CHAPTER XV
A BREAKDOWN
The crowd, which at first had been inclined to be amused at thespectacle of the odd little man shinning up a rope, was somewhat aghastat Jerry's cry. And indeed it was a perilous climb that ProfessorSnodgrass had essayed.
For the hangars were rather frail, and were only designed as sheltersfrom the sun and rain, being merely poles set in the earth, with alight frame built on them, and muslin, or thin canvas, stretched over.
"Come down!" pleaded Jerry. "Don't trust your weight to that tent,professor!"
"I must! I must get that insect!" he replied. "It is a very rare kindof flying grasshopper, and I can see it perched up on the ridge pole!"
"What's the matter, is he crazy?" asked a man of Ned.
"No, he's only a scientific enthusiast," was the reply.
The danger of Mr. Snodgrass was now obvious to all, for the frailshelter was swaying with his weight.
"Here! What's going on!" imperiously demanded Noddy Nixon. With BillBerry, he had been over to the secretary's office, and the bully wasnow coming back on the run as he saw the crowd about his tent.
"Get away from there!" he cried. "Ah, it's that Snodgrass man! He'strying to get in our hangar, and damage our machine. Bill, call apoliceman and have him arrested. Get down off there, Snodgrass!" hecalled disrespectfully.
"Oh, dry up!" advised Bob to the bully. "Don't you suppose if he wantedto get in there he could have gone in easier than by climbing up arope?"
"Well, he has no right on our tent," went on Noddy.
"He's after a new kind of grasshopper," explained Ned.
The professor paid no heed to the cries of warning, nor to Jerry'sappeals. Yet he was in grave danger. His motions, as he went up therope hand over hand, for he was quite an athlete, made the main frontpole of the hangar sway more and more, and it was almost on the pointof snapping off.
"Come back! Come back!" pleaded Jerry.
"Not until I get that insect!" replied the scientist. "It is very rare.Ah, I see you, my beauty! Keep still a moment longer and I'll have you!"
He tried to reach up with a short net he took from his pocket,meanwhile supporting himself on the rope by one hand and by twistinghis legs in the strands. But he could not quite stretch far enough.
Then he seemed to become aware of the dangerously swaying pole, whichwas becoming loose in the ground. The professor looked down at thecrowd below him.
"He'll fall in another minute," predicted a man.
"Get a net!" ordered some one.
"There isn't any," was the reply.
"A ladder then! Get a ladder! He'll be killed!"
The professor looked longingly at the grasshopper, then he gazeddown at the crowd below him. To his credit be it said that he wasnot afraid. Yet he saw the impossibility of keeping on. And, if heslid down, the violent motion of the rope thus occasioned might havedisastrous results.
"Come on, Ned and Bob, we've got to save him!" cried Jerry.
"How you going to do it?" asked the merchant's son.
"I saw a big step ladder over here!" went on the tall lad, runningtoward a tent where was housed a dirigible balloon. "It's an immenseone. We can put it up near the rope, and he can get down on it."
They found the ladder standing outside the tent, and it was the workof but a few seconds to rush it back to where the scientist was stilldangling. Nor were they any too soon, for as they got it in place theswaying pole cracked off close to the ground, and the professor justmanaged to throw himself on the ladder which was grasped and held firmby scores of willing hands.
"Oh, dear! the grasshopper got away!" exclaimed the scientist as hereached the ground.
The professor thought more of the loss of the insect than he did of hisown narrow escape, but a little later, having succeeded in capturinga curious kind of bug in the grass near the tent of the _Comet_, heforgot his troubles.
There were many interesting aerial exhibitions that afternoon, andseveral small races in which our heroes did not take part. Noddy Nixonand Bill went in one race and won it, much to the delight of the bully,though really he deserved small credit, for his machine was much morepowerful than those of his competitors.
Then came the turn of our friends to show what could be done in theircraft, and to the wonder of the crowd they went up almost out of sight,coasted down on a bank of air, propelled themselves as a dirigibleballoon, as an aeroplane, making the change high above the earth andthen did some other intricate evolutions. They received many vigorousrounds of applause.
That night our friends made a careful examination of their craft inanticipation of the races for high distance that were to take place onthe morrow.
"Is Noddy going to compete against us?" asked Bob. "I suppose he willthough."
"No, he isn't!" declared Ned, who had just come in from the secretary'soffice.
"Why not?" demanded Jerry.
"Oh he and Bill got huffy at something, or else they are afraid, andthey have withdrawn their entry. The secretary said Noddy was going totake his machine and leave."
"Small loss," commented Bob.
There were not so many entrants in the trial for a record elevationas there had been in the hundred miles race, but there were enough tomake it interesting. Our heroes got a good start and began the upwardspiral climb, going higher and higher, well in advance of all theothers.
They were making good speed, though the Wright biplane was creeping upon them, when there sounded on ominous snapping sound from the motorroom.
"What's that?" cried Jerry, who was in the pilot house.
"I'll see," offered Ned.
He came back with a rueful countenance.
"Well," asked Jerry.
"One of the cylinders is cracked," reported the merchant's son.
"Then we've got to go down," declared Jerry.
"We're going down already," exclaimed Bob, looking at the barograph. Ithad registered a little over two miles, but now the hand was rapidlyswinging the other way as the motor of the _Comet_ lost speed at everyrevolution.