"These wires look awful slim to me," said Jerry, when the general laugh subsided. "You don't go much on 'em, do you?"
"You bet, lots depends on them," answered Mr. Hawke, who was stringing light wires through miniature pulleys on the upper and lower wings. "They may look frail but in the full-sized machine they are the strongest piano wire."
"What do they do?"
"They really take most of the tension, and these struts take what is called the compression stresses. They're made of the lightest tough wood in the world—comes from Canada."
"Wish't I understood all that," said Tender in a rather discouraged tone.
"You can't understand everything in one lesson," put in Fred.
"Yes, that's right. We'll have to start at the beginning and go through," responded the aviator, with a good-natured smile. "But, of course, we haven't time for that to-night. I'm just giving you a general idea."
Carlito had said nothing up to this time, but he had been looking on very carefully, and listening with rapt attention.
"Looks like it would fly just like a bird," he said, when the model was finally completed, and the boys were inspecting it.
"That's just it," cried Jerry, remembering the conversation of the morning, "and we want one to chase the Thunder Bird with."