At last they reached the foot of Cedar Mountain. Its walls rose steeply, almost menacingly, as if daring anyone to penetrate its secrets. Jack walked along till he found a point where the walls were lower than at other portions of the cliff face.
“Now then,� said Jack, “let’s find out how the wind blows.�
He moistened his hand and held it up.
“Good! It’s out of just the right direction.�
He proceeded to tie the string—the erstwhile fishing line—to the kite. Raynor watched him, and suddenly broke in.
“Say, you’re putting a double string on. Scared one won’t hold it?�
“That double string is the secret of the whole thing,â€� smiled Jack. “Now just try some watchful waiting and you’ll see—what you will see.â€�
When the string was attached, Jack told Raynor to hold it up at a distance.
“Go,� cried Jack; and ran back a bit. The clumsily made flyer began to mount in the air even better than he had hoped it would. The kite rose above the summit of the rocky wall, above the naked old cedar growing close to its edge. Jack began to maneuver the kite carefully. You are to remember that the double string hung down from it like an inverted V. At last, after much patient work, he managed to get the point of the V over the bare trunk of the cedar in such a way that an equal amount of string hung down on both sides.
Then, very carefully, Jack started to haul the kite down while Raynor held one of the ends taut so that it would not slip back. Jack soon had the kite on the ground, and there was a loop round the tree on the summit of the Cedar Mountain, and two ends on the ground.