But I am now informed--oh, I have ears
everywhere in Sandy Beach--that this boy and his sister, who is in a kind
of partnership with him have had the audacity to offer their machine for
the government tests also."
"Audacity," muttered Mortlake under his breath, but Harding's keen ears
caught the remark.
"It is audacity," agreed the leathern-faced old financier; "and it's
audacity that we must find some way to checkmate. I've never had a
business rival yet that I haven't broken into submission or crushed, and a
boy and a girl are not going to outwit me now. They did it once, I admit,
but this time I shall arrange things differently."
"You mean----"
"That I intend to cinch that government business."
"But what if, as you fear, the Prescotts have a superior aeroplane?"
"My dear Mortlake," the pin-point eyes almost closed, and the thin,
bloodless lips drew together in a tight line, "if they have a superior
machine, we must arrange so that nobody but ourselves is ever aware of
the fact."
With a throaty gurgle, that might, or might not, have been meant for a
chuckle, the old man glided through the doors, which, by this time, he had
reached, and sliding rather than stepping into his machine, gave the
chauffeur some orders. Mortlake, a peculiar expression on his face, looked
after the car as it chugged off and then turned and re-entered the shop.
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