“Don’t I wish I’d had my little camera along, so I could have snapped a shot at that dandy chap!  The fellows would believe me then, when I told about what happened to us here.  And anyway, Frank, I don’t think we’ll forget this camp, do you?”

“Well, hardly,” replied his chum, smiling broadly.  “Because we’ve sure had enough happen to us here to make us remember.  But I’m glad to find there’s going to be more space for the run than I thought at first.”

“We’ll need every inch of it,” declared Andy, as he looked dubiously at the tops of the lower trees about the place where the snake had held forth.  “Don’t I wish we’d brought a few sticks of dynamite along, though.”

“For goodness’ sake, what would we want with dynamite?  Think you could have blown up that snake, do you?” asked Frank, as they started to cross the glade toward the waiting monoplane.

“Oh! shucks, no.  I was thinking how we could plant ’em under a bunch of those trees and enlarge the gap!” declared Andy.

At that Frank burst out into a hearty laugh.

“What a fellow you are for wild notions.  Think of us blowing up the forest to make an aviation field!  I reckon, however, seeing that you haven’t got the dynamite, Andy, we’ll have to do the best we can.  Take hold here and we’ll push the machine just as far back as it will go.  Perhaps we can gain a few yards at this end that will count in the long run.”

Frank was particularly careful about every little detail.  He knew just what he had to depend on.  In the past he had made it a pet hobby to rise in as short a space as possible; and now this faculty seemed destined to prove a valuable asset in their speedy climbing up.

“All ready?” he asked, grimly.

Andy took one last look at the face of his chum.  He saw that Frank’s mouth was compressed in that firm way that stood for so much; and somehow Andy’s wavering confidence returned in full measure.  When Frank Bird looked like that, things always had gone according to his will; and they must now!

“Yes, I’m fit, Frank,” he said, quietly.  “Let her go when you’re ready!”

In the many times that the two boys had made ascents, Andy could never remember that his pulses throbbed with one-half the suspense they did now.  Not even on that never to be forgotten initial performance, when for the first time they felt the strange sensation of leaving the solid ground in a flying machine, had he been so excited, so nervous, so filled with alternate hope and fear.

Frank had taken every possible precaution.  He had thoroughly studied the ground, and made sure that no obstacle would be apt to cause the running gear of the aeroplane to swerve, and thus throw them off their course.

All he could do was to start the machinery, get a rise at the quickest possible second, and be ready to shut off power if he realized that the feat they were about to attempt were impossible, so as to avoid smashing the planes against a tree.