"You know the _Clarion_ is a powerful evening newspaper, too," said Bob, when the Ross boys looked up from their reading.  "It has always been a hot rival of dad's paper, but it never got quite so sarcastic as this before.  Dad was good and mad when he read this last night.  'I'll show both the _Clarion_ and the public whether I'm a bluffer or not,' he said to mother.  'If it takes the last cent I've got I'll organize an expedition to meet their challenge and prove my theory to be the correct one.'  Then I woke up to our opportunity.  I suggested to dad that if the Sky-Bird turned out as we hoped, she would be the very thing to pioneer such a route and give the _Clarion_ people a race to make their eyes stick out; and I said John Ross was willing to head a crew including Paul and myself."