“Not much,” he said, decisively. “We’ll find enough to do in the morning. Here, you get a towel and start in to wiping these things. And with such a dandy outfit I do hope you take a little pride in keeping things clean and bright.”
“Huh!” grunted Andy, “thought that was the best thing about aluminum—that a fellow never needed to clean it up.”
“Listen to him, will you?” laughed his cousin; “perhaps you had a sneaking notion, too, that it might get the spuds peeled and do all sorts of stunts. Make up your mind, my boy, nothing is ever gained without some work. Give that dish another rub while you’re about it, Andy, and then set it back on the stove to warm up. Soon be through here and then, if we feel like it, we can get at those bike wheels that are to go under our framework, according to the design we’re following after.”
Although possibly Andy may have confessed to being somewhat tired, still, the fever was rioting through his veins, and he could not say no, when Frank proposed anything connected with the completion of that wonderful monoplane that haunted his very dreams, so much was it in his mind during his waking hours.
Accordingly they set to work. Frank had arranged his plans and knew just how this thing and that must be managed in order to secure the greatest amount of success.
“Now she looks like the real thing!” declared Andy, enthusiastically, when the little wonder had been duly elevated and fitted with the wheels that were to prove so useful in starting off and in landing.
“Watch how the engine works again in this new position,” said Frank, as with a few deft turns of his hand he set things in motion.
The quick pulsations of the motor thrilled them. Small wonder then that these enthusiastic novices of the air navigation idea could hardly tear themselves away from a contemplation of their prized aeroplane and think of such an ordinary thing as securing some sleep.
“Come, look here, it’s going on midnight,” declared Frank, finally; “and we must get our bunks ready to turn in. I’m going to tumble over on this pile of planks here. Nothing like the soft side of a board for a bed, they say.”
“And since I went and fetched this cot out, thinking you’d accept it, why, sooner than see it lie idle, I’ll dump my blanket in there and curl up. Got the bar across the door, Frank?” asked Andy, as he started to yawn again.