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For his grave dissertations, in which a moral maxim or other subject of general interest is handled, he disdained, in his framework to approximate to the Milesian tales, as Heraclides had done, and so to serve up to the reader even childish little stories like those of Abaris and of the maiden reawakened to life after being seven days dead.
If he thought that possibly he was losing his last chance to win the trans-continental race, he said nothing about it. The motor was shut off, and there was silence aboard the Abaris. No one felt like talking. As they volplaned downward they saw the wreck of the Larabee strike the outer branches of a big tree, and then turn over again before crashing to the ground.
The young millionaire pulled over the lever of the vertical rudder, and as the nose of the Abaris was inclined upward, she shot aloft, her big propellers in the rear pushing her ahead. "I'm going out on the outer deck and see how it seems," said Larry. "I want to get some new impressions for the paper. I told the editor we'd pull off a lot of new stunts. So I guess I'll go outside."
The pilots of the lower biplanes could, very likely, tell by the size of the Abaris that she was no ordinary airship, and, in all probability, they had read of her, and of the try for the prize. For Larry Dexter made a good press agent, and had written many a story of Dick's plans. "Now they're coming on," cried Dick, as he saw one of the lower machines dart ahead of the other.
By working the lever of the vertical rudder, he now brought the head, or bow, of the airship up sharply, and for a moment the downward plunge was arrested. The Abaris shot along parallel to the plane of the earth's surface. This operation, repeated until the ground is reached, is, as I have already explained, called volplaning. "Something is wrong," announced Mr.
"Well, we'll come back to it I hope," Dick answered. "Don't you fellows want to try your hand at steering?" "Wait until you've been at it a while, and see how it goes," suggested Innis. "We don't want to wreck the outfit." But the Abaris seemed a stanch craft indeed, especially for an airship.
On the run they came, and Dick whirled the steering wheel around to the left, to cause the Abaris to swerve suddenly. And swerve she did. With a sickening motion she turned as a vessel rolls in a heavy sea, and, at the same moment there was a dip toward the earth. The motor which had been humming at high speed went dead on the instant, and Dick Hamilton's airship plunged downward.
Down and down sank the Abaris, on her first descent from the cloud-land since her auspicious start. But, as Dick admitted, it might be worse. The accident itself was a comparatively slight one. "Get ready, everybody!" called Mr. Vardon, as he saw that, in a few seconds more, they would be on the surface of the water. "Do you fear something will go wrong?" asked Larry, quickly.
He pointed to the other airship, which was now some distance away, going on at good speed, straight for San Francisco. Both craft were now high in the air, in spite of the drop made by the Abaris, and they were about over some of the mountains of Colorado now; just where they had not determined. They were about eight hundred miles from San Francisco, as nearly as they could calculate.
"You still have plenty of time." So this was agreed to, and, after a look over the craft to make sure there were no defects, Mr. Vardon pulled over the lever of the starting motor. With a hum and a buzz, the propellers started, and this time the Abaris shot forward on the surface of the water, instead of up into the air. "She's going!" cried Paul. "She sure is doing it!" yelled Innis.
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