When they were ready to leave the ground they found the field covered with people, and try as they would they could find no open space long enough to make the take-off safe. It was a warm summer night, and apparently everyone for miles around had driven to the field. The Skipper and Jack eventually had to abandon the night test and wait until morning.
A plan had been forming for some time in Kiwi’s mind. He had a queer sinking sensation every time he thought of Dad and Jack going off without him. He saw no reason why he, too, should not go when the plane left.
The stories he had heard of India made him want to land there, too. He liked to think of the warm, tropical days and nights in that strange country. Bert had brought him a book of stories about India which had thrilled him. These stories told of hunting wild animals from the backs of enormous elephants. He liked to imagine himself seated in one of the howdahs—the canopied, chairlike saddle strapped to the back of a richly decorated elephant.
He remembered one story of a playful elephant, said to be over a hundred years old, who pretended to be thoroughly frightened every time he crossed a stream of water for fear quicksands would suck him down.
He would picture himself wandering through the narrow streets of the cities, with vistas of temples ahead—their domes shining in the sunlight, covered with layers of pure gold that had been added to them through the centuries, until, on some of the oldest temples, the gold leaf was a quarter of an inch thick.
Kiwi had asked Dad a number of times to take him along, but Dad had always dismissed his request as being out of the question. However, in the darkness and confusion of that night attempt, Kiwi thought he saw how it could be accomplished. He was sure that if there were as much confusion at the actual take-off, it would be a simple matter for him, in the darkness, to crawl under the plane, open the trapdoor in the rear compartment, and slip in unobserved.
Kiwi realized that Dad would be upset about his disobedience, but he felt sure that he could make himself useful on the trip, and that both Dad and Jack would be glad he had come.
The more he thought about it, the more he knew he couldn’t bear to be left behind, and the more determined he was to go with them. During the next two or three days, as Dad and Jack were making the final test flights, he worked out in his mind all the necessary details.
Weather reports were taking up more and more of Jack’s time, but Kiwi kept up with his wireless practice. He could now send twelve words a minute and receive almost ten.