CHAPTER V

VOL-PLANING TO EARTH

For a moment after Mr. Damon’s announcement Tom did not reply.  Mr. Swift, too, seemed a little at a loss for something to say.  They did not quite know how to take their eccentric friend at times.

“Of course I’ll be glad of your company, Mr. Damon,” said Tom:  “but you must remember that my butterfly is not like the Red cloud.  There is more danger riding in the monoplane than there is in the airship.  In the latter, if the engine happens to stop, the sustaining gas will prevent us from falling.  But it isn’t so in an aeroplane.  When your engine stops there—­”

“Well, what happens?” asked Mr. Damon, impatiently, for Tom hesitated.

“You have to vol-plane back to earth.”

“Vol-plane?” and there was a questioning note in Mr. Damon’s voice.

“Yes, glide down from whatever height you are at when the engine stalls.  Come down in a series of dips from the upper currents.  Vol-planing, the French call it, and I guess it’s as good a word as any.”

“Have you ever done it?” asked the odd character.

“Oh, yes, several times.”

“Then, bless my fur overcoat!  I can do it, too, Tom.  When will you be ready to start?”

“To-morrow morning.  Now you are sure you won’t get nervous and want to jump, if the engine happens to break down?”

“Not a bit of it.  I’ll vol-plane whenever you are ready,” and Mr. Damon laughed.

“Well, we’ll hope we won’t have to,” went on Tom.  “And I’ll be very glad of your company.  Mr. Fenwick will, no doubt, be pleased to see you.  I’ve never met him, and it will be nice to have some one to introduce me.  Suppose you come out and see what sort of a craft you are doomed to travel in to-morrow, Mr. Damon.  I believe you never saw my new monoplane.”

“That’s right, I haven’t, but I’d be glad to.  I declare, I’m getting to be quite an aviator,” and Mr. Damon chuckled.  A little later, Tom, having informed his father of the sending of the message. took his eccentric friend out to the shop, and exhibited the butterfly.

As many of you have seen the ordinary monoplane, either on exhibition or in flight, I will not take much space to describe Tom’s.  Sufficient to say it was modeled after the one in which Bleriot made his first flight across the English channel.

The body was not unlike that of a butterfly or dragon fly, long and slender, consisting of a rectangular frame with canvas stretched over it, and a seat for two just aft of the engine and controlling levers.  Back of the seat stretched out a long framework, and at the end was a curved plane, set at right angles to it.  The ends of the plane terminated in flexible wings, to permit of their being bent up or down, so as to preserve the horizontal equilibrium of the craft.

At the extreme end was the vertical rudder, which sent the monoplane to left or right.