"What do you mean?"
"Wa'al, in course I know it won't fly, but if it does you'll hev to let me out."
With this sage remark Jeb stepped gingerly into the chassis of the aëroplane. He sat down where he was told and Roy took the wheel. Jeb's companions gazed on in awed silence.
"Look out, Jeb," cried one.
"Don't hit the sky," yelled another.
"Bring me back a star," howled the facetious old man.
"Me a bit of the moon," called another.
Jeb said nothing to this raillery. Instead, he looked uneasily about him and held his rifle, which he had insisted on bringing with him, between his knees.
"All right?" asked Roy, looking back at him.
"As right as I ever will be," rejoined Jeb, with a rather sickly grin.