e it for the
world--not even to have saved my own life. Good-by!"

He turned the indicator and mounted skyward, to the unbounded amazement
of the fishermen, who stared after him with round eyes and wide open
mouths.

"This sight will prove to them that the sailors are not crazy," he
thought, as he turned to the south and sped away from the bluff. "I
suppose those simple fishermen will never forget this wonderful
occurrence, and they'll probably make reg'lar heroes of the two men who
have crossed the Pacific through the air."

He followed the coast line, keeping but a short distance above the
earth, and after an hour's swift flight reached the city of San
Francisco.

His shoulders were sore and stiff from the heavy strain upon them of
the previous day, and he wished more than once that he had some of his
mother's household liniment to rub them with. Yet so great was his
delight at reaching once more his native land that all discomforts were
speedily forgotten.

Much as he would have enjoyed a day in the great metropolis of the
Pacific slope, Rob dared not delay longer than to take a general view
of the place, to note its handsome edifices and to wonder at the throng
of Chinese inhabiting one section of the town.

These things were much more plainly and quickly viewed by Rob from
above than by threading a way through the streets on foot; for he
looked down upon the city as a bird does, and covered miles with a
single glance.

Having satisfied his curiosity without attempting to alight, he turned
to the southeast and followed the peninsula as far as Palo Alto, where
he viewed the magnificent buildings of the university. Changing his
course to the east, he soon reached Mount Hamilton, and, being
attracted by the great tower of the Lick Observatory, he hovered over
it until he found he had attracted the excited gaze of the inhabitants,
who doubtless observed him very plainly through the big telescope.

But so unreal and seemingly impossible was the sight witnessed by the
learned astronomers that they have never ventured to make the incident
public, although long after the boy had darted away into the east they
argued together concerning the marvelous and incomprehensible vision.
Afterward they secretly engrossed the circumstance upon their records,
but resolved never to mention it in public, lest their wisdom and
veracity should be assailed by the skeptical.

Meantime Rob rose to a higher altitude, and sped s