"Personally I should like to see an American carry off the trophy, but
if the best flyer wins I shall be quite satisfied," was Frank's quiet
reply.

"You will see the colors of La Belle France floating over my aerodrome
after the race," was the rejoinder.

"We shall see," was Frank's quiet answer, as the Frenchman strode off
toward the village, where he usually remained gossiping in the hotel
and complacently receiving the adulations of his admirers till late at
night.

"Ach, he is as goot-natured as a caged lion, dot feller!" came a
sudden exclamation behind the boys.

They turned about and faced old August Schmidt, the German aviator,
who had started his career as a builder and operator of dirigibles,
but was entered in the Hempstead Cup race as the flyer of a monoplane
of his own design; and which, on account of its peculiar appearance,
the crowds had already nicknamed the Grasshopper. As if in furtherance
of this idea the German had painted his queer craft a bright green.

"Vell, you boys have a good chance for der cup got," the old man went
on, between puffs at an enormous pipe with a china bowl that formed
his inseparable companion when he was not in the air.

"Do you think so?" asked Frank.

"Ches, I do. Der Grasshopper is a goot leedle monoplane, but I am
afraid dat some of der principles I have worked oud in her iss all