CHAPTER X.
WINNING THE CONTEST The day which was to witness the tests of the aeroplane models for the prizes offered by the professor of aeronautics dawned still and fair.
It followed several days of storm, in which the boys had been unable to make any excursions in their motor boat, or into the country, or, indeed, even to devote any time to the engrossing subject of tracing the theft of the uniforms to its source.
Early in the morning a small field in the rear of Mr.Blake's house was well filled with boys of all ages and sizes, watching the contestants in the model contest trying out their craft.

The models were of all sorts and sizes.

Some were freak craft that had been constructed in a hurry from pictures, without any attention being paid to scale or proportions, while others were carefully made bits of mechanism.
Among the latter class were Paul Perkins' monoplane--Silver Arrow, he called it,--Hiram Nelson's two models, the monoplane of Tom Maloney, a lad of about sixteen, and Ed River's little duplicate of a Curtiss biplane.

The contest was to take place on the Main Street of the town, in front of the bank, and in the middle of the course two poles had been erected, one on each side of the street, between which a brightly colored tape had then been strung, forming a sort of aerial hurdle.
The tape was fifty feet above the ground, and to qualify at all it would be necessary for the contesting models to clear it.
The lecture which took place in the village hall came first and was well attended, most of the young folks of Hampton being there.

If the truth must be told, however, while the lecturer was expounding his subject, illustrating it on the blackboard with chalk drawings, the majority of his young hearers were wishing that it was over and the contest really begun.
Especially was this true of the boys of the Eagle Patrol, who were every one of them anxious to see what kind of aeroplanes Jack Curtiss and Bill Bender would have produced.