“Makes me think of the self-registering thermometers I’ve seen,” declared Andy. “You put one out over night and the mercury pushes down to a certain degree, which is marked as the limit. Then you can look at it any old time and know, after which you set the register again for another shy.”
“Well,” said Frank, “this does its work on the same principle, in that it registers the highest point reached. When there is a contest on for height, I believe these registers are placed so there can be no tampering with them, and afterwards they are taken in charge by the committee and examined.”
“Say, why not take advantage of this afternoon to make a little trip over in the direction of Old Thunder Top?” suggested Andy, eagerly.
Frank shook his head as he remarked:
“You forget that one of the conditions of entry to that race is that each contestant agreed not to go within a quarter of a mile of the mountaintop before the time set for the trial. The idea is that the one who succeeds may be the actual first person known to have ever set foot on the summit of the mountain.”
“Oh, shucks! I haven’t forgotten that!” exclaimed Andy, impatiently. “But we’ve stuck to our old field here, rising and circling, till I’m sick of seeing it. To tell the truth, I hunger and thirst for new pastures. There’s nothing to hinder us from taking a lively spin of twenty miles, if we want, so long as we keep away from that plateau up yonder. Say yes, Frank!”
Of course the idea appealed to his cousin with equal force and he could not resist Andy’s plea.
“All right, then. I suppose it would be a good idea to take a little spin somewhere,” he said. “We’ve mastered the machine pretty well for novices.”
“Yes,” continued Andy, with a sly grin, “and it ain’t any harder off there in the forest, in case we fall from five hundred feet, than here in the open. Fact is, we might have a better chance by lighting in the branches of a big oak or a chestnut.”
“Well, let’s get ready to make the venture,” said Frank, rising to his feet; “but I hope all the same that we may not have to try that drop you joke about. One thing we can do is to climb up so as to get a line on how high Old Thunder Top really is. There’s always been a hot dispute about that, you know.”