,” said Frank
CHAPTER VI
Jardin left the folloeek and the two boys tried to settle down into the old groove Bill spent a great deal of ti the manoeuvers on the Field Frank kept up the study of aviation with surprising earnestness He had a special gift for it and was really a source of great pride to his instructors Of course his father forbade long or very high flights, but Frank soon was able to execute any of the si
Bill, who refrained froer on account of his mother, tried to absorb as much as he could froreat fancy to the quiet, handsoent questions and who so soon onflies
With a small maliciousness that surprised even himself, Frank had dropped a hint here and there that Bill was afraid to fly, and the two airford, ere his special friends at the Field discussed it between themselves One day they stopped Lee and asked him if it was true Lee flushed under his dark, swarthy skin, and his srily
”Who says it?” he demanded
”I don't kno it started,” answered Lem ”I don't know as it matters whether the kid is afraid or not, but it doesn't seerain of yellohere in that good body of his”
”I will bet all my month's pay that there isn't,” affirmed Chauncey ”I _know_ there isn't, but I wish I kne the report started It uy him”
”I wish _I_ could be there when they do I know one soldier ould have a ticket for the guardhouse for fighting in about ten minutes”
”It is not as bad as that,” said Chauncey ”The fellows don't reen little sprout of a Jardin flew like a s And here is Bill, by far the best of the three, won't go off the ground but just shakes his head and grins if you ask him why not”
”I know the reason,” said Lee firood one, too Do you know his ” Lee took off his cah he could not talk of Mrs Sherman while he reentle, so sweet; and such a true friend! But she has a very weak heart There is so about it, and Major Sherreater shock could there be than so to her only son? Major Sherman told me that he had explained it to Bill, and that Bill never did one thing to worry his ets there When he is away, at Lawton or Medicine Park or any place like that, he telephones her a couple of tiht That boy is a peach, I can tell you! There are dozens of things he doesn't do on her account