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When it seemed her nose was almost up to the tail of the Clarion, they saw a movement in the bottom of the fuselage of the craft above them, where her trapdoor of glass was situated in the floor of the cabin. Then something gray streaked down through the air. It went whizzing by just in front of the Sky-Bird, and a few moments later plunged into the sea with a great splash.
"The Sky-Bird isn't what she was before that rock went through her, but if nothing worse happens we'll reach Singapore, though it will probably be somewhat later than our sweet friends in the other plane." "We can land at Sumatra, I think, if we have to make repairs before," ventured John. "We ought to cross the northern end of that island in the course of an hour."
We will hurry matters up, and three of us will fill while the other stands guard with a rifle." Mr. MacInnis then helped John, Tom, and Paul carry the big square tins of British petrol, which is the same as American gasoline, from the field shelter to the Sky-Bird, where, in the course of a half-hour, two hundred gallons were poured into the tanks, also ten gallons of oil.
Giddings hesitated, and looked inquiringly at his younger companions. "It looks that way," said John Ross, with a reluctant nod. None needed to explain that the same thought had struck him, also. The stolen blue-prints the skulking man with the swarthy face! He had duplicated the Sky-Bird!
Luckily Paul's freeing of the right elevating plane, gave the pilot fairly good control over the machine, so Bob had no difficulty in bringing the Sky-Bird into a rising swoop, although none too soon. Mounting at a good angle, but one which would not be likely to displace the youth clinging at the tail, he brought the airplane up to two thousand feet. "Now, Paul!
The | Clarion was riding high, and was so close by this time that the windows in her cabin could be made out. Against those panels of glass our friends felt sure some of the rival crew were even at that moment pressing anxious faces as they watched the Sky-Bird steadily creeping up on them.
Before they could reach this African seaport it would be necessary for them to travel considerably more than two thousand miles and meet whatever storms might develop. But all had such confidence in the capabilities of the Sky-Bird that none had any worries, fierce as some of the Atlantic storms were known to be.
They flew a little higher, later, following the general contour of the terraced slopes of the mountains along the Arabian coast. As the Sky-Bird came leisurely over the hills surrounding this British seaport of Aden, they could see that the town nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano, as they had read.
They had caught up with them at last! There was a wild scamper of natives as our flyers came down upon the smooth, hard sands of the beach. In this operation they had to use the utmost care to avoid striking the machine of their contemporaries, but it was accomplished without mishap, and the Sky-Bird came to a stop about seventy feet from the Clarion.
For his pet to cover such a distance had not seemed within the bounds of probability to either himself or John at the start, for all of their great confidence in the flying powers of the new model. Now, as he kept on running and the Sky-Bird continued going with no sign of dropping, Paul really became alarmed for her safety in landing.
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