CHAPTER IX
AN ACCIDENT
“Well, they don’t look different, Joe, from their appearance when I saw them first,” commented Benny Turton.
“And they don’t seem a bit safer,” added the veteran clown. “I say again what I said before, Joe, that you’ll break your neck if you try to fly with those things.”
Joe, with his two friends, had arrived at Mr. Brader’s factory, and the wings, as reconstructed by Mr. Ryden, had been brought out for inspection.
“Well, as to that,” said Joe, “I’ll answer you one at a time. The wings may not look very different, but they are. Aren’t they, Mr. Ryden?”
“Oh, yes,” the inventor said. “The principle is the same—that is, we use a storage battery and motors to vibrate the wings. But the wings themselves are larger and are differently curved, so they will beat the air with more force. And they are moved by gear wheels and torsion rods now, instead of by sprocket chains, as Joe had them at first. In that way, by using motors only slightly more powerful and a storage battery of somewhat larger capacity, we get much more force. I think Joe can fly this time.”
“Well, we’ll soon know,” asserted the young circus performer, “for I’m going up in them.”
“I’d like you first to see a preliminary test without getting into the cage,” said the inventor. “We’ll send the Bat up alone.”
“All right; maybe that would be best,” agreed Joe.
Accordingly the machine was taken out into the factory lot, and with the connecting wire, the holding rope and other devices arranged about as before, Joe threw the switch that sent the current into the motors.
At once the wings vibrated powerfully, and, once the motors were running at three-quarter speed, up rose the wings of steel, soaring through the air, and carrying a weight equal to Joe’s body.
“Hurrah!” cried Joe, “they’re going up! They’re going up, and I haven’t used the full strength of the current either! Hurrah!”
Upward soared the wings to the full length of the holding rope. Joe looked at the strength-indicating gauge, and noted a pull of sixty pounds. This with all the weight aboard that the Bat would have to carry, indicated good reserve power.
“They’re a success!” cried Joe.
“Not until you try them yourself,” said Mr. Ryden with a smile.
The wings of steel hovered in the air above the heads of Joe and his friends. It was a Saturday, and no workmen were in the factory, consequently there was no crowd to witness the test.
“What do you think now, Bill?” asked Joe, his eyes shining in triumph.
The veteran clown pondered for a moment.
“Well,” he said slowly, as he looked up at the Bat, which was tugging at the stout holding rope, “they went up, that’s sure, Joe; but what about coming down?”
“That’s easy. All I have to do is to shut off the current, and they’ll soar down like a bird. What do you think of them, Ben?”
“They’re great!” exclaimed the human fish. “But I’d think twice before trusting myself once to them, Joe.”
“I have thought twice. I’m going up in a little while. You’ve turned the trick, Mr. Ryden.”
“Glad you think so. There were a lot of problems I had to solve that I had never met with before. It was a novel idea—making wings of steel—and I give you credit for originating it, Joe Strong.”
“Well, now for a real test!” cried the lad. “Here they come down!”
As he spoke he shut off the electric current. The wings stopped flapping up and down, and the machine slowly settled to earth, with a sort of volplane motion, familiar to all who have seen aeroplanes glide earthward.
“Don’t let it down too fast,” cautioned Mr. Ryden.
“I’ll not,” Joe answered. Occasionally he turned on the current for a moment, and this, by vibrating the wings, would check the downward sweep of the Bat, until finally it settled on the grass not far from the watchers.
“And now for my part in the programme,” remarked Joe, as he proceeded to make the final test.
He had brought with him his football helmet, which he used when riding his motor-cycle on the high wire, but, aside from this, Joe took no precautions. There were none he could take, for the use of a life-net was out of the question.
“But if I do fall, I won’t fall hard,” he told his friends, “for the wings will themselves act as a check to a rapid descent.”
The holding rope was taken off, and the pull-gauge removed, while Mr. Ryden detached the electrical wire. When inside the metal and leather framework of the Bat the current would be turned on and off by Joe himself, a switch being placed where he could easily reach it. As has been mentioned before, the steering was done with the feet.
In the original wings Joe’s arms had been thrust through loops in the underside of the wings themselves. But in the new machine the wings vibrated too rapidly to allow him to do this, so a new resting place had been devised for his arms.
In a short time Joe was ready to get inside the framework, which was so hinged as to permit ready entrance and exit. He took his place, and looked at his waiting friends.
“Watch me soar!” he said, smiling. “I’ll not go very high nor very far at first.”
“The shorter distance you go up, the less you’ll have to cover coming down,” said the old clown grimly.
“Don’t worry!” laughed Joe.
The young experimenter was the coolest of them all, for even Mr. Ryden, who admitted having once gone up in a balloon, showed nervousness. But, as has been said, Joe seemed to have been born without nerves. Or, perhaps, they were under such perfect control that what to others would be dizzy heights were as nothing to him.
There was a moment of hesitation, while Joe and Mr. Ryden looked over every part to see that nothing had been misplaced by the experimental flight.
“She seems to be all right,” the lad announced as he looked at the electrical switch, and moved his feet on the rudder controls, showing that they answered perfectly.
“Yes, I guess there’s nothing more that we can do,” said the inventor.
“Well, here I go, then!” exclaimed Joe.
With a quick motion he threw over the electrical switch. There was a humming, throbbing note as the motors took up the current, and then the wings, controlled by the gear wheels and torsion rods, began to flap up and down. Slowly they vibrated at first, for Joe was feeding the current in gradually. Then the wings of the Bat went up and down faster and faster until one could hardly distinguish them except as a blur of blackness.
“He isn’t going to make it—he’s too heavy,” murmured Bill Watson.
But, even as he spoke, the machine rose from the ground, and then, as they looked on in wonder, the Bat soared upward on a long slant, taking Joe with it.
“Here I go!” he called down to them.
For a moment they were speechless with wonder, and then Benny gave a cheer in which the other two joined.
“Hurrah! Hurrah!” yelled the human fish. “Joe’s done it again! He’s put another one over!”
Up and up the youth went on his wings of steel—up and up, until he was several hundred feet above the earth. And then the watchers saw him sail out across an open field.
“He’s doing it! He’s doing it!” cried Bill Watson. “Just as he said he would.”
And Joe was. The wings of steel seemed to be a perfect success. They had carried the lad up, and he was able to guide himself in any direction he desired, even against the wind.
“Though he won’t be able to do much against a powerful wind,” said the inventor. “The wings aren’t strong enough for that. But they are just right for exhibition purposes. See him go! He’s as fearless as a bird!”
And so the boy was, and almost as free in the air as a feathered songster. Back and forth he guided the Bat, to one side and then to the other, now up and now down.
“Now he’s coming back!” exclaimed Ben. “Say, I believe I’d like to try it myself. It looks perfectly safe.”
“It isn’t as easy as it looks,” commented the inventor.
“Look!” suddenly exclaimed the clown. “Is he all right? It seems to me that the thing is lopsided!”
“It is!” agreed Mr. Ryden. “Something is wrong! He’s tilting too much to one side. I wonder what can be the matter?”
They saw with alarm that Joe was not flying as well as before. He was headed for the apparatus factory, and in another moment the machine was hovering over the roof. Then the Bat was seen to drop suddenly.
“He’s going to fall on the roof! He’ll be hurt—killed maybe!” cried Benny.