XI
STRANGE FATE OF A KITE
"Are you ready for another tramp?" was Andrew Hall's greeting when wemet early on the morning following our return from the peak.
"Certainly I am. What is your programme for to-day?"
"I wish to test the flying qualities of a kite which I haveconstructed since our return last night."
"You don't allow the calls of sleep to interfere very much with youractivity."
"I haven't much time for sleep just now," replied Hall, withoutsmiling. "The kite test will carry us up the flanks of the Teton, butI am not going to try for the top this time. If you will come alongI'll ask you to help me by carrying and operating a light transit Ishall carry another myself. I am desirous to get the elevation thatthe kite attains and certain other data that will be of use to me. Wewill make a detour towards the south, for I don't want old Syx'ssuspicions to be prodded any more."
"What interest can he have in your kite-flying?"
"The same interest that a burglar has in the rap of a policeman'snight-stick."
"Then your experiment to-day has some connection with the solution ofthe great mystery?"
"My dear fellow," said Hall, laying his hand on my shoulder, "until Isee the end of that mystery I shall think of nothing else."
In a few hours we were clambering over the broken rocks on thesouth-eastern flank of the Teton at an elevation of about threethousand feet above the level of Jackson's Hole. Finally Hall pausedand began to put his kite together. It was a small box-shaped affair,very light in construction, with paper sides.
"In order to diminish the chances of Dr. Syx noticing what we areabout," he said, as he worked away, "I have covered the kite withsky-blue paper. This, together with distance, will probably insure usagainst his notice."
In a few minutes the kite was ready. Having ascertained the directionof the wind with much attention, he stationed me with my transit on acommanding rock, and sought another post for himself at a distance oftwo hundred yards, which he carefully measured with a gold tape. Myinstructions were to keep the telescope on the kite as soon as it hadattained a considerable height, and to note the angle of elevation andthe horizontal angle with the base line joining our points ofobservation.
"Be particularly careful," was Hall's injunction, "and if anythinghappens to the kite by all means note the angles at that instant."
As soon as we had fixed our stations Hall began to pay out the string,and the kite rose very swiftly. As it sped away into the blue it wassoon practically invisible to the naked eye, although the telescope ofthe transit enabled me to follow it with ease.
Glancing across now and then at my companion, I noticed that he washaving considerable difficulty in, at the same time, managing the kiteand manipulating his transit. But as the kite continued to rise andsteadied in position his task became easier, until at length he ceasedto remove his eye from the telescope while holding the string withoutstretched hand.
"Don't lose sight of it now for an instant!" he shouted.
For at least half an hour he continued to manipulate the string,sending the kite now high towards the zenith with a sudden pull, andthen letting it drift off. It seemed at last to become almost a fixedpoint. Very slowly the angles changed, when, suddenly, there was aflash, and to my amazement I saw the paper of the kite shrivel anddisappear in a momentary flame, and then the bare sticks came tumblingout of the sky.
"Did you get the angles?" yelled Hall, excitedly.
"Yes; the telescope is yet pointed on the spot where the kitedisappeared."
"Read them off," he called, "and then get your angle with the Syxworks."
"All right," I replied, doing as he had requested, and noticing at thesame time that he was in the act of putting his watch in hispocket. "Is there anything else?" I asked.
"No, that will do, thank you."
Hall came running over, his face beaming, and with the air of a manwho has just hooked a particularly cunning old trout.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "this has been a great success! I could almostdispense with the calculation, but it is best to be sure."
"What are you about, anyhow?" I asked, "and what was it that happenedto the kite?"
"Don't interrupt me just now, please," was the only reply I received.
Thereupon my friend sat down on a rock, pulled out a pad of paper,noted the angles which I had read on the transit, and fell to figuringwith feverish haste. In the course of his work he consulted a pocketalmanac, then glanced up at the sky, muttered approvingly, and finallyleaped to his feet with a half-suppressed "Hurrah!" If I had not knownhim so well I should have thought that he had gone daft.
"Will you kindly tell me," I asked, "how you managed to set the kiteafire?"
Hall laughed heartily. "You though it was a trick, did you?" saidhe. "Well, it was no trick, but a very beautiful demonstration. Yousurely haven't forgotten the scarlet tanager that gave you such asurprise the day before yesterday."
"Do you mean," I exclaimed, startled at the suggestion, "that the fateof the bird had any connection with the accident to your kite?"
"Accident isn't precisely the right word," replied Hall. "The twothings are as intimately related as own brothers. If you should careto hunt up the kite sticks, you would find that they, too, are nowartemisium plated."
"This is getting too deep for me," was all that I could say.
"I am not absolutely confident that I have touched bottom myself,"said Hall, "but I'm going to make another dive, and if I don't bringup treasures greater than Vanderdecken found at the bottom of the sea,then Dr. Syx is even a more wonderful human mystery than I havethought him to be."
"What do you propose to do next?"
"To shake the dust of the Grand Teton from my shoes and go to SanFrancisco, where I have an extensive laboratory."
"So you are going to try a little alchemy yourself, are you?"
"Perhaps; who knows? At any rate, my good friend, I am foreverindebted to you for your assistance, and even more for yourdiscretion, and if I succeed you shall be the first person in theworld to hear the news."