practice flights had been
made and the rivalry was keen. What was the wind going to be like? Would
the day be fine? It was hinted that Tom had some special secret, but
what it was no one knew, unless, perhaps, the Forecaster. The event had
been quite widely advertised--had it not appeared in the _Review_!--and
the neighborhood gathered as though to a country fair. The roped
inclosure was full of people and the dimes which rattled into the dried
gourd more than paid up the club's indebtedness for the wire and the
shipment of the kites.

There were all kinds of races, races for speed, to see whose kite would
reach a certain height the soonest; races for steadiness; races for
altitude. Anton created great excitement by sending up one of the
puppies in a basket attached to a parachute fastened to a kite which was
released when he pulled a string. It was a big parachute and a small
puppy, so that no one feared for the pup's safety.

Ross then came forward with his big kite. It could not be entered in the
races, because all the kites for racing had been of standard size.

"What are those little balls?" one of the boys asked, pointing to
bundles covered with paper and attached to a leading string, which were
fastened at fifty-foot intervals to the leading wire.

"You'll see," said Ross, and up went the big kite. It flew steadily and
well and when a couple of hundred yards above the ground, he made it
fast to one of the stakes. Then, while every one watched, he gave the
leading string a sharp tug, and then a succession of pulls, breaking
loose each of the little bundles attached to the leading wire. And, as
the people looked, first one and then another American flag burst out of
its covering, the lowermost and largest bundle being a big Stars and
Stripes that floated out gallantly above the kite-ground.

"Now," said Ross, turning to the Kite-Master, as the boys had begun to
call Tom, "out with your secret! What is it?"

Tom turned to the Forecaster.

"Is it all right for to-day?" he asked.

The weather expert looked keenly at the sky, glanced at the weather-vane
and the whirling anemometer, and nodded his head.

"I think so," he said. "The weather's a little gusty, but this is the
time to try. Nothing venture, nothing have!"

At the word, Tom ran off into the house. The boys watched him, wondering
what new contrivance the Kite-Master was going to produce.

He reappeared in a moment, carrying with him a new kite, a l