Famous Flyers.

by J. J. Grayson.

CHAPTER I-Exciting News

Bob Martin stood outside the large red brick house and whistled. He whistled three notes, a long and two short, which meant to Hal Gregg inside that Bob wanted to see him, and to see him quickly. Something was up. At least, that was what it should have meant to Hal, but evidently it didn't, because no answering whistle came out to Bob, and no head appeared in any of the windows.

Bob whistled again, this time a little more shrilly, and he kept on whistling until a pale, spectacled face appeared at an upstairs window.

The window was thrown open, and Bob shouted up before Hal Gregg had a chance to speak.

"Hey, what's the idea of keeping me waiting? Hurry up, come on down, I've got something great to tell you."

"Hold your horses. I didn't hear you whistle at first. I was reading,"

called down Hal.

Bob snorted. "Put it away and hurry up down. Books can wait. You should hear the news I've got to tell you."

"The book's swell," said Hal. "It's that new book on aviation I got for my birthday. Is your news more important than that?"

"You bet it is," yelled Bob. "And if you aren't down here in two seconds, I'm going to keep it to myself. And won't you be sorry!"

Hal laughed. "I'll be down in one second. I'm not going to have you knowing anything I don't know. You're too smart now." The dark head disappeared from the window, reappeared atop the narrow shoulders of its owner at the front door within a few seconds, bobbing about as he leaped down the front steps two at a time. Hal Gregg joined his pal Bob under the maple tree on the Gregg front lawn.

The two boys made a strange contrast as they flung themselves down in the shade of the tree. They were the same age, sixteen, with Hal having a little edge on his friend. But Bob could have pa.s.sed for the other boy's big brother. He was a full head taller, his shoulders were broader, his complexion ruddier. He was the typical outdoor boy, with tousled brown hair, a few unruly freckles, and a broad pleasant face.

Hal Gregg was short and slight, with sloping narrow shoulders. His complexion was dark, and his large, serious eyes were hidden behind sh.e.l.l-rimmed eye-gla.s.ses. Yet though they were such a badly matched team, the two boys were fast friends.

Their friendship had begun strangely. In the first place, they lived next door to each other, on a quiet, shady side-street in the large city of Crowley. Bob had lived there first, while the red brick house next to his had been empty for a long time. n.o.body Bob's age had ever lived in that house, and he had grown to look at it as an old fogey sort of a house, very dull, and fit only for grownups. It didn't seem as though young people could ever live in it. So he'd been pretty much excited when he found out that the house had been sold, and that a boy his own age was going to move in.

But his first glimpse of Hal was a disappointed one. "Oh, golly, just my luck," he said to his mother. "Somebody my own age moves in next door at last, and look what he turns out to be."

Mrs. Martin had also caught a glimpse of Hal as he had got out of the automobile with his mother, and entered the house. "He seems to me to be a very nice boy," she said quietly.

"Nice! That's just the point. He looks as though he's so nice he'll be as dull as ditchwater. I'll bet he's the kind that can't tell one airplane from another, and buys his radio sets all made up, with twenty tubes and all kinds of gadgets. Lot of fun I'll have with him!"

Mrs. Martin smiled and said nothing. She was a wise mother. She knew that if she praised Hal too much he would seem just so much worse in her son's eyes. So she resolved to let him decide for himself, just as she always let him decide, whether he wanted Hal for a friend or not.

For several days Bob saw nothing of Hal, but one day, as he rode his bicycle up the driveway that separated the two houses, he heard someone hail him. He looked over into the Gregg yard and saw Hal there, stretched out in a steamer chair, an open book in his lap. He looked very small and puny. Bob got down from his bike. He was embarra.s.sed. Hal hailed him again. "Come on over," he called.

Bob got down and walked over to where the other boy was sitting. The meeting between two strange boys is usually a hard one, with suspicion on both sides. But Hal seemed surprisingly pleasant. "I've seen you riding around," he said, "but I haven't had a chance to call you before.

I'm Hal Gregg. You're Bob, aren't you?"

"Sure," grinned Bob. He was beginning to think that this Hal might not be such a bad sort. "How did you know?"

"Oh, I'm a Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, I've heard your mother calling to you. And if she calls you 'Bob,' that must be your name."

Bob laughed, "You're right, she ought to know," he said. But he didn't know what to say next. Hal filled in the gap.

"You go swimming a lot, and bicycling, don't you?"

"Sure," Bob replied. "That's about all a fellow likes to do in summer.

Don't you swim?"

Hal's forehead wrinkled. "My mother doesn't like me to go swimming," he said. "I've never had a bike, either. You see, my mother's always afraid that something'll happen to me. She hasn't got anybody but me, you know.

I haven't got a father, or any other family. I guess that's what makes Mother so anxious about me."

"My mother never seems to worry very much about me," said Bob. "At least, she never shows it."

Hal looked at Bob enviously. "You don't have to be worried about," he said. "You're as husky as they come."

Bob felt himself getting warm. This wasn't the way for a fellow to talk.

All of his friends called each other "shrimp" or "sawed-off," no matter how big and husky they might be. None of them ever showed such poor taste as to compliment a fellow. He guessed, and correctly, that Hal hadn't been with boys enough to learn the proper boy code of etiquette.

But he just said, "Aw, I'm not so husky," which was the proper answer to a compliment, anyway.

"You sure are," said Hal. "You see, I was a sickly child, and had to be taken care of all the time. I'm all right now, but my mother doesn't seem to realize it. She still treats me as though I was about to break out with the measles any minute. I guess that's about all I used to do when I was a kid."

"With measles?" laughed Bob. "I thought that you could get those only once."

"Oh, if it wasn't measles, then something else. Anyway, here I am."

Bob's opinion of the boy had sunk lower and lower. He saw that they weren't going to get on at all. Why, the boy was nothing but a mollycoddle, and not much fun. "What do you do for fun?" he asked, curiously.

"Oh, I read a lot," said Hal, picking up the book in his lap.

Bob's mind was now more firmly made up. A fellow who spent all his time reading was no fun at all. And he needn't think that Bob was going to encourage any friendship, either. "What's the book?" he asked.

"A biography," said Hal.

"Biography!" thought Bob, but he looked at the t.i.tle. It was a life of Admiral Byrd.

Bob's eyes lighted up. "Oh, say," he said, "is that good?"

"It's great," said Hal. "You know, I read every book on aviators that comes out. I've always wanted to be one-an aviator, you know."

Bob sat up and took notice. "Gee, you have? Why, so have I. My Uncle Bill's an aviator. You ought to know him. He was in the war. Joined when he was just eighteen. I'm going to be an aviator, too."

"You are? Have you ever been up?"

"No," said Bob, "but I'm going some day. Bill's going to teach me how to pilot a plane. He's promised. He's coming to visit us some time and bring his own plane. Dad takes me out to the airport whenever he can, and we watch the planes. I've never had a chance to go up, though."

Hal's eyes clouded. "I hope you get to be an aviator," he said, "I don't think that I ever shall. My mother'd never allow me to go up."

"Oh, sure, she would," consoled Bob, "if you wanted to badly enough.

Have you ever built a plane? A model, I mean?"

"Have I? Dozens. One of them flew, too. You've got to come up to my workshop and see them," said Hal eagerly. "I read every new book that comes out. I think that airplanes are the greatest thing out."