The river shore at each side of Captain Anderson’s place was crossed by a wire fence. On the south side of the pier, the hard, white sand stretched like a road for miles. Here and there was a little driftwood. Captain Anderson removed the fence with a few blows of an axe, while Andy ran down the shore to remove the driftwood.
“I suppose you think it strange I don’t help,” said Roy to Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Leighton, who were on the pier. “But that’s the first thing an aeroplane operator has to learn. When I make an extensive flight, I do no work that day if I can help it. My assistants fill the tanks and get the car in place. I save every bit of muscle and nerve force I have.”
“You haven’t stuck to your rule to-day,” suggested Mrs. Leighton a little anxiously. “You’ve worked harder than the others.”
“Oh, this isn’t a real flight,” explained Roy. “I mean one in which you’re going to do stunts in the way of an exhibition. I shan’t go high or far. If I were going up several thousand feet—”
“Several thousand feet!” exclaimed both ladies.
“The safety in aeroplane work,” Roy explained, “is in going very high or very low—no middle ground. Either go so low that a fall won’t hurt you, or get up so high that if anything happens, your machine will have time to get into a glide.”
The fence having been removed and the beach cleared, the taut, bird-like aeroplane was carefully trundled around the pier and out on the sand facing south, from which direction the breeze was blowing. Andy and the captain were visibly nervous.
Then, as if it had just occurred to him, Roy said he would test the engine once more. Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Leighton had followed close behind. Roy turned with a smile.
“You ladies had better step to one side,” he suggested. “There’ll be quite a commotion behind. Take hold of her,” he said to the captain and Andy.
He located Captain Anderson and Andy at the rear of the car on opposite sides of the rudder frame and told them to sit on the ground and dig heel holes in the sand as if pulling on a rope in a tug-of-war.