machine, but something went wrong."

"Something was made to go wrong!" growled Jack Butt. "If ever we
raise her I'll prove it, too."

"Well, young gentlemen, I suppose you have heard the news?"
questioned the colonel, as the aviator-inventor and his helper
walked off to one side of the campus, talking earnestly together.

"You mean about the airship instruction we are to get here, sir?"
asked Dick.

"That's it. And I am also glad to announce that I have heard from
the war department, and they are going to send some army aviators
here to give us the benefit of their work, and also to show some of
you cadets how to fly."

There was a cheer at this, though some of the lads looked a bit
dubious.

"Are you really going in for it, Dick?" asked Innis, after there had
been an informal discussion among the colonel and some of the boys
about the aviation instruction.

"Well, I am, unless I change my mind," replied Dick, with a smile.
"Of course, after I make my first flight, if I ever do, it may be
my last one."

"Huh! You're not taking a very cheerful view of it," retorted
Innis, "to think that you're going to come a smash the first shot