"Don't trouble your friends," he replied. "We can do without them.
Come up and fly with me right away. We'll toss a quarter to decide who
steers."
"It would be madness!" exclaimed the count, and his jaw dropped.
"Then kindly mind your own business," said Monsieur Power, chewing
again on his grass stem, and talking through his teeth. "Now, Ella,
time's up! Am I to go?"
The girl bit her lip, and seemed to struggle vainly for a reply, but
the look in her eyes would have withered any man less accustomed to
strife than this iron-jawed young soldier of fortune from Wall Street.
In my turn, anger seized me as I saw her hesitate.
"You will pardon a further interruption, monsieur," I cried. "I can
permit no such madness on my flying ground, and no such discourtesy to
my pupils."
I beckoned the head mechanician.
"You will at once remove to a hangar the biplane of Monsieur Power," I
told him, "and disconnect the ignition. Should he attempt to enter the
nacelle again, you will cause him to evacuate it in march time and
three movements!"
"And the first dago that tries it will get hurt," added Monsieur Power
pleasantly.
"It's cowardly, Jack!" she cried hotly. "It's unworthy of you, a
childish bluff like this!"
He must have been planning all the time how he would spring into his
seat and start the motor, for when I looked round he was already
there, and the great tractor screw was spinning as the exhaust
spluttered viciously, making it impossible to reach him except from
behind.
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