this sky ride; though, later, I'm sure you'll want to try that.
This is only a little flight. You've been promising long enough
to take a trip with me, and now I believe you're trying to back
out."

"No, really I'm not, Tom! Only, at the last minute, the machine
looks so small and frail, and the sky is so--big--"

She glanced up and seemed to shiver just a trifle.

"Don't be thinking of those things, Mary!" laughed Tom Swift.
"Trot along and get ready. The motor never worked better, and we
may break a few speed records this morning. No traffic cops to
stop us, either, as there might be if we were in an auto."

"There you go, Mary !" exclaimed Tom, as if struck with a new
thought. "You've ridden in an auto with me many a time, and you
never were a bit afraid, though we were in more danger than we'll
be this morning."

"Danger, Tom, in an auto? How?"

"Why, danger of a wheel collapsing as we were going full speed;
or the steering knuckle breaking and sending us into a tree;
danger of running into a stone wall or a ditch; danger of some
one running into us, or of us running into some one else. There
isn't one of these dangers on a sky ride."

"No," said Mary slowly. "But there's the danger of falling."