CHAPTER XIII
UNCLE EZRA ACTS QUEERLY
Exactly what passed between Uncle Ezra Larabee and his caller, AuntSamantha never learned. She was so overcome at seeing the parloropened, that perhaps she did not listen sufficiently careful. Sheoverheard the murmur of voices, and, now and then, such expressions as"above the clouds," "in the air," "twenty thousand dollars, and maybemore."
"Gracious goodness!" she murmured as she hurried out to the kitchen,where she smelled something burning on the stove. "I wonder what it'sall about? Can Ezra have lost money on some of his investments? If hehas, if it's gone up above the clouds, and in the air, the way he'stalking about it things will be terrible; terrible! It will come nighonto killin' him, I expect!"
She went back to listen again outside the parlor door, but could makeout nothing.
She did catch, however, her husband's expression of:
"Twenty thousand dollars! It's a pile of money! A heap!"
"Oh my!" she murmured faintly. "If he's lost that we'll go to thepoorhouse, sure!"
But nothing like that happened. As a matter of fact Uncle Ezra couldhave lost that sum several times over, and not have felt it except inthe anguish of his mind.
When the caller had gone, Uncle Ezra seemed rather cheerful, much tothe amazement of Aunt Samantha. She could not understand it. At thesame time her husband appeared to be worried about something.
"But he doesn't act as though he had lost a lot of money," his wifereasoned. "He certainly acts queer, but not just that way. I wonderwhat it can be?"
And during the next week Uncle Ezra acted more queerly than ever. Hereceived several other visits from the strange man who had given hisname to Aunt Samantha, when first calling, as "Lieutenant Larson."Also, Mr. Larabee went off on several short trips.
"I wonder whatever's got into him?" mused Aunt Samantha. "I never knewhim to act this way before. I do hope he isn't doing anything rash!"
If she had only known!
Uncle Ezra became more and more engrossed with his caller who cameseveral days in succession. They were shut up together in the parlor,and one window shutter was opened each time, to the horror of Mrs.Larabee.
"That carpet will be faded all out, and clean ruined," she complainedto her husband.
"Well, if it is, maybe I'll get money enough to buy a new one," saidUncle Ezra. "Mind, I'm not saying for sure," he added, cautiously,"but maybe."
"Why, how you talk!" cried Aunt Samantha. "That carpet ought to lastus until we die! A new carpet! I never heard tell of such a thing!Never in all my born days! The idea!"
Uncle Ezra chuckled grimly. It was clear that he was acting in a newrole, and he was a surprise, even to himself.
At last Aunt Samantha could stand the suspense no longer. One night,after a rather restless period, she awakened Uncle Ezra who had, mostunusually, been talking in his sleep.
"Ezra! Ezra! Wake up!" she demanded in a loud whisper, at the sametime vigorously shaking him.
"Eh! What is it? Burglars?" he asked, sitting up in bed.
"No, Ezra. Nothin' like that!"
"Oh, cats, eh? Well, if it's only cats go to sleep. I don't mind 'em."
"No, Ezra, I didn't say cats. But you're talkin' in your sleep. Thatis, you were."
"I was?"
"Yes."
"What'd I say?" and he seemed anxious.
"Why you were talkin' a lot about flyin' in the air, and goin' up tothe clouds, and bein' in a race, and winnin' twenty thousand dollars!Oh, Ezra, if you care for me at all, tell me what mystery this is!" shepleaded.
"Did I say all that?" he asked, scratching his head.
"Yes, and a lot more! You said something about an airship."
"Humph! Well, that's it!"
"What is?"
"An airship! I might as well tell you, I reckon. I'm having one ofthem contraptions made."
"What contraptions? Oh, Ezra!"
"An airship," he answered. "I'm going to have one, and win a twentythousand dollar prize from the government. Then I'll go into theairship business and sell 'em. I'll get rich, Samantha!"
"Oh Ezra! Do you mean to say you're goin' in for any such foolishnessas that?"
"'Tain't 'foolish!"
"'Tis so! And--and are you--are you goin' to go up in one of themthings--them airships?"
"Well, I reckon I might. It's my machine, and I'm not going to letthem aviary fellers monkey too much with it unless I'm on board. Theymight bust something, and want me to pay for it. Yes, I reckon I'll dosome flying myself."
"Ezra Larabee!" cried his horror-stricken wife. "Be you plumb crazy?"
"I hope not, Samantha."
"But goin' up in an airship! Why it's flyin' in the face ofProvidence!"
"Well, it'll be flying in the air, at the same time," he chuckled.Clearly this was a different Uncle Ezra than his wife had ever known.She sighed.
"The idea!" Aunt Samantha murmured. "Goin' up in an airship. You'llfall and be killed, as sure as fate."
"That's what I was afraid of first," said Uncle Ezra, "and I didn'twant to go into the scheme. But this young feller, Lieutenant Larson,he proved to me different. They can't fall. If your engine stops allyou got to do is to come down like a feather. He used some funny word,but I can't think of it now. But it's safe--it's safer than farming,he claims. Most any time on a farm a bull may gore you, or a threshingengine blow up. But there's nothing like that in an airship.
