"I understand," she replied. "Are you ready, Sybil?"
"Waiting on you, Ris."
"And I think the crowd is waiting on us."
The band was at this moment playing its loudest and most stirring tune and as the two venturesome girls, dressed in appropriate aërial costume, appeared on the field, wildly enthusiastic shouts rose from ten thousand spectators. Chesty Todd had decorated the braces of the machine with bunches of fresh violets and the aluminum and nickeled parts shone gloriously in the sun.
"Be good, Sybil," said Mr. Cumberford. "Take care of her, Orissa."
The girls laughed, for this was the old gentleman's customary parting warning.
"All right, Ris," said Steve.
She applied the power and one of the mechanicians gave the propeller a preliminary whirl. Then Orissa threw in the automatic clutch that started the machine and it ran forward a few feet and promptly rose into the air. A moment later it was speeding straight out to sea, at an altitude of a hundred feet, and the wonderful voyage of Stephen Kane's new Hydro-Aircraft was begun—a voyage destined to vary considerably from the program mapped out for it.