At the end of fifty feet it was going faster than a man could run; and at a hundred feet it was darting along at thirty miles an hour. This was the gait that enabled the wing to pick the machine off the ground.
As the Comet slid upward along its airy path, the astounded McGlory saw Le Bon far back toward the point from which the machine had started. Thinking that, through some mistake, Le Bon had been left behind, McGlory turned toward the mounting aëroplane.
Then the trick dawned upon him.
Haidee was climbing over the lower plane toward Motor Matt, now and again turning to wave her hand at the cheering crowd!
And McGlory saw something else—something that had a fearful significance in the light of later events.
[CHAPTER VI.]
ABLAZE IN THE AIR.
When the king of the motor boys was in the air with the Comet, every power of mind and body was trained to the work of looking after the machine.
Flying in an aëroplane is vastly more difficult than sailing in a balloon. In the case of a gas bag, an aëronaut has only to throw out ballast, take his ease, and trust to luck; but, with a heavier-than-air machine, the aviator must rely upon the quickness of his wits and his dexterity.