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Read Ebook: Teddy and the Mystery Deer by Garis Howard Roger
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Ebook has 1369 lines and 32631 words, and 28 pages
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The type in which this book and others of the same series is set is especially designed to conform to the type in the school books which are used by boys and girls of the age to which these stories appeal. The size of the letters, the arrangement of the words on the pages and the general construction is intended, as nearly as possible, to be an aid to the reading work of public and private schools.
TEDDY AND THE MYSTERY DEER
LOST
Teddy Benson gave a final twist to the propeller of his toy, model airplane.
"Better not make it too tight," suggested his chum, Dick Kelly.
"Why not?" Teddy asked, looking up as he slipped on the catch so the propeller might not start revolving before he was ready.
"You might break the rubber bands," Dick explained.
"Oh, I guess they'll take it," answered the little lad who straightened up and wet a finger in his mouth.
"How is it?" asked Dick.
You might have thought he was inquiring how Teddy liked the taste of his finger. But anyone who has flown model airplanes could tell that Teddy was just testing the wind.
"It's blowing almost directly east," Teddy answered.
"Then Mason's meadow will be the place to have the test," suggested Dick. "There's plenty of room there."
"Yes," Teddy agreed, "if we start on the far side--away from the woods. Can't start in the middle of the meadow."
"Why not?" asked Dick.
He did not glance up at his chum. Dick, who was short and rather stout, was twisting the propeller blades of his own toy plane. He was winding the rubber bands which, when they untwisted, would serve as the motor of the little craft. "Why can't we begin the race in the middle of the meadow, Teddy? That's the clearest place."
"Well, if you want your plane to shoot over in the woods, and maybe get lost, let it go from the middle of Mason's meadow," said Teddy. He tested the rudders of his craft.
Dick, who had put the clamp on his rubber engine, looked up to laugh as he said:
"Say, Teddy, you don't think, that these planes of ours will fly from the middle of Mason's meadow away over to the woods on the far side, do you?"
"I don't know about your plane, but mine will," stated Teddy confidently. "I'm not so sure," he went on, as he carefully tested the tautness of the stretched rubber bands, "I'm not so sure but what we had better go down to the lake beach. There's a longer stretch to fly from down there. But of course the wind is wrong. The planes would have to go over the water."
"And since mine doesn't happen to be a hydroplane, I'm not for that," declared Dick. "But you make me laugh when you say your plane will go all the way across Mason's meadow and into the woods."
"I don't want my plane to go into the woods," spoke Teddy calmly. "But I'm pretty sure it will if I let it have all the power I can give it. I didn't wind it up as tight as I could."
"Well, if your plane is as good as you think it is, why don't you enter it in the races for the Johnson cup?" asked Dick.
"Maybe I will," Teddy answered as he made another adjustment to his craft's rudders.
"Say, don't you know that only the very best planes go in that contest this September?" asked Dick. "Your little one wouldn't have a chance!"
"Maybe it would," spoke Teddy. "We'll know more after we have our own little race today down in Mason's meadow. Did you see anything of Joe?"
"I passed his house on my way here," Dick answered. "He was doing something to his plane and said he'd be right over. We can wait. I've got to fix my rudder a little."
"And I think I'll take off one of my rubber bands and put on another," Teddy remarked. "One of 'em looks a little bit frayed. I don't want my plane to slow up."
"You want it to go all the way to the woods, I suppose," laughed Dick.
"Oh, it'll go there. Maybe yours will, too," said Teddy. "The wind is getting stronger," he added. Again he wet his finger and held it up as a test. "It's going to be a strong tail wind," he went on. "I wouldn't be surprised if all three of our planes got to the edge of the woods, anyhow."
"You have a pretty good opinion of our planes," chuckled Dick.
"Why not?" Teddy asked as he let his propeller slowly unwind. He wanted to take the tension off the rubber bands in order to insert a new one.
Dick did not answer his chum. But he looked up long enough to say: "Here comes Joe!"
"Good!" exclaimed Teddy. "Now we can have the race. Hurry, Joe!" he shouted. "The wind's just right and it's getting stronger. Hurry!"
"Coming!" answered Joe Denton.
The three chums were soon busy making final adjustments to their toy planes in the yard of Teddy Benson's home. Most of the activities of the three centered around Teddy's home. He was the leader of his crowd, always the first to propose something new. He had done it when he suggested they have a race of their model planes. The boys had been making model planes for some time.
At first they made only small ones, which were launched by being tossed into the air. These planes went only a short distance.
The next planes the boys made had rubber bands for motors. At first, they attached only a few, small rubbers to the propeller of their craft. These bands, when twisted, would unravel, whirl the propeller and send the planes flying.
Step by step the three chums had advanced until they now had planes with quite powerful rubber "motors," if such they could be called. The "motors" of course, were just rubber bands or cords.
"Some day," Teddy had declared, "we'll get real miniature gasoline motors for our planes. Then they'll fly miles and miles before they come down."
"And we'll have to walk after 'em to bring 'em back," sighed Dick. He was too stout to care for much walking.
"Golly, it would be fun to have a gas motor model plane," remarked Joe Denton as he put the final touches on his rubber-motored one. "They have some dandy ones in the Johnson cup races," he added.
"Yes, and they have good prizes for rubber-motored planes," announced Teddy. "Well, if you fellows are ready, let's go to Mason's meadow and see whose plane can fly farthest."
"I guess you think yours can," laughed Dick.
"Well, I'm not saying anything," Teddy modestly remarked.
"No, but you're doing a lot of thinking," said Joe. "I know my plane won't win," he sighed. "There's something wrong with it, I guess."
"Maybe we can find out what it is in this race," Teddy suggested, "and fix it."
"Maybe," agreed Joe, ruffling his red hair.
As the three chums started from Teddy's yard, carefully carrying their model planes, Lucy Benson came to the kitchen door.
"Where are you going?" she asked. "May I come?"
"No, you can't," Teddy answered. "Sorry," he added as he saw the look of disappointment on his sister's face. "But we're going to fly our planes and we don't want any girls."
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