"
"Burr-r-r-r!" and Ned pretended to shiver. "I haven't an accident
insurance policy you know."
"You won't need it, Ned. If we get up at all we'll be all right. Catch
hold there, and shift that rear weight a little forward on the rod. I
expect Mr. Damon soon."
The eccentric man came in a little later, just as Tom and Ned had
finished adjusting the mechanism.
"Bless my socks!" cried Mr. Damon. "Do you really mean to go up to-day,
Tom?"
"I sure do! Why, aren't you going with me?" and Tom winked at Ned.
"Bless my--" began Mr. Damon, and then, evidently realizing that he was
being tested he exclaimed: "Well, I will go, Tom! If the air glider is
any good it ought to hold me. I will go up."
"Now, Ned, how about you?" asked the young inventor.
"Well, I guess it's up to me to come along, but I sure do wish it was
over with," and Ned glanced out of the window to see if the gale was
dying out. But the wind was as high as ever.
It was hard work getting the air glider out of the shed, and in position
on top of a hill, about a quarter of a mile away, for Tom intended
"taking off" from the mound, as he could not get a running start without
a motor. The wind, however, he hoped, would raise him and the strange
craft.
In order to get it over the ground without having it capsize, or elevate
before they were ready for it, drag ropes, attached to bags of sand were
used, and once these were attached the four found that they could not
wheel the air glider along on its bicycle wheels.
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