When the Flying Road Racer took the air the weight that the craft
carried was distributed as follows:
Aluminum body, wheels, motor, suspension wires, etc. 900 pounds.
Five passengers. (approx.) 800 pounds.
Provisions, water, etc. 250 pounds.
(The provisions included canned goods, preserved butter, tea and cocoa,
flour, sugar, salt and a few delicacies.)
Radolite crystals, instruments, etc. 275 pounds.
Other articles,—including Ned’s last-minute contributions. 300 pounds.
Total 2,525 pounds.
This left lifting power to raise 2,475 lbs., which, however, could be
increased to a considerable extent by utilizing the reserve sections of
the gas bag.
Jack roughly estimated the combined weights of those they were to
rescue,—his father, his uncle, Abner Jennings and the two sailors,—at a
little over one thousand pounds. Thus, it will be seen, that there was
no reason why the Flying Road Racer should not be able to perform all
that was required of her, with some lifting power left over for
emergencies.
The boy inventors’ craft had been in the air about an hour when Tom
descried, far below them, the gleam of a light. In that wild country it
was not likely to betoken anything else but the site of Herrera’s
plantation houses.
They all agreed on this, and Jack, after a consultation with his
comrades, decided that the time had come to descend. The plan they
arrived at, after threshing the situation over in all its bearings, was
to drop in the most suitable place they could find, adjacent to the
plantation buildings.
Then the gas bag was to be reinflated, ready for emergencies, and two of
the party were to reconnoiter the ground as carefully as possible. The
remainder of the rescue was to be left to circumstances. At one hour and
ten minutes after midnight. Jack started the exhaust engine up.
Instantly the Flying Road Racer began to drop downward through space
with her planes set at a slight angle, as Jack did not want to coast to
earth too rapidly. This course soon brought the craft above the summits
of the forest trees, at a safe distance from the light they had
perceived from aloft. To make assurance of being unnoticed doubly sure.
Jack had shut off the motor. Silently as a night bird the great bulk of
the flying auto settled earthward.
All this time their eyes had been strained to sight an open space in
which they might land without risk of damaging the balloon bag. Tom was
the first to see, through the night glasses, such an area of cleared
land amid the forest.
It was a tract about ten acres in extent, and formed, as they surmised
later, one of the outlying fields of Herrera’s plantation. It had not
yet been put into cultivation, however, and afforded as fine a spot for
an air craft to ground as could be imagined. Half an hour after the
descent had begun the Flying Road Racer settled as lightly as a bit of
breeze-blown down on earth once more.
Thanks to her shock absorbers, hardly a jar was felt by those on board
as she landed with her bag half deflated and limp and wrinkled. No time
was lost in alighting and throwing out the anchors, contrived by Jack,
used for securing the craft to earth in case of a sudden wind springing
up. These anchors differed considerably from the sea type of “mud hook.”
They consisted, in fact, merely of discs of iron shaped like an inverted
mushroom. One edge of the disc was driven into the ground, and the shape
of the holding appliances was such that an upward tug merely served to
force them more deeply into the earth.
The adventurers figured that they were about half a mile to the west of
the spot where they had seen the light, which they believed marked the
site of Herrera’s plantation houses. They also estimated that there were
left to them about two hours and a half more of darkness. There was
urgent necessity then for immediate action.
Much to the chagrin of Tom and Ned, but to the huge delight of Jupe, who
had no great fancy for the work in hand. Jack and Captain Andrews were
to be the ones to do the reconnoitering. Tom and Ned were ordered to
stand by the Flying Road Racer and be ready for any sudden development
that might occur.
While Captain Andrews and Jack were absent, it would be the others’ duty
also to refill the gas bag, so that the aero-auto might be ready for an
instant ascent in case of need.
These preparations completed, the two who were to assume the most risky
part of the night’s work each selected a fully loaded gas-gun. In
addition. Captain Andrews carried an automatic revolver; but it was on
the former weapons that they would largely depend.
There remained nothing more but the leave-takings, and the fervent
wishes for success in the daring enterprise, coming from the lads who
were to be left behind. These final ceremonies being disposed of, the
grizzled old sailor and his young companion set off. Tom and Ned watched
them till the shadows of the forest swallowed them up.
By good fortune, the two, upon whom so much depended, struck a trail
almost immediately after their first plunge into the blackness that
prevailed under the tropical trees. The path had evidently been used by
the laborers who had made the clearing beyond. It was a broad,
well-defined track, and their progress was rapid and almost noiseless.
Neither of them spoke as they made their way along the path. The
situation was too critical for words, and Jack crept along behind
Captain Andrews, hardly daring to breathe.
He was on the tip-toe of excitement and anxiety, as was natural. At the
end of the trail they were following’ lay either success or dire
failure. There was no middle ground. In the event of their failing in
their mission. Jack could not disguise from himself that the
consequences would be awful indeed. He had come in contact with Herrera
only once, but that single occasion had amply sufficed to show him the
character of the man.
From time to time, as they advanced, they paused and listened intently.
But, except for the drone of the night insects of the jungle, and the
occasional scream of a nocturnal bird, there was no sound other than the
sighing of the breeze in the tree tops far above.
There is no place more mysterious than the jungle at night. The dense
thickets seem to the nervous traveler to hold all manner of hidden
perils. Some of these are not altogether imaginary, either. The cunning,
cruel jaguar, the huge serpents, and a score of other dangers lurk in
the shadows.
Fortunately, neither of our friends was burdened with sensitive nerves,
and it was well they were not, for their errand was not one for timid
folk to embark upon.
They glided along after all these pauses, making as fast time as
possible. All at once Captain Andrews, who was in the lead, as we know,
stopped abruptly.
So abruptly, in fact, that Jack almost collided with him.
“What’s the——” began Jack.
But instantly the Captain clapped a hand over his mouth. He raised the
other in a gesture that Jack read instantly: “Silence!”
Just ahead of them. Jack now perceived, the path broadened and emerged
on a considerable clearing. The black outlines of several buildings,
were scattered about this open space.
From one of them hung a lantern, shedding a yellow patch of light all
about it. This, evidently, was the light they had seen from above.
As they stood, still as graven images in the protecting shadows of the
forest, a stalwart figure, with a rifle over its shoulder, paced into
the circle of light and then vanished again.
“A sentry!” huskily breathed Captain Andrews. “If we thought we’d catch
them napping we’ve been badly mistaken.”