"Let her go," said Matt, switching the power into the bicycle wheels.
In less than a dozen feet, the aëroplane was traveling too fast for Cameron and McGlory, and they dropped out. Standing breathless where the June Bug had left them, they watched the machine rush faster and faster along the road, then, suddenly, swing into the air and glide upward.
Cheers rang out from half a hundred throats, only to be suddenly stifled as the great wings tilted, fifty feet above ground, into an almost vertical position. Matt, they could see, was almost hurled from his seat.
A groan was wrenched from Cameron's lips, and he turned away.
"Sufferin' thunderbolts, but that was close!" the lieutenant heard McGlory mutter, and then the cheering was renewed.
Cameron looked again. The June Bug had righted herself, and was rushing off toward the lake, mounting steadily, higher and higher.
"That feller's head's level, all right," remarked Benner.
"How's that?" asked Cameron.
"Why," laughed the post trader, "if he takes a tumble he intends comin' down in the water."