"I watched them putting on the
finishing touches and testing the guy-wires. There is a machine shop,
too, rigged up in one of those outbuildings. The thing that gets me is
how they got the engines here. All the planes are equipped with powerful
new engines."
"If there are traitors in the army and navy, why not in the aeroplane
factories, too?" suggested Fleck. "A spy in the shipping department
could easily change the label on even a Liberty motor intended for one
of Uncle Sam's flying fields. Even when it didn't turn up where and when
it was expected, it would take government red tape three months to find
out what had become of the missing motors."
"These machines"--said Jane suddenly, "they must be the 'wonder-workers'
old Mr. Hoff was always talking about."
"And that last advertisement we read," Dean reminded them, "announced
that the wonder-workers would be ready Friday. It looks as if we got
here not a minute too soon."
"You bet we didn't," said Carter. "Every one of those three planes is
fairly loaded down with big bombs, scores of them."
"To bomb New York," said Fleck soberly; "that's their plan. Zeppelins
for England, big guns to shell Paris, bombs from the air for New York.
It's part of their campaign to spread frightfulness, to terrorize the
world.
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