reach that far, and Jack probably is hanging on with his hands,
feet and eyelids, so he can't let go with one hand even."

"I'll tell you how we can fix that," Dave suggested.

"How?" inquired Harry, ready at all times to consider any suggestions
and act upon them if they seemed better than the ones he had made.

"Let's take a loop of the line and fasten it around my body under my
arms. You can be inside the machine paying out slack as I need it. I
can take a similar loop and by crawling under the machine I can reach
Jack all right and pass the loop about his body. Then you can haul in
slack bit by bit as he crawls along the truss rod to the side of the
fuselage. In that way there will be practically no danger, for the
loop of line about our bodies will prevent our falling if we should
slip."

"Much obliged!" was Harry's acknowledgment of the suggestion. "But,"
he went on, "I think it would be better for me to do the work."

"Excuse me for insisting," Dave said in a modest manner, "but I am
quite sure that I am better fitted than you. My work in the Northwest
has always required considerable work with my arms, and besides that I
am pretty well developed about the arms and shoulders. I don't want to
discredit your ability, but I'm sure, don't you know, that I am
stronger than you and could do the work better. You'll let me try,
won't you? Really, you know, you ought to let me help!"

"It's not to your discredit at all, Harry," put in Ned, "that Dave has
larger muscles than you and is perhaps stronger. This is a job that
requires all the muscle possible, so I think we'd better let him try
it. We must get Jack out of that place as quickly as possible."

"All right," agreed Harry reluctantly, for he very much disliked to
permit anyone but himself to even attempt the rescue of his chum.

Dave lost no time in tying a bowline in a bight at the two ends of the
length of line. One of these he passed over his own body. The other
he took in his teeth. In another moment he was over the side of the
car, while Harry did his best to balance the Eagle as he had planned
for Dave to do, at the same time paying out line as it was needed.

Presently the lad felt the machine tipping slightly in his direction
and knew that Dave had succeeded in reaching the level of the bottom of
the car and was crawling along the truss rod underneath.

For a short space of time the two boys in the ear anxiously waited.
Harry's patien