“Oh, well, that’s a horse of a different color,” Hiram explained; “when you’re up in an aëroplane it depends on your own self whether you come down safe, or have an accident. In this case you haven’t got a single thing to do with it, but just trust to a mechanic, who may be as reliable as they make ’em, but could make a mistake just once. That’s what gets my goat; my efficiency don’t count for a cent in this game.”
“Well, there is something in that,” Rob admitted; “but let’s try to find a place and look out as we keep on rising. Already the view seems to be getting pretty fine.”
There was more or less talking and laughing and all that in the car, for when there happens to be a spice of danger connected with any of these amusements many people become half hysterical.
The view was, indeed, becoming grand, as Rob had said, and both boys were soon copying Andy, who was staring first one way and then another, as sea and shore began to be spread out before him like a Mercator’s chart.
Although the huge arm of the giant Aëroscope had by no means reached the upper limit of its sweep, the great buildings lying below had the appearance of squatty “ant-heaps,” as Andy termed them; and the crowds that swarmed many of the walks of the Exposition looked so minute that it was hard to believe they were human beings.
All at once, the working arm of the big seesaw stopped with a rude jerk that caused a number of girls aboard to give vent to cries of alarm. Even strong men had a nervous look on their faces, Rob immediately noticed.
“What’s this mean?” demanded Hiram, laying a hand on Rob’s arm.
“We haven’t reached the highest sweep yet, I’m dead sure,” complained Andy, in a petulant tone, just as though he believed the management meant to cheat those aboard out of the full benefit of their money. “We want a better view than this. All the others went to the top, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t, too.”
“Rob, this stop wasn’t meant, was it?” demanded Hiram, insistent as usual.
“Don’t talk so loud, Hiram,” he was advised. “You’ll only frighten those girls all the more if they happen to hear you. No, I don’t believe it was intended that we stop this far up, and with such a bump, too.”