"Don't I have to run with it?"
"Not a step, except when the wind is very light. Off with you!"
Tom carried the kite about a hundred feet, the line paying out as he went, and waited the word. The boys clustered around the reel excitedly. Monroe went along with Tom. Rex also wanted to follow, but as Ross was afraid that he might jump at the kite and tear it with his teeth, though in play, he called the terrier back.
"Ross," then said the Forecaster, "you take the time of the flight, and Anton, I think you'd better watch the reel and see that the line doesn't foul."
The excitement of the boys grew intense. The box kite looked so unlike any of the kites that they had flown that some wondered whether it would go up in the air. Fred, in his capacity as editor, having seen a picture of a box-kite up in the air, was quite arrogant in his assurances that it would really fly.
"Are you ready?" the Forecaster said, watching the whirling anemometer. "Throw!"
At the word, Tom gave the kite a light toss in the air, against the direction of the wind, as indicated.
The kite swayed from side to side, but having four surfaces to the wind, did not swoop and dive like the flat kites. Only half a dozen times did it dart from side to side, then the current of the wind caught it at the right angle and it began to climb up into the air.
Tom waved his cap at it with an excited cheer, in which all the boys joined.
The first kite-flight of the League was on!