"Yes; that is unless--"
But Dr. Perkins broke off abruptly. The _Sea Eagle_ had now attained a height of some five hundred feet, at which alt.i.tude he intended to keep the craft till they reached the vicinity of the disabled yacht.
The cause of the sudden breaking off of his shouted remarks was this: Without the slightest warning the _Sea Eagle_ gave a sickening dip downward, and rushed toward the sea; or rather, to those in the falling ship, it seemed as if the sea was racing up devouringly toward them.
"Gracious, what"s happened?" shouted Harry.
But Frank was too busy with the engine to answer just then.
"Power! Give me lots of power!" yelled Dr. Perkins.
But although Frank instantly opened up the motor to its full capacity of two thousand revolutions a minute, the downward rush still continued.
"The sea! We"ll be plunged into the sea!" cried Harry, in alarm, gripping a side support.
Indeed there appeared to be good cause for his apprehension, for the _Sea Eagle_ was falling like a stone flung into s.p.a.ce. All this, of course, took place in far less time than it takes to describe or to read it. In fact, hardly had Harry shouted his fears before the _Sea Eagle"s_ "hull"-as we must call the hydroplane part of the craft-struck the water, and a huge cloud of spray flew high on either side.
But instead of diving, the _Sea Eagle_ shot forward over the waves, gliding over their tops for some time before Frank shut off the motor.
Even then such was the "shooting" velocity gained, that the _Sea Eagle_ still continued to scoot along until the young engineer, in response to Dr. Perkins" instructions, reversed her propellers, and thus brought the craft to a speedy standstill.
"What on earth happened?" demanded Frank anxiously, as the _Sea Eagle_ lay still, bobbing up and down on the gentle swell.
"We struck an air pocket. An empty hole in s.p.a.ce where there was no ether to support us," explained Dr. Perkins.
"Gracious; I thought we were goners," cried Harry, still a little shaky over the fearful sensation of the fall.
"Had the _Sea Eagle_ been of different construction we should have dived as straight to the bottom as a loon," said the inventor, "but the spoonlike construction of the bow allowed me to handle her so that, instead of the impulse of the fall being downward, it was diverted into a forward movement along the surface."
"Shall we go up again?" asked Frank, after a hasty examination had been made to ascertain if anything had parted or snapped under the strain of the suddenly arrested tumble through the air pocket.
"Yes. We had better lose as little time as possible," was the rejoinder.
"If you are ready, start the engine up, and we will try a flight from the surface of the water."
"You want full power?" asked Frank.
"Yes; but start up gently at first, gradually increasing to top velocity. I think, however, that we shall leave the water at about 1,500 revolutions a minute."
The next minute the roar of the newly started engine prevented further conversation. In order to develop every ounce of power of which the motor was capable Frank had opened the m.u.f.fler cut-out, and the uproar was terrific. Spurts of greenish flame spouted from the exhausts, and the acrid smell of burning oil and gasolene filled the air. To any one less accustomed than the Boy Aviators to the uproar of aerial motors, the noise would have been alarming to say the least. They, however, were too much used to such scenes to pay any attention to it.
Faster and faster the _Sea Eagle_ sped over the waves, till her keel barely touched the tips of the swells. Then suddenly the jerky motion ceased, and the craft, buoyed by its wings, began to soar upward in a steadily increasing gradient. Before ten minutes had pa.s.sed they were once more on an even keel at a five-hundred-feet alt.i.tude, and bearing steadily for the southwest.
Frank looked at his watch.
"We ought to be getting pretty close to that yacht by now," he remarked to Harry, who had seated himself at his side, and was a.s.sisting in attending to the lubrication and watching of the motor.
"I"ll keep a sharp lookout," rejoined Harry; "they surely ought to hear the noise of our motor and send up a rocket or wave lights, or something, if they are in the vicinity.
"That"s just what I think. Keep your eyes open while I watch the engine."
Harry peered out into the night, but as far as he could see nothing appeared but the reflection of the stars in the water to relieve its blackness.
"I can"t see anything yet," he said, after a while.
"Just keep on looking," rejoined Frank; "there"s a chance that they may have drifted from the position they gave us."
"Well, in any case it would have been impossible for us to fly direct to the spot," rejoined Harry; "this thing is a good deal like looking for a needle in a haystack, to my way of thinking."
"I"m not so sure of that. If they are anywhere within five or six miles they must hear the beat of our motor."
"Wonder why Dr. Perkins doesn"t switch on the searchlight. Hullo, there it goes now."
As Harry spoke, a fan-shaped ray of brilliant white light cut the night in front of the _Sea Eagle_, like a radiant sword. Hither and thither it swept over the dark sea; but it revealed nothing. All at once Dr.
Perkins shut the searchlight off.
"If they have seen it they will reply in some way," he shouted in explanation to the boys. "Keep a bright lookout for an answer. I"ll keep the _Sea Eagle_ swinging in circles. We have been doing thirty miles an hour, and even allowing for the delay when we struck the air pocket we ought to be in the disabled yacht"s vicinity by this time."
As the searchlight was extinguished Harry peered out into the darkness with straining eyes. Suddenly he gave a shout and clutched Frank"s arm.
"What"s that," he shouted, "that light off there to the south?"
"It"s a lantern," cried Frank; "somebody"s waving it."
Dr. Perkins confirmed Frank"s supposition, and the _Sea Eagle_, on her errand of rescue, was headed for the swinging pin-point of light in the distance.
CHAPTER XIII.-A TWENTIETH-CENTURY RESCUE.
As he flew his craft in the direction of the feeble beacon of distress, Dr. Perkins once more switched on the searchlight. Its comforting beam shot across the sea, and finally ceased its swaying and centered on a strange sight. As a dark scene in a theater is illumined at one single point by the calcium light, so the search rays concentrated themselves on a striking picture of distress at sea.
Framed in the circle of white light the boys could see a small gasolene craft, apparently up to the rails in the water. At any rate nothing of the hull but a narrow white strip could be seen, while, on the top of the raised deck cabin crouched the figures of three men. One of these had been swinging the lantern, but he ceased as the bright light from the _Sea Eagle_ bathed the group in its rays. One single mast arose high above the pitching hull, and from it could be seen wires strung down to the cabin top. Evidently this was the wireless apparatus which had been the means of bringing the Boy Aviators and their friend to the rescue.
The yacht could not have been more than fifty feet in length-a very small craft to be equipped with wireless; but her owner, if he was on board, must have been congratulating himself at that very moment on his wise precaution.
It was but a few minutes after the searchlight had first revealed the _Wanderer_ and her distressed company that the _Sea Eagle_ was swinging in a graceful, birdlike circle in the air above the sinking craft.
Frank seized up a small megaphone, which formed part of the sea and sky ship"s equipment.
"Ahoy! Aboard the yacht!" he cried.
"Ahoy!" came back the cry, with a note of incredulous wonder in it, as well there might be, considering the extraordinary circ.u.mstances.
"Are you the folks we talked with by wireless?" called Harry.
"The very same," was the shouted reply, "but who are you? Can you get us off this? The ship won"t last much longer."
"We"ll get you off all right," exclaimed Frank comfortingly, and as he spoke Dr. Perkins allowed the _Sea Eagle_ to glide down to the surface of the waves, alighting on the water about five hundred feet from the castaways. He at once headed the _Sea Eagle_ round, and calling for reduced speed made for the sinking yacht.