As the great inverted chalice of the silken parachute ceased its oscillations, the earth also ceased its tremendous rise and fall. It seemed to stand steady below Hal Dane, and he was approaching it faster than he had thought.
The boy suddenly remembered to cross his legs (Max Maben’s orders), lest he straddle a telephone wire, a church steeple or something equally disastrous.
A feeling of terrible helplessness was upon him. Nothing that he could do could change his direction. The wind could do that though. A sudden gust could blow him out over water, ram him against a stone building, hurl him before a rushing train.
But no wind arose. He was coming straight down. The crowd below seemed scattering to give him room. He looked up, saw Maben climbing down from the skies to meet him.
On the field, men were running forward to catch his heels as he touched earth. Many hands helped him hold down against the tug of the parachute, while he worked at the clips of the harness. As the straps fell away and he stepped free, Maben landed and taxied towards him.
“Kid, you did it!” Maben’s brown hands gripped his shoulder and turned him about to face the applause of the crowd that had gone crazy with clapping and shouting. Swept away by relaxation of the tense excitement, those near him pounded him, tried to hoist him on shoulders for a parade.
It was Hal’s first taste of glory. It thrilled him, but he soon longed to get away from it all. As soon as he could he ducked and escaped and followed in the direction of Maben, whom he had seen trundling the plane into seclusion behind the grandstand.
“Say!” Maben turned on him in mock fierceness, “I’m of a mind to kick you for overstunting on that plane wing. No use being too risky—just plain foolishness, that. But, kid,” the aviator’s habitually tense face relaxed into a boyish grin. “I’ll say you made that come down O. K.,—all jake! An old-timer couldn’t have done it prettier. Listen, I got a proposition I want to make you!”
CHAPTER VII
A ONE-SHIP CARNIVAL
“Hi, sleepy-head, don’t you ever get up of a morning? Going to snooze all day?” A couple of resounding smacks against the hammock he swung in startled Hal into semi-wakefulness.