“Why, it’s right near to Pintoville,” was the answer; “a piece this side of it, I rickin.”
“Pintoville,” exclaimed Frank; “that’s where Luther Barr said he was stopping. Say, boys, let’s send out a wireless to White Willow and see if we can raise the inventor there and ascertain if our auto passed through.”
“But it was late at night. They would all have been in bed,” objected Billy.
“Well, it’s worth trying, anyhow, so here goes.” Frank sat down at the key of the _Golden Eagle’s_ wireless, and began tapping out “White Willow—White Willow—Willow—White Willow,” till his hand ached.
“No good, I guess,” he said, discouraged, as, after quite a time, no response to his call came.
“I always thought that old feller at White Willow was loco,” remarked one of the crowd.
Suddenly, however, Frank held up his hand.
Sure enough, over the wires came the question:
“Here’s White Willow. Who wants White Willow? For five years I’ve been trying to get a call here, and no one ever came. Who are you?”
“We are the Boy Aviators,” tapped back Frank, while the miners and cowboys gazed in awe at the blue flame ripping and crackling across its gap. “Have you seen two autos pass through White Willow?”
“They have not passed through. They are here now,” was the astonishing response.
The boys saw Frank jump to his feet with an excited yell of “Hurray! We’ll get them yet.”
“He’s gone daffy, too,” exclaimed the men in the group about the aeroplane.
“Are you crazy, Frank?” seriously demanded Billy.
“The auto’s in White Willow!” shouted Frank, slapping the boy on the back.
“That’s right. The old wireless man—I mean the wireless old man—no, I don’t—oh, what I do mean is that we’ve got to get over there in jig time. Come on, Harry, climb aboard. Bart, we’ll need you, too.”
“What, me git in that thar thing?” dubiously responded the miner. “No, sir, I’ve walked like a Christian all my days on the earth, and I ain’t goin’ to tempt Providence by flying at this time of life.”
“Hullo! hullo! what’s all this?” came a deep voice, as a big man elbowed his way through the crowd. “What’s all this about flying?”
In the meantime the big man had made his way to Frank’s side as he leaned over testing the gasolene tanks and the amount of water there was in the radiator receptacle.