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As before, they now tried to laugh it off, and began to talk about other subjects. There was still considerable to do in the way of preparing the Sky-Bird and themselves for the long trip, and for weeks all four boys were kept hustling to make the final installations of accessories and equipment.
They also arose together, amid a great cheering, some ninety feet apart, shooting grandly up into the air above the heads of the people in the lower end of the field. At a height of a thousand feet, the gray Clarion bent eastward. At fifteen hundred feet, the Sky-Bird did likewise.
"It won't do any harm, will it? Dad and I will hold on to the airplane." "Get a good grip then," warned John Ross, "for you will find there's a terrific pull to the little rascal. Paul and I tried her in that fashion early this morning down in the basement." Bob and his father secured firm holds of the little Sky-Bird, one on each side, where the propeller could not strike them.
I suggested to dad that if the Sky-Bird turned out as we hoped, she would be the very thing to pioneer such a route and give the Clarion people a race to make their eyes stick out; and I said John Ross was willing to head a crew including Paul and myself." "What did he say?" asked John and Paul, almost in the same breath.
The next patch of ground was a little longer, but they had not risen when they struck it at a rate of about twenty-five miles an hour. This pool was also quite deep, and the sudden resistance almost threw the Sky-Bird onto her nose.
Tom actually wrung his hands in his misery, and the others felt just about as humiliated and disgusted with themselves. "Here's where our prize goes a-flickering," groaned Paul. "We never can make Panama in thirty-five minutes!" "I don't know about that," declared his brother grimly. "Here goes for the effort, anyhow. I'll make the Sky-Bird fly as she has never flown before!"
If you had arrived a few hours later there would be thousands of the population here to see you." "We are well satisfied with the hour, then," said John. "The fewer natives we have around the Sky-Bird, the better we like it, both for working and taking off. How long has that other crew been in, sir?" "Not more than a half-hour.
"Yes," replied Bob; "they made it the 20th of July, this summer, weather permitting. We start from Panama at one o'clock in the afternoon." "Our curiosity as to the identity of our competitors will be satisfied then, at least," laughed John. "And their curiosity, too!" put in Tom. "I'll stake my last cent they're just as much in the dark about us and the Sky-Bird II as we are about their outfit."
The landing-field official announced that the Clarion's flyers had left not fifteen minutes before for Freetown, Africa. And upon investigating the helium valves in the wings of the Sky-Bird, our boys found to their dismay that fully a third of the pressure was gone, indicating that an equal quantity of gas had escaped in some manner.
To make sure that all was in perfect working order, they circled for ten minutes over the town, trying the different controls, then turned the Sky-Bird southward. At two thousand feet they suddenly emerged from the fog belt into brilliant sunshine, but the world below was lost to sight, screened by a dense pall of mist.
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