Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-12

standing intimacy with Page to have done
| this thing, and, as he talked with the others,
she told herself that her schoolgirl enthu-
siasm had not been so callow, after all. He
had been very likable in his confusion; he
was very manly in his difficult role of an
aviator who had brought an aeroplane to
Rheims that would not go. 1t was hard to
believe him the architect of his own misfor
tunes. He had more the bearing of man
who had been worsted by chance.
"Your outfit looks as businesslike as the
others said Justin, upeering into the shed.
@What ais it, Page?"
The American shrugged. IL wish knew"
he answered We've lot to learn about
aeroplanes. One day they balk; but we
don't know why they balk. Another day
| they go; but we don't know why they go.
It's just as it was with automobiles. At first
they ran or lay down in the road, at their
sweet will. But that was only in the begin
ming. Now they have no secrets.
Buckley unmasked battery of questions.
Didn't he know what part of his machine
was out of order? Had he really, as people
said, made it all himself? Couldn't he trust
| workmen to do it for him? Was there any
thing secret about its construction? Was
that why he took the name of Beauregard
and not his own?
Justin Blair saw annoyance in Pages
frightened lips. "Look out!" he warned dry
| ly. "My friend here is in diplomacy. What
ever you tell him goes into the archives
The inventor with gesture gave them
the freedom of his shed. dts the motor
that's out of ORDER" he replied. IL did
make the aeroplane myself; but not because
l wouldn't trust others to do it. could not
ond name (my mother was French), and
used it because l hoped to win the recogni
ton in France that haven t found at home.
l am not the only man here who is entered
under nom de guerre. AS for secrets" he
faced his plump inquisitor, "you are very
welcome to look the machine over"
Sand make what you can of it," added
Ann to herself as she glanced in at the be-
wildering chaos. One detail alone struck
her, rough camp bed. 1t was true, then,
that story of his living here! He had prob
ably staked everything he possessed on this
venture staked everything and lost!
Only an expert could have made head or
tail of the dismembered aeroplane; but
Buckley walked knowingly amid the puzzle
and by his manner published his conviction
that the situation was quite hopeless. Justin
also looked over the shed; but he observed
Page more closely than his belongings. When
the others presently took their leave, he said
briefly that he would rejoin them in the box.
"And now" he said, as Price Buckleys ro-
tund outline went in eclipse, @let's get down to
facts. know Fighting Joe Pages son would
never chuck the army for wildcat scheme.
Just what have you got here that the others
haven't? And will money grease the wheels?'
Chapter III.
A VAST dirigible had come out of Rheims
\. and was swimming in great measured
circles, five hundred feet aloft; in the lower
air five aeroplanes swung steadily round the
course in competition for the Prix du Tour
de Piste; but Buckleys gaze ranged the
spectators, not the skies, as he squirrel Ann
and her aunt back to the tribunes and his
unwearied tongue still catalogued the Great.
Yonder was Duchess So and So; that man
in the gray fedora was Americas foremost
comedian; the dyspeptic looking person in
shabby tweeds was one of the richest land
holders in England; that walking skeleton
with the waxen pallor and blue-black mus
tache was one of the Forty Immortals. The
gathering was brilliant, positively brilliant.
It was even whispered in embassy circles
that a certain Royal ersonage-Buckley
became irnpressively the diplomat GER
tain Royal Parsonage whose name he could
not divulge was here incognito.
Ann was bored with their cicerone and his