"It means quite a bit of trouble," the weather expert warned them; "scientific kite-flying needs machinery."
"Why, sir?" asked Ross. "Can't we do it by hand?"
"No," was the reply, "you can't. How would you reel the kite home? It's a very different thing sending up a Japanese paper kite on a string a few hundred feet in the air, and making an ascent of a couple of miles with a weather kite. For one thing, the weather kite is flown with wire and an especially strong kind of wire at that."
"Where will we get the wire?"
"I've advanced the money for it," the Forecaster answered, "and for the shipment of the kites. I thought, perhaps, after a while, we might hold a kite contest and charge an admission fee, because, as you know, I think the League should be on a self-supporting basis. I'll render you a bill, then, and you can pay me."
"Thanks ever so much, sir," said Ross. "That's fine. We'll do it. But who's to have charge of the kite-flying?"
"That's your affair," the Forecaster answered. "I've nothing to do with the inner workings of the League."
"I've been wondering," said Anton, "if Tom oughtn't to do it. He's our wind expert."
Tom flushed with pleasure at the suggestion.
"I haven't done much on the wind stuff," he admitted; "there didn't seem anything to do but to take measurements and things."