"I'm with you, Chum Andy, and you don't need to be told that," observed
Frank, quietly, while he worked on.
"As if I didn't know that and counted on you through thick and thin," declared the other, with a look of sincere affection.
"Well, now we're ready to go up again," remarked Frank; "and there's no use asking if you feel like it. So pile in and we'll make a flying start from the top of this rocky plateau."
"What a difference from our last start," observed Andy, with satisfaction, for they were on an elevation with a valley far below, and the air was decidedly bracing for the tropics.
"I should say it was," laughed Frank. "Do you know what it puts me in mind of?"
"I bet you're just thinking of when we won that race to the summit of Old Thunder Top, where nobody had ever been able to climb before, and how we had to make our start for home from that little plateau, plunging off into space."
"Just what I was," declared Frank. "But here we have a longer swing and it's going to be a snap of a launch compared with some we remember."
"Ugh!" grunted Andy, "will I ever forget the one this morning. But let loose, my boy. I had just sighted a likely looking place away over yonder, at the time you said we ought to take advantage of this fine landing stage, to look things over. Just head her that way when we get going, will you?"
"Sure; anything to oblige," assented the other.
The launch was just as easy as they had anticipated. Indeed, Frank seemed to have gotten this part of the programme down to a fine point and could accomplish it apparently as well as a Wright or a Curtiss.