"I'm serious," Rick said sternly, his eyes twinkling.
"So am I. Alternate method: the stingaree climbs on a fence and lassos a passing airplane. Or catches a ride on an eagle's tail feathers. Take your choice."
"I've got a better way. The stingaree poses for his picture. The picture is used as a model for making a kite, probably of black plastic. The kite gets flown in the wind."
Scotty stared. "Maybe—just maybe—you've got something there. The stingaree shape would make a good kite. Could what you saw have been a kite?"
"It's possible." Rick nodded. "The wind was funneling down the creek pretty fast, and it would have carried a big kite. There's only one small difficulty. Why launch a kite that has no string?"
"You certain it didn't have a string?"
"In that wind, the string would have had to be a cable. I'd have seen it, and maybe felt it. The kite—stingaree, that is—just missed. Of course, the string might have broken."
"There's another small difficulty," Scotty said thoughtfully. "If it was a kite, where was it launched and why?"
"Up the creek somewhere. We don't know what's up there."
"True. From the looks, I'd say not much. Maybe some opossums and muskrats, which don't launch kites."