“I’ll try. The floor is of a flexible material. As one walks here and there, it is pressed downward and by means of a delicate mechanical device, shifts a weight on a rod. The shifting of this weight alters the angle of the ailerons at the ends of the wings and prevents the machine from tipping out of balance. Understand?”
Blank looks on every face before him advised Mr. Miles that he had been too technical for the boys, so he added:
“You’ll understand easily as you advance in the construction of the vessel. But possibly this may give you a hint of what I am driving at: Changing the angles of the ailerons has the same effect in an up-and-down direction, as turning a boat’s rudder has from side to side.”
Still few of the boys understood what he meant, although Hal Kenyon and one or two others believed they did. Later, when he found an opportunity, Hal, with pencil and paper, made some drawings and studied over them and altered them until he was certain that he had a clear idea of the plan. Then he took his last drawing to Mr. Miles and explained it to him, and the aviator told him he was right.
CHAPTER XIII
THE “PAINTER”
A few days later the promised trip up Porcupine Hill was taken. An early start was made, the forty-four boys of the school, clad in semi-warlike uniforms, looking like a company of young soldiers as they marched over the hills to the south and west toward the mountains on the right of Mummy Cañon.
Meanwhile Hal, by his frank and straightforward manner, established himself in the confidence of Miles so well as to remove all doubt as to his innocence regarding the disappearance of the nuggets. The mystery remained still unsolved, but it seemed certain that any suspicion directed toward Hal was entirely unjust.
Porcupine Hill was four miles from Lakefarm. The easiest ascent was on the southern side, but to reach this it would be necessary to travel an additional two miles around the base. On that side it was more than two miles to the peak, and this was the course generally used by those dwelling on the peak and the side of the mountain. On the opposite side the ascent was shorter and much steeper, and this was the route taken by the boys whenever they went up to see Aunt Sarah Jane.
Mr. and Mrs. Turman were real uncle and aunt of two of the boys of the school, Byron and Frank Bowler. The aged couple were always glad to receive their two nephews and their friends, and took pains to make them feel welcome. Fifteen years before, while prospecting, they had discovered a vein of gold near the peak and had staked out claims. But finding gold on a mountain peak and mining it profitably are two different propositions, and they found it necessary to do some sharp engineering of various sorts.
A company was formed and incorporation papers taken out. Then followed negotiations with various moneyed interests and an entanglement that tied matters up. Since then nothing of importance had been done.