"You said the contract is void."

The manager laughed again, but not as jovially.

"You ought to get on," he exclaimed.

"I've got to get on, and I'm going to do it by being on the square."

"I guess you're right. What's your proposition?"

"Since you've thrown up the contract I'm going to sell the balloon
at a profit. The price is now $3,000. And I want a contract as
operator for six weeks at $100 per week."

The manager stared at Ned and then exclaimed. "I'll do it. You are
the very youngster we want."

That was how Ned Napier came to finish the air ship his father had
planned, and how it happened all that summer that the papers printed
news stories and Sunday specials with pictures of his daring
flights, and how Major Baldwin Honeywell and other happened to speak
of him as the Ned Napier.

To return to the scene of Ned's meeting with the Major--

"My name is Ned Napier," the boy began as soon as his host's
cordiality gave him a chance, "and I am the young man the newspapers
wrote about."