"Tell you what, we've a few minutes yet. Let's get our ditty boxes—or 'ditto' boxes, as you used to call them—and write our applications at once."
"Let's talk a while longer," said Herc, with an odd look.
"Why, what's the matter? Surely you aren't regretting your determination already."
Herc, for reply, bent over and touched his feet.
"No; they're not cold," he said; "I thought for a minute they were." Then he looked up into the cloudless blue vault of the heavens.
"Say, Ned, it's an awful long way up there, isn't it? How far, I wonder?"
"What do you want to know for?" asked Ned, moving away.
"Oh, nothing. Only I'd like to know how far we are likely to tumble, in case we get our applications accepted, and in case we fly as high as the sky, and in case——"
"Oh, come on, Herc," urged Ned; "time enough to worry about that when we are assigned to aero duty."