“Now, you had betterness stant from under ven I start,” called the inventor to those directly in front of the platform. “If I falls on you I might hurt some of you.”
He seemed very cool, in spite of what was evidently a dangerous undertaking that was before him. There were some final instructions to the men who were to shove the plane off, and then the inventor, taking his seat in the little box-like car, told one of his assistants to start the motor. The long-bladed propellers began to whirl around so rapidly that they looked like a yellow haze of light, and the motor, from not being muffled, as that would have made it too heavy, made a terrific racket.
“Shove!” cried the professor suddenly, as he yanked on a lever, and the ten men behind the machine gave a vigorous push.
With a graceful motion, like some great, white-winged bird sailing on a flight from the sky, the aeroplane swooped from the platform. There was a yell from the crowd, and those who, in their enthusiasm, had gathered beneath where it now was hovering over their heads, scrambled to get out of the way, fearing it was falling down on them.
But with a wide sweep, the plane began to ascend. The air caught under the forward box-kite arrangement, and the airship slid upward in a long, graceful curve.
“He’s going up! He’s going up!” cried Jerry in his enthusiasm. “This one works all right!”
“He’s higher than the platform now!” added Ned, and this was so, for the man in the aeroplane was now about seventy feet above the earth. The speed of the motor increased, to judge by the more rapidly recurring explosions, and then, with a shift of the rudder, the inventor changed the course of his machine.
He was now gliding broadside to the platform, and those upon it had an excellent view. There was a great cheer to gladden the heart of the professor.
Once more he shifted his course and made a complete circle. Then he turned and sailed off, directly away from the platform. When several hundred yards off he turned again, and came straight for it.
“He has it under good control,” remarked Ned. He had spoken quietly, but so great was the silence maintained by those watching the airship in flight that his voice almost startled him.