“What ninnies we were not to think of so simple a thing long before this!” exclaimed Alan.
“I guess it was because the idea was too simple,” Buck said wisely.
Ned cut short further discussion.
“To work! To work, you fellows!” he cried. “Remember that every instant wasted in chatter carries us so much the nearer to earth where there’s no telling what may await us.”
So thereupon all of the boys set to work with a will. In their excitement they forgot the freezing cold and their own discomfort. While Ned kept the Flyer in its course, Bob and Alan and Buck were working loose the screws which held the heavy metal top plates in place and hammering and prying with the razor-edged chisels. It was far from being easy work, but they made good headway for all that.
Presently Alan gave a triumphant shout and tossed the first dislodged screw to the floor. Others soon followed it. By that time Buck had cut free the entire upper plate of metal from the wooden box base on his side, and Bob had pried it almost as loose on the other side. Soon the whole thick sheet of metal came loose and could be lifted free of its pedestal.
As Ned had surmised, its removal left fully three-quarters of an inch of the broken end of the lever protruding where it was easily possible to get a grip on it with the heavy plyers.
Getting a firm grip on the shaft and pulling it out were two entirely different matters, however, as the boys soon found out. For a long time the jammed lever resisted their every effort to loosen it and faces again began to look grave. It was not until they were almost ready to give it up as a hopeless job, that, all of a sudden, Buck, who was tugging with might and main, felt the lever give slightly. A second later the whole length slid smoothly up into view.
“Hurrah!” shouted Alan, throwing his cap wildly into the air. “Saved! saved! Now we can get her under control again and laugh at whoever may be waiting down there on Mother Earth!”
The boys certainly were justified in performing a war-dance of jubilation around the walls of the little pilot house.