The Motor Boys in the Clouds; or, A Trip for Fame and Fortune

by Clarence Young

  CHAPTER IV

  THE FAT MAN'S WAGER

  For a moment, following Noddy's excited announcement, it looked asif there would be a fight. The bully was very angry, and he probablythought that the motor boys had come into his tent to make fun of him.

  "Are you going to get out?" he cried, as Jerry showed no signs ofwithdrawing, and the other three lads stood their ground.

  "I don't think so," replied Jerry.

  "Then I'll make you. Bill--Bill--come in here and help me put them out!"

  "That was Bill Berry outside," murmured Ned.

  A second later Bill came running in.

  "Put Jerry Hopkins and his gang out! I don't want them here," saidNoddy.

  "How are you, Bill? Wrecked any more steamers lately?" asked Jerryquickly, and Bill, who must have fancied that disguising himself byshaving off his moustache was not sufficient, decided that it wasbetter to retreat.

  "Get out of here! Clear out!" ordered Noddy, suddenly rushing at thefour boys. They did not attempt to strike him, and Noddy knew betterthan to run the risk of hostilities by delivering any blows. Heonly pushed and shoved, and, as he was one against four, he was notsucceeding very well.

  Suddenly Noddy slipped and stumbled, bumping up against a fat womanwho just then had entered the tent. She screamed, and there was someconfusion in the place, which contained quite a few people.

  A man pushed his way through the throng that was gathered about theentrance, some trying to get out of the way of impending trouble, andothers seeking to come in. The man wore a badge on his coat.

  "What's the row?" he asked quickly. "What's the excitement about?"

  "We came in to view this machine, paying our way," said Jerry, for henoticed that the man's badge indicated that he was a member of the aerocarnival committee. "The owner of the _Firefly_, Noddy Nixon, refusesto let us see it, after we have paid our money."

  "What's that?" asked the committee member sternly. "He won't let yousee it? None of that, young man! When you are given an exhibitionspace on this ground you have to conform to all the rules of theassociation. Any one who pays admission is entitled to see any machineon the grounds. You can't do any crooked work like that or we'll orderyou off. This is a genuine exhibition."

  "Well, they'll make fun of me--they're enemies of mine, and I don'twant 'em here," whined Noddy.

  "That makes no difference. You'll not be the first inventor who waslaughed at--especially those who build airships. If you can't standbeing made fun of you've no business to go into this carnival. Now letme hear of no more disturbances in your tent, or I'll close you up. Ofcourse, you boys can stay. The idea of him trying to prevent you!" andthe man looked at Noddy in disgust as he withdrew.

  Much crestfallen, Noddy walked into a smaller tent erected within thelarger one, and there he nursed his wrath, while Jerry and his chumswalked about viewing the _Firefly_ from various sides.

  It was a curious machine. There was a metal body or car, about as largeas a good-sized clothes basket. This contained a seat for the operatorand the motor for working the big wings. These latter were made ofsheets of tin, riveted to long skeleton frames of iron. The wings,of which there were four, two on a side, were shaped like those of abutterfly. They worked up and down by means of wheels and pistons,operated by the gasolene motor.

  There was a tail in the rear, set like that on a fish, and it could bemoved from side to side, presumably to steer the machine, by means ofcords, levers and pulleys. The whole affair looked quite heavy, for itwas all made of metal. Too heavy, indeed, to fly, as many observerscommented, yet from what Noddy had said he evidently expected to makeit sail through the air, carrying himself or some other venturesomeperson.

  That the _Firefly_ was not destined for long flights was evident fromthe contracted space of the car. There was barely room for the operatorand the motor, and no supplies for a long trip could be carried.

  "Well," remarked Jerry, when he and his chums had spent some timeexamining the metal "fly," during which interim Noddy had not shownhimself, "well, that's a queer arrangement, sure enough. I want to seeit in motion."

  "Oh, you'll see it, all right," declared a young man, whom Noddy hadevidently hired to help him. "Professor Nixon will make his firstflight Monday, the opening of the carnival. Professor Nixon willchallenge all the other inventors to a race."

  "Get on to that, would you?" whispered Ned to Bob. "'Professor Nixon!'Why doesn't he change his name?"

  "We'll be here to see him fly on Monday," added Jerry. "Come on,fellows; I guess we've seen enough now."

  They left the tent, looking curiously as they went out for a sign ofBill Berry. But that individual had evidently gone into hiding, and hewas replaced by another unprepossessing chap, who was selling tickets.

  It was getting dusk now, and the crowds that had gathered to see thecarnival put in shape and the exhibits arranged were beginning to leave.

