Harry said nothing, but he realized keenly that his pleasure in building the glider and in the anticipation of using it had been sadly marred.
They rounded the struts which the passenger was to hold, and bound them with felt so that the hands and armpits might not chafe. Then they gave the whole thing, covering and all, a coat of varnish. This would not only fill up the weave of the silk, making it air tight, but stiffen it as well; and the varnishing of the stanchions in particular would cause them more easily to deflect the air. As a precaution against a sudden rise of wind, the four corners were anchored to the earth by ropes and stakes and the apparatus was left to dry over night. In case of rain it might be brought into one of the tents.
That night at camp-fire some one rashly tried to introduce the subject of Myer signaling, only to be put down by a veritable storm of aeronautic talk.
“Now,” said Red Deer, “I’ve waited till this glider was finished to make a remark. Is the coast clear for about five minutes? All right, then. Now, you understand that I’m on a vacation. It wouldn’t be fair to ask me to set broken joints and bind up wounds, would it?”
“Certainly not,” laughed several, seeing the diplomatic trend of his talk.
“Well, now, I want you to begin on level ground. Be satisfied with gliding a few feet or so close to the ground. You’ll find old terra firma a pretty good friend. Then, when you’ve got the hang of it, try it on the hillside if you wish. There isn’t so very much slope, especially down toward the foot. But get the hang of it first. That’s the way the Wrights did. Understand, Harry?”
The next morning they tried it out in a near-by field, and came in to dinner enthusiastic over their success. Mac took his place in the center, holding the felted struts in his hands and letting his arms hang straight down. Thus the lower plane was about two feet from the ground. Harry and Tom steadied the ends. The glider was faced directly into the breeze and Mac started to run. The first thing he knew, his feet had left the ground. Then one of the ends sank, scraped the field, and he was down again.
“If you hadn’t looked around to see if I was still holding on, that wouldn’t have happened,” said Tom. “Try it again.”
“As soon as your feet leave the ground,” said Harry, “stick them forward a little. That will tilt the forward edge up—not too much, though.”
The next start was better. As soon as Mac’s legs were clear of the ground, he projected them slightly, which kept the glider from coming down. And now instinct—the same instinct which enables a bicyclist to right his tilting wheel by just the exact degree of motion—came to his aid. The slightest movement had a controlling effect on these far-spreading wings. He slid his hands four or five inches backward, throwing the cutting edge of the long planes up. Thus the glider, scooping the air under its curved surfaces, rose. Also instinct seemed to tell him when it was about to cant, and he inclined his body sideways, accordingly. The sensation of feeling the long planes obey this slight move was delightful. But it was too soon for instinct to be attuned to all the subtle little calls upon it, and presently, leaning too far forward, that delicate and stubborn thing known as the center of gravity shifted, and the glider came coasting to the ground. He had risen about twelve feet and glided about forty.