Suddenly, from somewhere behind them, they heard a long, moaning whistle.

"The train!" shouted Jess.

In her excitement she gripped Roy's arm tightly and peered back.

All at once, around a curve, the locomotive came into view--black smoke spouting from its funnel and a column of white steam pouring from its safety valves.

"She'll beat us," cried Jimsy, despairingly, as the thunder of the speeding train grew louder. The setting sun flashed on the varnished sides of the cars.

The engineer thrust his head out of the cab window and gazed upward. His attention had been attracted by the roaring of the motor overhead.

He broke into a yell and waved his hand as he saw the flying aeroplane dashing along above him. The next instant his hand sought the whistle cord.

"Toot! toot! toot!"

The occupants of the aeroplane waved their hands. To their chagrin, however, they saw that, overloaded as the aeroplane was, the train was gaining on them in leaps and bounds. Its windows were black with heads now as pa.s.sengers, regardless of the danger of encountering some trackside obstacle, leaned out and gazed up at the Golden b.u.t.terfly roaring along like some great Thunder Lizard of the dark ages.

"Don't they stop anywhere between here and the junction?" gasped Jimsy.

Roy shook his head.

"It's a through train from Montauk," he said; "they make all the speed they can."

"Two minutes," cried Jess, suddenly; "we won't do it."

But Peggy had suddenly swung off the tracks and was cutting across country. She had seen that the track took a long curve just before it entered the junction. By taking a direct "crow flight" across country she might beat it after all.

And she did. As the train came thundering into the station and stopped with a mighty screaming of brakes and hiss of escaping steam, the aeroplane came to earth in the flat park-like s.p.a.ce in front of the depot.

"Tumble out quick!" shouted Roy, "she only stops a jiffy."

Jess and Jimsy lost no time in obeying.

"Good-bye, you darlings!" cried Jess, as she sped after her brother toward the station.

"We'll get our tickets on the train!" shouted Jimsy, as they vanished.

"All ab-o-a-r-d!"

The conductor's voice ran peremptorily out. He had seen the race between the aeroplane and the train, but even that could not disturb a conductor's desire to start on time.

As the wheels began to revolve, Jimsy and Jess swung on to the steps of the rear parlor car. As they did so the pa.s.sengers broke into an involuntary cheer. The shouts of approval at the up to date manner in which the young folks had "made their train," mingled with the puffing of the locomotive as it sped off.

Among the spectators of the sensational feat had been a broad-shouldered, bronzed man in a big sombrero hat, who sat in the same parlor car which Jimsy and Jess had entered. He looked like a Westerner. As the train gathered headway he suddenly, after an interval of deep thought, struck one big brawny hand upon his knee and exclaimed to himself:

"It's the very thing--the very thing. With a fleet of those I could develop the Jupiter and astonish the mining world."

He rose, with the slowness of a powerful man, and made his way back to where Jimsy and Jess were sitting. Raising his broad-brimmed hat with old-fashioned courtesy, he addressed himself to Jimsy and was soon deep in conversation with him.

CHAPTER X.

THE RIVAL AEROPLANE.

In the meanwhile, the exciting race against time had resulted in overheating the Golden b.u.t.terfly's cylinders, and a stop of an hour or more at the junction was necessary. Thus it was quite dark when the young Prescotts were ready to make for home. A small crowd had gathered to see them start, for there was a little community of houses scattered about the junction.

They decided to go the way they had come, namely, to follow the tracks to the crossing and then turn off for home. It was their first experience in night piloting, and when they were ready Peggy switched on the tiny shaded bulb that illuminated the compa.s.s. This done, she started the engine, and the Golden b.u.t.terfly shot into the air under its reduced load with an almost buoyant sense of freedom.

The crossing was reached in several minutes less than it had taken them to reach the junction on the going trip. Peggy turned off as she marked the glowing lights beneath her, and presently the Golden b.u.t.terfly was skimming along above dark woodlands and gloom-enshrouded meadows. There was something awe inspiring about this night flying. Above them the canopy of the stars stretched like a mantle spangled with silver sequins.

Below, the earth showed as a black void.

They were flying slowly to avoid overheating the cylinders again.

Suddenly a bright glare shot up against the night from below, and a little ahead of them. It died down almost instantly, only to flash up once more.

"Gid Gibbons's forge!" exclaimed Roy. "Let's fly over by there and see what he's doing."

"All right," agreed Peggy; "ever since my visit there I have felt a great interest in Mr. Gibbons. But we'll have to make haste, there's some wind coming before long."

The girl was right. A filmy mist, like a veil, had spread over the stars, dimming their bright lamps, and a wind was beginning to sigh in the trees under them.

But they had not reached Gid Gibbons's place, or rather a location above it, when an astonishing thing happened. From the ground a red light and a green light set at some distance apart began to rise. Up and up they climbed through the night in long, swinging circles. Between them was dimly visible the dark outlines of some fabric.

"An aeroplane!" cried the boy and girl, simultaneously.

"Fan Harding's aeroplane!" cried Peggy, an instant later.

"And--oh, Roy--it can fly!" she added, admiringly.

"No doubt of that," was the rather grudging reply, as the red and green lights soared up and up.

"Keep clear of it, sis, we don't want a collision," warned Roy.

"Oh, I'd like to get close and see it," breathed Peggy. "I never would have credited Fan Harding with being able to do it."

"Nor I," exclaimed Roy, his dislike of Fan Harding giving place to admiration--genuine admiration--of the other's ingenuity.

"Well, he's beaten me out at my own particular specialty," he exclaimed presently, after an interval in which the lights had climbed far above the Golden b.u.t.terfly. "That's a better machine than ours, Peg."

"I guess we'll have to admit that," rejoined the girl, with a sigh. "I wonder if he'll enter for the prize?"

"Of course. With a craft like that he'd be foolish if he didn't. Odd that he's trying it out at night, though."

"I suppose he wants to keep secret what it can do and then spring it on an astonished world," rejoined Peggy. "Good gracious!" she broke off hurriedly.

The aeroplane had given a sudden lurch, and at the same instant a sharp puff of wind struck them both in the face. Peggy's hands fairly flashed among her levers, and she averted what might have been a bad predicament.