The
sign read "Buck's Corral." In the East it would have been called a
livery stable. The air navigators engaged the place at five dollars
a day for a week or more, and put a half dozen Mexican laborers at
work removing the few horses and cleaning out the building and
corral. The proprietor, who owned one of the few wagons in the
town, they also hired as a drayman at $2.50 a day for himself and
team.
Work began at once. Through Mayor Bradley three reliable men were
employed as watchmen, and these, in eight-hour shifts, undertook the
duty of seeing that nothing in the corral was molested in the
absence of Ned and Alan. Then the work of transporting material
began, the first task being the removal of the five large generating
tanks.
Alan had been thoughtful enough to foresee the need of special
clothing, and it was not long before he and Ned and even Elmer
Grissom were enjoying the freedom of wide-brimmed hats, stout
shirts, thick-soled shoes, and belts. Elmer's duty was the constant
care of the Placida, which he only left on special permission. Ned
and Alan were free to devote themselves wholly to the agreeable and
long anticipated task of at last "getting ready.
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