“Don’t hog the cookies,” said Pat, making his first, but most important contribution to the conversation. But Pat, though he had said nothing, had thought a lot.
[CHAPTER VII—A Close Shave]
The next two weeks were hectic ones for Pat, the Captain and their two friends, with Pat teaching the boys to fly, the boys learning to fly, the Captain generally directing all activities, and three of them planning and preparing for their flight to the Adirondacks. Hal couldn’t go. It was with real sorrow that he told them that his mother would not permit him to go with them. Hal was beginning to enjoy better his flights into the air, and his companionship with his new friends. Pat did not frighten him at all now, and his happiest hours were those that he spent with him, Bob and Captain Bill. He knew that he would be very lonesome if they went off without him, but no amount of persuasion on his part would move his mother in her determination that he should not go. She had so many arguments on her side that Hal was completely floored when he tried to point out to her the reasons why it would be perfectly safe for him to go with his friends.
Bob was downcast. He knew that he would have a good time with Pat and Bill, but he knew too that he’d have a better time if someone his own age were along. After all, he couldn’t do anything as well as Pat and Bill. He couldn’t fly a plane, although he was learning rapidly, and would soon be able to take a solo flight; he couldn’t shoot as accurately as they; nor land a mountain trout so well. Hal, who was also a novice, would have been just as inexpert as he was at all these things, and would have made him feel not quite so stupid. And then there were always things to talk about to Hal that the others wouldn’t be able to understand—in fact, Hal and he spoke a language of their own. It would have been fun if Hal could have come along—but if he couldn’t go, he couldn’t go. Bob decided that he’d better take the matter philosophically. So he joined in the plans of the Captain and Pat with all his usual energy. Hal helped, too, Even if he was not going with them, he wanted to get the thrill at least of being in on the start.
They were all down at the airport every day, rain or shine. Pat gave them a good background of ground work, and then let them fly with him. Bob, with his natural quickness, could have flown solo almost after his first flight, but Pat would not take the responsibility of letting the boy go up alone.
Hal, on the other hand, had more obstacles to overcome. The first was the terror that he had felt on his first flight. However, after repeated flights, and the feeling of power that he gained from actually having the controls in his hands, he overcame his fear enough to fly with Pat, and fly well.
Two days before their departure for the mountains, Pat and Bill decided that the boys ought to make their solo flights, so that Hal would have made a solo flight before they left him.
Pat had taken the Marianne up into the air, had “taken a look about,” and landed her again. He turned to the two boys and asked, “who’s first?”
“Me,” said Bob.