The three boys at the sheds cheered lustily as the machine began to move and Paul and Jack waved to them. And before they realized it the machine was about six feet off the ground which seemed to be falling away beneath them. The plane kept climbing steadily upwards. The boys leaned forward. They saw that the air-speed indicator registered a little over a hundred miles an hour, and they wondered because they couldn’t feel the machine traveling at such a rate of speed. As they continued to climb, the boys looked over the side at the scene below them. The earth now appeared like a great colored map, with fields showing up in different shades of green and brown. The airport which they had only shortly left, was a little to the left of them. Sheds and houses and barns appeared as very small rectangular blocks. As they climbed still higher, things took on yet smaller proportions. Major McCarthy spoke to them through the telephone. “Well, how do you like it?” he asked.
Paul answered for both of them. “Marvelous!” he cried.
The pilot banked the machine and it steeped over on one side so sharply that the boys instinctively clutched for support. McCarthy’s voice came over the telephone “Don’t be alarmed,” he said, “there’s no danger and you can’t fall out.” He straightened out the machine. Again they heard his voice. “Feel a little giddy?” he asked. “If you do,” he cried, “look down upon some fixed object on the ground and you’ll feel all right.”
Both boys complied with his instructions and they soon got over their giddiness. The pilot kept the machine sailing at an even keel. Soon they were flying over a small town and they saw what appeared to them as ants scurrying along. They knew that the ants were really men and women and they marveled how small they appeared. As a matter of fact, everything looked like toys from that distance and flying above a railroad, the track seemed to be two thin lines drawn with a pencil. Major McCarthy’s voice came over the telephone. “How would you boys like some stunts?” he asked.
The boys grinned at each other. Paul answered for both of them. “Very much,” he said.
“All right,” he said, “we’ll have to be satisfied with only one today. Just to see how you fellows take it. First we’ll bank and turn around. Ready!”
But before they could answer the pilot already had the machine keeled over on one side. On an even keel again, the major asked them, “How about your safety belts.” They adjusted their safety belts and told him so. “Very well,” he said, “here goes.” And so saying, he opened the throttle and the plane bounded forward. In a few seconds the nose sprang upward. As it rose the forward speed decreased, yet the engine continued to run at the maximum revolutions. The machine was not pointing vertically upwards. For a moment the plane appeared to hang on the revolving propeller and it felt as though the machine must inevitably drop tail foremost. But right away the nose fell over to one side and dropped and the tail shot up and the machine was shooting sharply downward. For some distance they continued to dive, then the pilot shut off the throttle and pulled back the elevator lever and brought the plane again on an even keel. However, they were now flying in the opposite direction. McCarthy asked, “How was it?”
The boys were thrilled. “Fine!” cried Paul.
“Were you afraid?”
“No, not in the least.”