At that Elephant seemed seized with a panic. He was not a valiant boy, generally speaking, and something about the ridiculous suggestion concerning a bomb seemed to fill him with sudden terror.
Uttering a howl he started to run one way, and then changing his mind darted in another direction; only to come back and finally crawl under a pile of boards that chanced to be lying near.
"Hey! what you thinkin' of doing, Sandy?" shouted Larry, shaking his fist up at the approaching aeroplane. "Don't you dare drop that on us, or I'll take it out of your measly hide, I sure will! Look out, Frank, he's let and here it comes a-sailin' down at us. Whoop!"
From under the woodpile issued an echoing squawk, as Elephant hugged the ground, and waited for the expected explosion.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHALLENGE
Frank laughed heartily, so that Andy turned toward him in surprise. Of course it was silly to think of such a thing as a bomb, in connection with the object Sandy had dropped. Then again, Frank had seen that it was bound to fall at some little distance away from the shed. He also caught the unmistakable flutter of paper, and could give a pretty accurate guess as to what it all meant.
"It's dropped, Frank, and didn't go off!" exclaimed Larry, having himself been more or less influenced by the panic into which timid Elephant had fallen.
Frank started forward as if bent upon approaching the object that lay upon the ground; while the biplane was now heading straight away, as if it might be the intention of the pilot to seek new pastures.
"Be careful, Frank!" called out Larry.