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[Illustration: Young Dill had seized Jupe by the back of the neck and
dragged him, half drowned, to the shore.--_Page 98_]




                          THE BOY INVENTORS’
                               ELECTRIC
                            HYDROAEROPLANE

                                  BY

                            RICHARD BONNER

       AUTHOR OF “THE BOY INVENTORS’ WIRELESS TRIUMPH,” “THE BOY
         INVENTORS AND THE VANISHING GUN,” “THE BOY INVENTORS’
               DIVING TORPEDO BOAT,” “THE BOY INVENTORS’
                       FLYING SHIP,” ETC., ETC.

                        _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
                          _CHARLES L. WRENN_

                               NEW YORK
                            HURST & COMPANY
                              PUBLISHERS


                           Copyright, 1914,
                                  BY
                            HURST & COMPANY




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

  I. A NEW FRIEND MADE                                                 5

  II. AN INVENTION DESCRIBED                                          15

  III. AN IMPORTANT DECISION                                          23

  IV. NED TO THE RESCUE                                               33

  V. THE UNLUCKY STORY                                                43

  VI. HIS ENEMIES ON THE TRAIL                                        54

  VII. NED MAKES AN ENEMY                                             62

  VIII. THE PLANS ACCEPTED                                            71

  IX. THE ARRIVAL OF TROUBLE                                          82

  X. HEINY PUMPERNICK DILL                                            91

  XI. THE CONVERTIBLE SAUSAGE MACHINE                                 98

  XII. HANK AND MILES MEET THEIR MATCH                               106

  XIII. READY FOR FLIGHT                                             113

  XIV. HEINY OVERHEARS THE PLOT                                      124

  XV. THE BURGLAR TRAP                                               132

  XVI. THE LOST LEVER                                                150

  XVII. OFF AT LAST!                                                 161

  XVIII. NED’S TERRIBLE PERIL                                        169

  XIX. THE DISGRUNTLED CRONIES                                       179

  XX. TOM TO THE RESCUE                                              187

  XXI. SALUTING A STEAMER                                            194

  XXII. AN OLD FRIEND                                                202

  XXIII. THE LOST PLANS                                              211

  XXIV. A BAFFLING ROBBERY                                           220

  XXV. OFF TO THE FAIR                                               227

  XXVI. AN UNLUCKY MISHAP                                            237

  XXVII. A DASH FOR LIBERTY                                          248

  XXVIII. A DIRIGIBLE IN DANGER                                      258

  XXIX. A DARING RESCUE                                              269

  XXX. A STRANGE MEETING                                             277

  XXXI. NED COMES INTO HIS OWN                                       283




The Boy Inventors’ Electric Hydroaeroplane.




CHAPTER I.

A NEW FRIEND MADE.


“Are either Mr. Chadwick or Mr. Jesson about?”

“Humph!” and the gangling, rather disagreeable-looking youth who had
answered the summons to the door of the Boy Inventors’ workshop, gave a
supercilious look over the dusty and worn, although carefully mended,
clothes of the dark-eyed, dark-haired, slender youth who confronted him.

“What do you want to know that for, anyhow?” and upon the personal
pronoun he placed a contemptuous emphasis.

“That is a question to which I can only reply when I can see either
Jack Chadwick or Tom Jesson personally. My name is Ned Nevins,--not
that either of them knows me,--but will you be so kind as to find out
if they’ll see me?”

“If you can’t tell me your business, you can’t see them. State what you
want to me. If it’s money----”

“It is not!”

The dark-eyed young visitor’s eyes held a warning flash which the other
lad, who was half a head taller and far stouter of build than Ned
Nevins, affected not to notice.

“Well, you can’t speak to them.” This with an air of finality.

“But you don’t understand----”

“I do, perfectly. They are both far too busy to bother with any
inquisitive kind of tramp that happens along.”

“Then you won’t let them know I would like to see them?”

The other’s voice rose angrily.

“I said ‘No’ once. N-O-_no_! Isn’t that enough?”

“Quite enough.”

Ned Nevins turned away. As he did so, the other lad, an employee of
the Boy Inventors, and a former school chum, noticed that he had under
his arm a box which he appeared to handle with unusual care. But Sam
Hinkley noted also Ned’s dejected and downcast air. He decided to
humiliate him still further.

“Get a move on--you. Skip!”

Ned hastened his pace. He felt too disappointed and tired to retort
to the bully as he should have done. Sam Hinkley interpreted this
as cowardice on Ned’s part, and being a natural bully he decided to
improve the occasion according to his own delight. He came up behind
Ned and gave the slightly-built lad a strong shove.

Ned faced ’round, and his pale face flushed an angry crimson.

“Don’t do that again, please!”

Young Hinkley’s rejoinder was to make a rush at him. He extended both
his hands to shove the visitor, whom he had found so unwelcome, off the
premises. But the next instant he met with a setback. Still holding his
precious box under one arm, Ned’s fingers closed on the bully’s wrists.
They shut down with a grip like steel handcuffs.

“Ow! Ouch! Leggo my hands,” roared Sam at the top of his voice.

“From what I’ve heard of Jack Chadwick and Tom Jesson I don’t believe
they would tolerate for an instant the way you have behaved toward me,”
was the firm reply. “March!”

“Where are we going?” inquired Sam, writhing painfully under the young
stranger’s powerful grip, unable to do anything, try as he would to
shake it off.

“Straight into that workshop. From what I can hear, I believe we will
find those whom I wish to see inside.”

Sam looked very uncomfortable. He was the son of fairly well-to-do
parents in the little town of Nestorville, on the outskirts of which
Mr. Chadwick’s home was situated. Jack and Tom had taken him on because
he was a youth who had always shown mechanical ability and had pleaded
persistently for a chance to work in the big experimental shop at High
Towers.

But a fair trial of Sam Hinkley had not resulted in his rising in favor
with his young employers. He had been detected in several mean acts.
Besides, they felt he was hardly a lad to be trusted with the important
secrets of the workshop, in which most of the inventions of the boys
and their father and uncle were worked out. So that had Sam but known
it, he was by no means so important a factor at High Towers as he
imagined.

“Lemmo go and I’ll take you in,” howled Sam.

“Very well. You might have done so in the first place.”

But no sooner were Sam’s hands released than he aimed a savage blow at
young Nevins.

“I’ll trim you for this, you--you scarecrow, you!” he bawled out. “I’ll
fix you. I’ll----”

“Here, here! What’s all the trouble about?”

The question was asked by a tall, well-built youth with curly dark hair
and sparkling, intelligent eyes, who had just appeared at the door of
the workshop.

“I--I wanted to find Mr. Chadwick, Jr.,” began the newcomer, while Sam
looked abashed.

“Sure you weren’t looking for trouble?” asked Jack, but a twinkle in
his eyes belied the implied reproach in the question. He knew Sam
Hinkley from the soles of his shoes up. Besides, he had witnessed the
last part of the recent scene and realized how the land lay.

“Go back on your job,” he ordered Sam brusquely, “those bolts must be
ready by noon at the latest.”

“Bu-bu-but----” began Sam, and then, reading what he saw in Jack’s eye
aright, he obeyed, but