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"I have the check, certified," he said, producing the paper. "Here is what you must sign, in the presence of witnesses," he added, and brought out a legal-looking document.
"We'll call in two of the teachers," answered Dick.
The oldest Rover boy read the document over with care. It was all right, excepting that in it the railroad claimed the wreckage of the Dartaway absolutely.
"Here, this comes out," cried Dick. "The wreckage belongs to us."
At this there was another long discussion. But the Rovers remained firm, and in the end the clause concerning the wreckage was altered to show that the Dartaway must remain the boys' property. Then the three brothers signed the paper and it was duly witnessed by two teachers, and the certified check was handed to Dick.
"Very sharp young man, you are," was Belright Fogg's comment, as he was about to leave. "You ought to be a lawyer."
"Perhaps I will be some day," was Dick's answer.
"Better get that check right in the bank!" cried Sam, when he and his brothers were alone. "That fellow may stop payment on it."
"He can't stop a certified check, Sam. I'll put it in the school safe for the present. What we want to do is to look after the Dartaway. She may not be worth much, but what there is of her belongs to us."
"Right you are. Let us get permission to go after her right away. For all we know, somebody may have carted her off already!"
The boys readily obtained permission to see to their property, and walked down to the college stables to get a horse and carriage to take them to the spot where the accident had occurred. Just then came a toot of an automobile horn, and a fine five-passenger car rolled into view, with Stanley Browne and a stranger on the front seats.
"Hello, you fellows!" cried Stanley, as the auto came to a stop. "Come over here! I hoped I'd see you!"
The Rovers hurried across the campus and were introduced to Jack Mason, Stanley's cousin, the driver of the car. He was passing through Ashton on the way to join his folks in the White Mountains.
"Jack wants me to take a ride with him this afternoon," said Stanley. "And I can invite three others to go along. Will you come with us?"
"That is kind," answered Dick. "But we have some business to attend to," and he related what it was.
"Say, let's take a look at the wrecked biplane!" cried Jack Mason. "I'd just as soon go there as anywhere."
"So would I," added Stanley.
"Very well -- that will suit us down to the ground!" cried Tom.
"We were going to drive over in a carriage," explained Dick. "We can get there much quicker in the auto."
The boys piled into the tonneau of the car and they started off.
"Got to show me the roads," said Jack Mason. "All I know around here is the regular auto road to the White Mountains, -- and I don't know that any too well."
"You can't lose us on the roads!" cried Tom. "We'll keep you straight."
Jack Mason loved to run fast and soon they were bowling along at a forty-mile-an-hour rate. Stanley and Tom told the driver what turns to make, and almost before they knew it they had passed the outskirts of Ashton and were approaching the locality where the fast Express had dashed into the crippled biplane.
"Here we are!" cried Tom, presently. "We can't go any further on the road. We'll have to walk through the woods to the tracks."
"I see a wood road!" exclaimed Jack Mason. "If the ground isn't too soft I'll try that."
He went on and passed in between the trees, and soon they were within a hundred feet of the railroad tracks. As the car came to a stop the Rover boys jumped to the ground and ran forward. Then, of a sudden, all three set up a shout:
"The biplane is gone!"
"Gone?" queried Stanley, who was close behind them.
"Yes, gone," returned Tom.
"Are you sure this is the spot where it was struck?"
"Of course I am."
"There are the marks where we landed and where the locomotive hit the Dartaway," said Sam. He looked around. "Wonder who took her, and to where?"
"That's to be found out," answered Dick, seriously.
"I don't see any airship," said Jack Mason, as he came up, having shut off the engine of the touring car.
"Somebody has hauled it away," answered Dick. He looked on both sides of the track. "This is queer," he added, presently. "I can't see any marks in the sand or mud or bushes. She'd make marks if anybody hauled her."
"I've got it!" cried Tom. "They hoisted her on a flat car! The railroad people have taken her!"
"But she is our biplane!" cried Sam, stubbornly.
"Maybe they took her to the freight house in Ashton," suggested Stanley.
"We'll soon find out -- if you'll take us there in the auto."
"Sure!" answered Jack Mason, promptly.
The boys were about to leave the neighborhood when they heard the strokes of an axe, ringing through the woods.
"There's a wood chopper!" cried Dick. "Maybe he knows something about this. I guess I'll ask him."
They soon located the man -- an elderly individual who worked for the farmer who owned the woods.
"Yes, I see 'em hoist the airship on the flat car," said he, in answer to their questions. "Had quite a job o' it, too."
"Did they take it to Ashton?" queried Dick.
"No. They was goin' to fust, but then Jimmy Budley -- the section boss -- said it would be better to take it up to the freight yards at Rallston."
"And they took it there?"
"I 'spect they did. They went off that way, anyway," replied the old wood chopper.
"To the Rallston freight yards!" cried Sam. "What a nerve!"
"I'll make 'em bring it back!" cried Dick, firmly.