"Besides, think of the twenty thousand dollars I'm going to get," headded as a final argument.
"You're not sure of it," objected his wife.
"Oh, yes I be!" he boasted. "Then I'm going into the airship business.Well, now I've told you, I'm going to sleep again."
"As if anyone could sleep after hearin' such news," she sighed. "Ijest know suthin' will happen! And think what everybody will say aboutyou! They'll say you're crazy!"
"Let 'em!" he replied, tranquilly. "They won't say so when I get thattwenty thousand dollars!"
"But can't you get the money any easier way?" she wanted to know.
"How, I'd like to know? All I got to do to get this, is to get anairship to fly from New York to San Francisco."
"Why Ezra Larabee!" she exclaimed. "Now I'm sure you're not right inyour head. You'll have the doctor in the mornin'."
"Oh, no, I won't!" he declared. "Don't catch me wasting any money ondoctors. I'm all right."
How Aunt Samantha managed to get to sleep again she never knew. But shedid, though her rest was marred by visions of airships and balloonsturning upside down and spilling Mr. Larabee all over the landscape.
Mrs. Larabee renewed her objections in the morning, but her husband wasfirm. He had decided to have an airship built to compete for the bigprize, and Larson was going to do the work.
Just what arguments the aviator had used to win over Uncle Ezra nonebut he himself knew. I rather think it was the harping constantly onthe twenty thousand dollar prize.
That Mr. Larabee was hard to convince may easily be imagined. In factit was learned, afterward, that the lieutenant almost gave up theattempt at one time. But he was persistent, to gain his own ends atleast, and talked earnestly. Finally Uncle Ezra gave a rather grudgingconsent to the scheme, but he stipulated that only a certain sum bespent, and that a comparatively small one.
To this the lieutenant agreed, but I fancy with a mental reservationwhich meant that he would get more if he could.
At any rate preparations for building the craft, in an unused part ofUncle Ezra's woolen mill at Dankville, went on apace.
I say apace, and yet I must change that. Uncle Ezra, with his usual"closeness" regarding money, rather hampered Larson's plans.
"What do you reckon an airship ought to cost?" Mr. Larabee had askedwhen he first decided he would undertake it.
"Oh, I can make a good one for three thousand dollars," had been theanswer of the former lieutenant.
"Three thousand dollars!" whist
led Uncle Ezra. "That's a pot of money!"
"But you'll get twenty thousand dollars in return."
"That's so. Well, go ahead. I guess I can stand it." But it was notwithout many a sigh that the crabbed old man drew out the money fromthe bank, in small installments.
The work was started, but almost at once Larson demanded more than theoriginal three thousand. Uncle Ezra "went up in the air," so to speak.
"More money!" he cried. "I shan't spend another cent!"
"But you'll have to. We want this airship to win the prize, and getahead of the one your nephew is building. I have decided on somechanges, and they will cost money."
Uncle Ezra sighed--and gave in. The truth was that Larson was littlebetter than a sharper, and, though he did know something aboutaeroplanes, he knew more about how to fleece his victims.
And though Uncle Ezra furnished more money he tried to save it in otherways. He skimped on his table, until even Aunt Samantha, used as shewas to "closeness," objected. Then Mr. Larabee announced a cut inwages at his factory, and nearly caused a strike.
But he was firm, and by reducing the pittance earned by the lucklessoperatives he managed to save a few hundred dollars which promptly wentinto the airship--that is, what Larson did not keep for himself.
But Uncle Ezra's airship was being built, which fact, when it becameknown, caused much comment. No one save Uncle Ezra and the lieutenantand his workmen, were allowed in the factory where the machine wasbeing constructed. It was to be kept a secret as to the form ofconstruction.
Meanwhile, having committed himself to becoming an aviator, Mr. Larabeebegan to study the methods of birdmen. He obtained several volumes(second hand, of course) on the history of navigating the air, and onthe advance in the construction of aeroplanes. These he readdiligently.
He could also have been observed going about, gazing up into theclouds, as though he was calculating from how great a height a mancould fall with safety. In reality he imagined he was studying aircurrents.
Uncle Ezra Larabee was certainly acting most queerly, and his friends,or, rather, his acquaintances, for he had no real friends, did not knowwhat to make of him. He did not give up his idea, however, not evenwhen Larson raised his original estimate to five thousand dollars.
"Petrified polecats!" cried Uncle Ezra. "You'll bankrupt me, man!"
"Oh, no," answered Larson, with a winning smile. "This is getting offcheap. I want to increase the size of my mercury stabilizer to renderthe airship more safe for you when you go after that twenty thousanddollars."
"Well, I s'pose I've got to," sighed Uncle Ezra, and he made a carefulnote of how much had already been spent. "There's three thousand, ninehundred twenty-eight dollars and fourteen cents you've had so far," hereminded the lieutenant. "Don't be wasteful!"
"I won't," was the promise, easily given at least.
Dick Hamilton's Airship; Or, A Young Millionaire in the Clouds Page 13
