Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/42

 began circling and the shore apparently flew up to meet them.

The bird made an egg-shell landing on the firm level ground covered with a layer of windblown sand well back from the seashore and the dunes.

Hardy vaulted out and inspected his passengers.

"Well, boys, still alive and kicking! 'Fraid I'd find two corpses lashed to the mast like the skipper in the Wreck of the Hesperus."

The lads were more like two spirited colts straining on their leashes. Any pallor that might have blanched their faces at the beginning of the ascent had given place to a vivid flush from the stinging wind and the excitement. Their eyes sparkled with the zest of a new and thrilling experience. Every exclamation and superlative in their vocabulary tumbled out in their effort to express their feelings.

"Say, how about letting us loose?" finally asked Jimmy. "I'm tired of being hitched up to this flamingo."

"Don't want to stay like the Siamese twins they used to exhibit in the side show, eh?"