It was agreed that this would furnish some amusement and excitement. Soon the boys were enthusiastically making their arrangements. Paul said that he could detach the wings and so carry the sled without exciting undue attention.
“You see, I don’t know if it will work yet,” the young inventor confessed, “and I don’t want to be the laughing stock of the place in case a crowd is on hand to see me take a tumble.”
“No danger of that,” Merritt assured him. “We’ll sneak round by the back way up through Cryders Lane and then take that path through the scrub oak to the top of the hill.”
Like so many conspirators the lads met at Paul Perkins’s after the evening meal, and each bearing a portion of the load, they set out for the long, steep grade down which the test was to be made.
“I heard in the village to-night that Freeman Hunt and his crowd have a big bob they are going to enter for the cup race,” said Tubby, as they walked along.
“Too bad there is no way of keeping them out. They’ll be sure to be up to something crooked,” commented Merritt. “However, as it’s free for all, I suppose we can’t do anything.”
“Not a thing,” rejoined Rob. “By the way, Paul, did you hear anything further from the lawyer in Washington, since you received his dispatch telling you that Hunt’s message was, just as I supposed, a forgery?”
“Only that the outlook is very favorable,” was Paul’s response. “He says—it sounds like a fairy tale,” he interjected with a note of apology—“he said that if the government took it they would give five thousand dollars for the exclusive right to use the machine.”
“Bully!” cried Rob. “I guess that would set our friend Hunt back a peg or two if he heard of it.”
They met no one on their way to the hill, as the night was chilly and they stuck to their little-frequented route. The moonlight lit up the steep descent and made it as bright as day almost, throwing here and there sharp, black shadows on the white snow. It was an ideal night for sledding and the boys felt their pulses beat with excitement as they adjusted the wings and prepared the glider, of which so much was expected, for its initial flight.