If a mere bag of gas, the sport of every shifting wind, could be guided thus far by the skill of its pilot, in rising and falling in order to continue a direct easterly course, what ought not a genuine aeroplane, equipped with the lightest and most complete engine ever constructed, be capable of doing?
In imagination the sanguine bird-boy saw himself and comrade sailing over tracts of wild country never before looked upon by mortal eye, learning the strange secrets that Nature had hidden from mankind all these thousands of years.
“Why,” said Andy, talking to himself in lieu of any better audience, “there can be nothing beyond the reach of a flying machine properly constructed and run by experienced birdmen. It can pass over burning deserts, where caravans have perished. It might even sail to the South Pole and beat Peary at his own game. And of all the pursuits in the world, to my mind that of an aeronaut is the finest. No wonder my poor father was drawn to take it up by his studies. And nothing shall ever keep me from following the same profession, unless I meet with a knockout in the start, which I hope won’t be the case.”
After what seemed to be a long time he fancied he heard Frank returning. But as more minutes passed and no one knocked at the door, across which he had drawn the protecting bar, after the instructions of his mate, Andy concluded he must have been mistaken.
“But it did sound like the tire of a wheel had hit the side of the shack. May have been a squirrel playing about, because I’ve seen lots of ’em,” he muttered as he sat up, leaning on his elbow.
Perhaps it was, but all the same, when the little jar came again, Andy was impelled to climb out of his simple bed and move over to the window.
Possibly he could not wholly forget that on the preceding night some persons had paid a secret visit to the home of the new monoplane and shown a vandal spirit in cutting the wings to shreds.
What if they meant to come again on this night? Andy’s imagination was doubtless pretty well fired after this strange visit from the racing balloon. He also knew the character of the two rival aviators and to what low depths they had often sunk in order to get even with those they chanced to be at odds with.
But all seemed well. The moon hung there like a great silver shield. An owl in a neighboring tree whinnied like a horse, calling to his mate. Everything seemed peaceful enough and with not a sign of intruders anywhere.
Ah, something certainly moved over yonder. Andy had a thrill as he looked with his whole energy. How deceitful that bright moonlight was after all! Why, he could see to read almost, and yet at fifty feet away it would be next to impossible to decide whether the black object he saw were a stump or a cow lying down.