It was one of the strangest adventures of their lives and neither one of
them could hit on any explanation of the hillmen's conduct.
It did not take long to reach the aeroplane, and Roy turned triumphantly
to Jeb.
"Well," he said, "what do you think now?"
"Wa'al, it ain't flyin', is it?"
"Of course not, but I can make it."
"You kin?"
"Certainly."
"Flap its wings and all that like a burd?"
"No, it doesn't flap its wings."
"Then how kin it fly?" propounded Jeb.
A murmur of approval ran through the throng. Jeb's logic appealed to
their primitive intellects.
"Nothing can't fly that don't flap its wings," said one of them.
"But if it didn't fly, how in tarnation did it git here?" asked an old
man with a grizzled beard and blackened stumps of teeth projecting from
shrunken gums.
This appeared to be a poser for even Jeb. He had nothing to say.
"If you like I'll give you a ride in it," proffered Roy to Jeb.
"All right; only no monkey tricks now."
"What do you mean?"
"Wa'al, in course I know it won't fly, but if it does you'll hev to let
me out.
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