  The boys went back to their hotel, and the next day they took apleasant auto ride in the suburbs of Broadlands, which was quite alarge city. They passed the carnival grounds, and saw that there waslittle activity on them, few of the exhibitors caring to do any morethan was necessary on Sunday.

  "They'll not be in very good shape by to-morrow," commented Ned. "Halfthe things haven't arrived yet, the hotel man told me."

  "Well, that's always the way with these affairs," said Jerry. "Aboutthe end of the week things will be in better shape. But we'll have agood time, and we may get some ideas that will be of value to us."

  "Why, do you expect to have an airship?" asked Bob.

  "We might," answered Jerry slowly. "I don't see why we couldn't haveone. We made out all right with our auto and our motor boat. What's thematter with having a motor ship next?"

  "Wait until we see how Noddy succeeds," suggested Ned.

  "Yes, I'm anxious to see him fly, though I know he'll never do it inthat contraption," declared Jerry.

  The carnival was formally opened the next afternoon, though, as usualwith such affairs, not half the exhibits were in place. But addresseswere made, the history of aeronautics was rehearsed by severalspeakers, others made great predictions for the future, and then it wasannounced by the chairman of the committee in charge that some of theinventors would try out their apparatus.

  "One of the first to make an attempt to fly at this carnival will beProfessor Nixon," went on the chairman. "In his machine, which he callsthe _Firefly_, he will endeavor, so he tells me, to make a completecircuit of the grounds. If you will kindly give your attention to thetent over which is flying the yellow flag you will soon see ProfessorNixon and his airship."

  The crowd, including the four boys from Cresville, hurried over toNoddy's tent. Now, if Noddy was at all bashful, or fearful that hismachine would not work, he did not show it. The front of the tent waspulled to one side, and the curious _Firefly_ was revealed. Many thussaw it for the first time.

  "Professor Nixon asked me to announce that this machine is entirely hisown invention," went on the chairman, "though he was obliged to hirethe most of the work done in a machine shop. He will now fly for us."

  "As long as he doesn't fly toward us it'll be all right, Professor,"said a tall man in the crowd. "I wouldn't want that to fall on me. Itmust weigh several tons."

  There was a laugh at this.

  "That'll never fly," was another comment.

  "That's a submarine--that ain't an airship," jeered a third.

  "Let her go, Professor," called a boy. "Better get a feather bed tofall on, though. When you come down you'll come down hard."

  "You people can make all the fun you want," shouted Noddy, as he andsome men he had hired began to wheel the _Firefly_ out of the tent."But you'll soon see something that will astonish you."

  The flying machine was wheeled out into the open. It rested on a smalltruck, and Noddy presently busied himself about the motor.

  "Go borrow a balloon somewhere, and maybe you'll go up," was asuggestion from a red-haired man.

&nb
sp; "You mind your own business!" fired back Noddy.

  A fat man waddled through the crowd until he stood in the front rank,close to the machine. The four boys were near him.

  "Is that the _Firefly_?" the fat man asked of no one in particular.

  "That's what it is. It's my machine," replied Noddy proudly.

  "What's it for--plowing?"

  "Plowing! This is an airship," answered Noddy indignantly.

  "An airship! Good land, that'll never rise one inch off the earth.It's too heavy," declared the fat man.

  "Oh, it is, eh?" asked Noddy. "Maybe you know a lot about airships?"

  "I do," replied the man quietly. "I've made more than a hundred balloonascensions, and I tell you that your machine will never fly. What's tomake it go up?"

  "What makes a fly go up? The wings, of course."

  "Nonsense!" exclaimed the fat man.

  "I'll show you and all the rest of these knockers!" boasted Noddy.

  "Not in a thousand years, the way you've got it built," cried the fatman very earnestly. "Look here; I'll wager you a hundred dollars thatyou don't fly with it."

  "I'll take you up!" retorted Noddy, pulling a big roll of bills fromhis pocket. "I'm going to fly in about ten minutes."

  "That's a go!" declared the fat person, pulling some money from hispocket in turn. "Here, will you hold this?" he asked a man next to him,and the man accepted the wager.

  "I've made a hundred dollars easy," commented the fleshy one to thosenear him. "He'll never fly."

  "Yes, I will," asserted Noddy. "You watch me."

  He continued tinkering with his motor, and at last announced that hewas ready.

  "Clear the track!" cried some of his helpers. "He has to have along start. Clear the track! Professor Nixon is going to fly in hiswonderful invention."

  "He's going to fly toward the ground like a chunk of lead," said thefat man with a laugh.

  "All ready?" asked Noddy to his principal assistant.

  "All ready, Professor."

  "Let her go!" cried Noddy, cranking the motor, which soon began to makea noise like a Gatling gun.