Scudding before the wind, for the half gale that was blowing had shifted
during their battle with the waves, the aerial voyagers made fast time
beneath the storm wrack racing by overhead. In fact, it appeared to the
boys that they actually outflew the wind. At any rate, it was not long
before the thunder of the great breakers on a low, sandy beach told them
that they were close to the shore.
An instant later houses and streets came into view, and Dr. Perkins
began looking anxiously about beneath for a place to land. He soon spied
a spot,--a large ball-ground, or at least it appeared to be one, not far
from the center of the city. Calling to Frank to "stand by" the engines,
he began to descend in a series of circles.
Coming to earth in a high wind is a risky bit of business for the air
man, about as dangerous a maneuver, in fact, as can be imagined. But in
this case there was no choice for Dr. Perkins and his young friends,
unless they wanted to be carried clear across the cape and into Delaware
Bay.
Below them they could now see excited crowds racing toward the
ball-ground, as soon as it became evident that that was the spot where
the air men intended to alight. This did not please Dr. Perkins at all.
A crowd was the last thing that he wished to have about when he made his
drop earthward. But there was no help for it, and he kept on descending,
trusting to the good sense of the throngs below to get out of the way
when the time came.
But crowds have never been remarkable for their common sense, and this
one was no exception. The last "bank" had been made with safety, and the
_Sea Eagle_ was making a clean-cut swoop to earth, when the crowd rushed
in right below her. To have kept the craft on its course would have
meant much injury, and possible loss of life. On the other hand, Dr.
Perkins knew that in the wind that was blowing it would be dangerous in
the extreme to the air craft to change her course.
"Get out of the way!" he shouted.
"Out of the way unless you want to get hurt!" yelled Frank and Harry.
But the crowd, like foolish sheep, only stared and gaped, and made not
the slightest effort to avoid the on-driving _Sea Eagle_.
There was only one thing to do, and Dr. Perkins did it. There was a
quick twist of his steering wheel, and the _Sea Eagle_, instantly
obeying her helm, darted off in an opposite direction to the one in
which she had been advancing. Like a flash Dr. Perkins pulled the rising
lever, at the same time shouting to Frank to stop the engines
momentarily. He thought that the _Sea Eagle_ would rise of her own
volition, and knew that if the engines kept driving at top speed that
his craft would be plunged prow first into the earth.
So he chose the lesser of the two evils, and the maneuver might have
been successful but for one thing. There was not room in which to
execute it.
The _Sea Eagle_ hesitated, half rose, and then crashed down to the
ground, landing heavily on one wing tip and smashing it to bits. Frank
and Harry were pitched clean out of the hydroplane substructure when the
impact came, and a cry of alarm went up from the crowd. But Dr. Perkins
clung to his seat and brought the big craft to a stop.
Fortunately neither Frank nor Harry had been much injured, beyond being
badly shaken up and bruised, and they were both on their feet again in a
jiffy after the accident. The crowd, as if realizing that its actions
had had a good deal to do with the accident, forebore to press in, and
they made their way to Dr. Perkins' side without difficulty.
"Is she much injured?" was Frank's first question.
"By good luck I think we have escaped serious damage," rejoined Dr.
Perkins, "but only an examination can tell."
At this moment a well-dressed, prosperous-looking man came elbowing
through the crowd. He came straight up to Dr. Perkins with hand
extended.
"Well, Perkins!" he exclaimed. "I always told you you'd have a tumble
some time, and now you've had it; right in my back yard, too. But I'm
sincerely glad to see that neither you nor your machine appears to be
much injured."
The newcomer was Mr. James Studley, an old acquaintance of the
inventor's, who was summering at Cape May. The doctor was very glad to
see him and accepted his cordial invitation to spend the night at his
house, the boys, of course, being included in the invitation.
In the meantime, a squadron of police had arrived, who drove back the
crowds, and arrangements were made to keep a guard on duty all night
till an examination of the wrecked machine could be made.
"The accident, if it had to happen, could not have occurred more
conveniently, so to speak," Dr. Perkins confided to his companions as
they followed Mr. Studley to a handsome house not far away. "Mr. Studley
is a manufacturer of aeroplanes, and has started a factory here, so that
very probably we can get material to repair our damages without much
trouble."
