et from all. Harriet, his
wife, knew he was working on an invention of some sort, as he had been
engaged in this sort of experimenting a greater part of the time since
they wedded. When his perpetual motion machine failed to work "Had"
Beckley had lost interest in Node's inventions. Hence, the flying
machine under process of construction was known only to Alfred and the
inventor. It was their intention to completely surprise the world at
large and that part of it in particular bounded by the Brownsville
borough lines, by having Node flit over the town and perhaps over the
river; then later on, to Uniontown, to Pittsburg and other cities. Then
Alfred and Node would travel all over the world exhibiting the flying
machine.

In those days steam was the only propelling power. Gasoline engines were
unknown, electricity had not been harnessed except for telegraphing. The
propelling power of Node's flying machine lay in the arms and legs of
the one who soared in it.

The invention was a very simple contrivance, from which very fact Node
argued it would be successful. There were two large wings, nine feet in
length and of a proportionate breadth, constructed of very light
material, and, at Alfred's suggestion, covered with feathers. Alfred
felt it would be more apt to fly if it wore feathers. Every backyard,
wherein a family killed chickens, ducks or turkeys, was ransacked for
feathers. The variegated plumage of the machine would have defied the
most learned of ornithologists in defining the species of the bird
family to which it belonged.

There was what Node termed a "rear extension." Alfred invariably alluded
to it as "her tail." Why he applied the feminine gender to the machine
was another of those vagaries of which inventors are always possessed.

Node termed the wings, "side-propellers." The arms of the aerialist were
thrust through loops under the wings, hand-holds were at the proper
length from the base of the wings. There was a light frame, to which the
wings were attached; two light ropes, through pulleys worked by the
feet, flopped the rear extension up and down. The rear extension could
be also used as a steering apparatus. The entire thing depended upon the
movements of the arms. After the machine was far and away up in the air,
it would sail as do eagles and buzzards, so Node asserted.

The only doubt Node had was as to possessing strength to raise the thing
to the proper height. When he once got in the air, h