“Hiram, it’s only fair that you stay with us for a while this afternoon,” Rob mentioned as they were leaving the table.
“Oh! I expected to put in say an hour or so with you, Rob; and then later on I hope you’ll make your way over to the aviation field, where you’ll just as like as not find me hanging around, still picking up points.”
“That’s a bargain, then, is it?” demanded Rob.
“Just as you say,” Hiram declared. “I guess now I c’n hit on the fust thing our chum Andy here’ll be wantin’ to do. I’ve been watchin’ him stare at that old arm every time she rose up with the car; and I see we’re headin’ that way right fast now.”
“Yes, it’s a good idea to take that trip the first thing,” said Rob, “because you get a comprehensive idea of the lay of the land that serves you better than any map you can buy. They don’t stay up very long, though, because there are more dollars waiting to be picked up from the crowd that’s always in line to occupy the car.”
“Three hundred and sixty-five feet up is going some,” muttered Hiram. “I hope now they don’t have any accident to the machinery while we’re taking our look. I must see how they work this trick; it ought to be interesting.”
He would have started to carry out this intention then and there only that Andy held on to his coat and would not let go.
“The machinery part can keep, Hiram,” the impatient one declared. “Some time when you’re alone poke around all you like; but my tastes run in another channel. You’re like the geologists, with your nose pointed toward the ground all the while; I’m built more after the style of the astronomers who keep looking up and see the glories of the firmament that beat the fossils all hollow.”
“H’m! you don’t say!” was all the remark Hiram made, but it contained considerable skepticism concerning Andy’s sweeping assertion.
They fell in line, and were fortunate enough to be able to get aboard without having to wait, as they might have done later in the afternoon.