"We'll have to get Eradicate and his mule, I guess," said Tom, after a
vain endeavor to make progress against the wind. "When it's up in the
air it will be all right, but until then I'll need help to move it. Ned,
call Rad, will you?"
The colored man, with Boomerang, his faithful mule, was soon on hand.
The animal was hitched to the glider, and pulled it toward the hill.
"Now to see what happens," remarked Tom as he wheeled his latest
invention around where the wind would take it as soon as the restraining
ropes were cast off, for it was now held in place by several heavy
cables fastened to stakes driven in the ground.
Tom gave a last careful look to the weights, planes and rudders. He
glanced at a small anemometer or wind gage, on the craft, and noted that
it registered sixty miles an hour.
"That ought to do," he remarked. "Now who's going up with me? Will you
take a chance, Mr. Petrofsky?"
"I'd rather not--at first."
"Come on then, Ned and Mr. Damon. Mr. Petrofsky and Rad can cast off the
ropes."
The wind, if anything, was stronger than ever. It was a terrific gale,
and just what was needed. But how would the air glider act? That was
what Tom wanted very much to know.
"Cast off!" he cried to the Russian and Eradicate, and they slipped the
ropes.
The next moment, with a rush and whizzing roar, the air glider shot
aloft on the wings of the wind.
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