Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/18

 "Listen! You know Father he's had airplanes on the brain ever since the Wright brothers pulled off their experiments on the North Carolina coast way back yonder before we were born. He's read every darn thing he could lay his hands on about flying. He's been up every time he could beg or buy an air ride, and, when the war came on, he was crazy as a Junebug to get in as a pilot, but of course he got turned down because he was too old and his eyes are bum. See? Well, while he was fooling and fussing around trying to buck into the service, he ran across Hardy and they've been buddies ever since, though my dad's about twenty years older. Now, my old man is some horse pulling wires. See? And when he heard about that N. C. Topographical Coast Survey, his pull landed the job for Hardy—I call him Tom behind his back."

"State Top—what? Whew!" whistled Jimmy. "Jimmy, that's a jawbreaker."

"You can listen, but don't try to handle," proclaimed Cat with mock solemnity. "Now, listen some more and I'll teach you something. You know surveyors used to trot all over the