Jack chipped several specimens of what he believed to be pyron from the rocks. Pyron does not make as good a detector as silicon, still he believed it would serve to repair the apparatus. After some tinkering he said that he thought he had made the device efficient once more.
Luckily, the boat from the Morning Star had a saw, hammer and nails on board as part of the emergency kit. Jack got these out and then he and Raynor went into executive session with canvas, stripped from the locker covering, and long strips of wood pried from the gunwale of the boat. All morning they kept up a great sawing and hammering, and by noon had produced an odd-looking contrivance. It was a paralleloeram of thin strips of wood with a square box of canvas at each end.
After a hasty bite, Jack announced that he and Raynor were going off for a tramp. First, however, Jack borrowed Noddy’s fishing line, which was about two hundred feet long. Leaving the camp much mystified as to their errand, they set off up the gulch, carrying with them the odd-looking object they had devoted the morning to constructing. To make no further mystery of it, the object was a box kite. It is true it was a clumsy one, but a brisk breeze was blowing and Jack believed it would fly.
“And so you really think you are going to get to the top of Cedar Mountain?� asked Raynor dubiously, as they trudged along.
“I know I am,� laughed Jack.
“You are pretty confident. Of course, I don’t know half of your plan yet, though.�
“Well, here’s the machinery,� said Jack, indicating the box kite.
“It will never carry you up, even if the risk wasn’t too great to attempt it,� said Raynor, who believed that Jack meant to hang on to the kite and be borne to the top of Cedar Mountain that way.
Jack chuckled.
“There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it to death with cream,� replied he.