"I say, Frank, this is glorious. How much better she flies than when
she was laden down with her cabin and fittings."

Billy shouted this comment at the top of his voice, so as to be heard
by the others above the roar of the engine.

Far below them--spread out like the figures on a carpet--they could
see the plain; with its big crowd massed in one corner and dozens of
tiny figures scuttling about so as to get a better view of the
air-craft by getting right underneath it.

"Watch, I'm going to give them a scare."

It was Frank who spoke, and, as he did so, he shoved forward his
control-wheel post till the front elevating planes were dropped at an
acute angle. There was a sharp snap as he opened the circuit and the
roar of the propellers came to a sudden stop.

"Good Lord, Frank, what are you going to do?" gasped Billy, to whom
floating in the air with the engine cut out was a new and somewhat
terrifying sensation.

"Glide," was the reply.

"Hold on tight now!"

Suddenly the great craft began to descend in a quick dropping rush
that sent the air tingling against Billy's cheeks as though they had
been plunging through a hailstorm. There was a mighty buzzing in his
ears, and every stay and wire on the big craft sang its own song, as