"One against twenty. That's the safety margin. And, if we do
fall, it will be like landing in a feather bed! There, don't wait
any longer. Go and get ready."

Mary sighed, and then, seeming to summon her nerve to her aid,
she smiled brightly, waved her hand to Tom, and hastened toward
his home, where Mrs. Baggert the matronly housekeeper, was
waiting to help the girl attire herself in a flying-suit of
leather.

Mary Nestor, who had a very warm place in the heart of Tom
Swift, had, as he stated, some time since promised to take a trip
in the air with the young inventor. But she had kept putting it
off, for one reason or another, until Tom began to despair of
ever getting her to accompany him. To-day, however, when she had
called to inquire about his father, who had been slightly ill,
Tom had, after the social visit, insisted on the promise being
kept.

He had his mechanic get out one of the safest, though a speedy,
double machine, and, with Mary to watch, Tom had taken a trial
flight, just to show her how easy it was. It was not the first
time she had seen him take to the air, but now she watched with
different emotions, for she was vitally interested.

Tom had sailed down from aloft, making a landing in the
aviation field he had constructed near his home, and then he had
insisted that Mary should keep her promise to take a sky ride
with him.