“Now, if we’re going in them,” stipulated Mr. Glassford, “we want to win one prize, at least. I think we had better have a longer and higher experimental flight than any we have yet undertaken. What do you say?”
“Me for an all-day sojourn in the clouds!” cried Bob. “We’ll take our dinner along, though,” he added hastily, while his two chums laughed.
“Yes, I think it would be a good idea to take lunch with us,” said Mr. Glassford. “We’ll imagine we are on a long trip to win a prize, and we’ll have a good chance to see how our ship behaves.”
Two days later, having taken aboard what Ned and Jerry considered was entirely too much food, but which Bob declared was barely a sufficiency, the Comet made another ascension. Some changes had been made in the planes and rudder, and the good effect was at once noticeable. The ship could more readily be sent aloft or deflected toward the earth.
“I think I’ve got her pretty nearly right now,” said Mr. Glassford. “She goes better than ever, for I have made improvements in my plans. Well, I’ll send her up about a mile.”
This was higher than the boys had ever been, and at first they experienced some difficulty in breathing. But they soon became used to the rarefied atmosphere, and then Mr. Glassford tilted the rudder still more.
“Going higher?” inquired Jerry.
“We might as well. I’d like to get above the clouds and see how she works in very thin air. There’s a low stratum of vapor over there,” and he pointed ahead of them. “Are you boys in any distress?”
“No, we can stand it,” declared Bob. “Go ahead.”
A little later the Comet was above the clouds, and looking down from the cabin windows the motor boys saw below them a fleecy mass of vapor that rolled and twisted this way and that, as the ship sped across its upper expanse.