This was good news indeed to the boys, who had begun to fear that the
trip might be abandoned.
They enjoyed a good dinner and a change into dry clothes as the guests
of Mr. Studley and his wife, and bright and early the next morning
repairs were made to the splintered wing tip, which was not so badly
damaged as had at first appeared. Mr. Studley, who had provided workmen
and materials for the task from his aeroplane factory, refused to hear
of any compensation.
"Such services should be rendered freely and gladly by one birdman to
another," he declared laughingly. "Who knows that some day I may not
drop in on you at your island, in more senses than one."
As every trace of the storm had vanished, and the morning was bright and
clear, no obstacle opposed itself to the continuance of their journey as
soon as the repairs had been completed. So fine was the weather, in
fact, that Mr. Studley declared his intention of accompanying them in a
light "runabout" aeroplane of the monoplane class, for a short distance.
The machine, a pretty little affair of the Bleriot type, was soon
wheeled out, and Mr. Studley declared all was ready for the start. As on
the evening before, a large crowd had gathered, but the police kept them
back, and gave the two vastly different aeroplanes a clear field in
which to rise. A greater contrast could not well be imagined than that
presented by the heavy, rather cumbersome-looking _Sea Eagle_ with her
substantial underbody and huge wing spread, and the trim, dainty little
monoplane, which was named the _Green Firefly_.
"We're all ready when you are," exclaimed Dr. Perkins, turning to his
friend, who was already seated in his long-bodied, gauzy-winged air
craft.
"All right! Clear the way!" cried Mr. Studley with a wave of his hands.
His mechanics gave the propeller of the monoplane a twirl, as it was not
provided with self-starting mechanism, and a moment later the roaring
fusillade of the _Sea Eagle's_ motor was drowning the sharp, angry,
hornet-like buzzing of the _Green Firefly_.
"Go!" yelled Mr. Studley, and simultaneously, as it seemed, the two sky
ships dashed forward over the smooth sward.
"Hooray!" shouted the crowd.
"They're off!" shouted others.
And then, a minute later:
"Look! They're going up!"
"So they are!" cried the spectators, as if there was any room for doubt
about the matter.
The light _Firefly_ was first, by the fraction of a second, to point her
sharp nose up toward the tranquil blue dome of the sky. But the _Sea
Eagle_ was not tardy in following.
"Come on!" shouted Mr. Studley, casting a swift glance back over his
shoulder at his large comrade of the air. He appeared to think that he
would have little difficulty in distancing the huge machine.
"We haven't begun yet!" cried Dr. Perkins back to him, with an answering
wave of the hand.
Nor was the _Sea Eagle_ as yet making a quarter of the speed she was
capable of. On account of her great weight, and general size of her wing
spread, it was not advisable to "open everything up" at once when she
made an ascent from the land.
The _Firefly_ darted ahead like some creature that rejoiced to be
sporting in its element. But close behind came a roar and whirr as Frank
let out another notch on the _Sea Eagle_. Up and up they flew, while the
crowd below dwindled to pigmies, and the houses looked like so many toy
Noah's Arks. It was plain enough that Mr. Studley was engaged in a
good-natured effort to show his friend that the _Firefly_ was an
infinitely faster craft than her cumbersome rival. He darted this way
and that, making spirals and doing rocking-chair evolutions with the
perfection of aerial grace.
Dr. Perkins attempted none of these stunts, but from time to time he
turned back to Frank and nodded as a signal to give the craft a little
more power.
By the time the twin propellers were developing their top push and
speed, the owner of the _Firefly_ realized that he had a tussle on his
hands. He ceased his graceful evolutions and settled down to real
flying. But he had not gone a mile over the aerial race track before the
_Sea Eagle_ thundered past him like a "Limited" of the skies.
"Good-by and thank you!" Dr. Perkins found time to yell, as they flashed
past, bound due south once more.
"Good-by. Good luck to you!" came from Mr. Studley, as he waved his hand
in the realization that he was beaten.
There was no time to exchange more words. In a few minutes the boys,
looking back, could only see a black speck like a shoe button against
the sky to mark where the defeated _Firefly_ was turning about and
heading for home.
As for the _Sea Eagle_, at sixty miles an hour, and with her motor going
faster every minute, that staunch and speedy craft was winging her way
at top speed for her distant goal.