“Ye ain’t lying, sonny?”
“No; do as you please about trusting or believing me.”
“I’m consarned if I don’t try it,” remarked the General, stirred by the taunts of his neighbors. He climbed gingerly to his seat, aided by Harvey, who was much entertained by his experience thus far in Purvis. The passenger rigidly grasped a support on each side, and chewing more vigorously than before, nodded his head:
“I’m ready; let the blamed thing go!”
Cautioning him again not to shift his position while aloft, but to keep perfectly motionless, Harvey also seated himself, and asked one of the men to give the propeller a whirl. The roar and racket of the machine were deafening, but it began creeping over the grass, rapidly increasing its pace, until the moment came for the aviator to tilt the front rudder upward. At the instant the bound took place, the crowd, who were watching it all, saw the General make a dive from his seat, sprawl through the air like a frog and, lighting on his face, roll over several times before coming to a stop. The frightened Harvey made as quick a circle as he could and returned to his starting point to find the General standing among his friends, who were chaffing him for his sudden loss of courage.
“What was the matter?” asked Harvey, though he knew well enough that his passenger had yielded to a sudden panic.
“Why, I happened to think jes’ as we started that I’d promised to meet Bill Smithers at his home and it wouldn’t do fur me to make him wait, so I jumped.”
“I was here all the time a-lookin’ at you,” replied the sarcastic Smithers.
“That’s so,” said the unabashed General, “but I didn’t know it till I observed you.”
“What did you want to see me fur, Gin’ral?”