"Yes; off on a fight for fame and fortune!" cried Frank, as Dr. Perkins threw in the clutch; and, with her propellers beating the air so rapidly that they were a mere blur, the _Sea Eagle_ shot skyward.
In half an hour"s time, to the watchers on the island, the aerial craft had dwindled to a mere dot in the distant sky, and five minutes later she vanished from view. The boys gave many backward looks as they winged away from Brig Island. Despite their adventures, they had spent many pleasant days there, and it appeared to them to be almost a second home.
Of all that they were to experience before returning to the island they little dreamed at the moment, but their hearts beat high with exultation as the _Sea Eagle_ winged her way southward at forty miles an hour, and about five hundred feet above the ocean.
They had been in the air about an hour when they encountered a situation which may become common enough before many years have pa.s.sed, but which was an exciting novelty to them. Off on the horizon a liner was sighted, steaming toward the American coast. Before long they made her out to be a big, two-funneled craft, painted black, and with numerous decks rising above her shapely hull.
"One of the transatlantic liners that make Portland their terminal,"
decided Dr. Perkins.
"Shall I wireless them?" said Harry.
"Yes, do so. It will be an interesting experiment, and besides will show how the apparatus will work."
Harry lost no time in getting to work. After a brief interval he "raised" the operator on the liner, Dr. Perkins keeping the _Sea Eagle_ swinging in big, lazy circles while he did so.
"We sighted you from the bridge half an hour ago," flashed the operator, "who and what are you?"
"The hydro-aeroplane _Sea Eagle_, bound from Maine for New Orleans. Who are you?" flashed back Harry.
"The _Ultonia_, of the Portland and Liverpool line, eight days out from England," was the rejoinder; "have you got any American newspapers on board?"
Now it happened that Dr. Perkins had brought some papers of the day before along in his pockets, and at Harry"s request he handed them to him.
"What are you going to do?" asked Frank.
"I was going to suggest that we dive across the _Ultonia_ and deliver the papers," said Harry; "can we do it, doctor?"
"By all means," rejoined Dr. Perkins, deeply interested; "flash them a message of what we intend to do so that they may be prepared."
Harry sent out the message and the operator flashed back a quick "Thanks," adding the next moment: "Good-by. I"m going to beat it out on deck and watch you."
Frank, in the meantime, had done the papers up in a compact bundle and weighted them with an empty beef can.
"All ready?" cried Dr. Perkins.
"All ready, sir," was the prompt reply from the boys.
"Then hold tight. I"m going to make a swift dive."
The liner was now almost directly underneath the soaring _Sea Eagle_.
Her rails were black with pa.s.sengers craning their necks upward at the great, man-made bird. From her funnels poured clouds of inky smoke, while her sharp prow cut the water on each side of her bow into sparkling foam. On the bridge were uniformed officers, pointing binoculars and spy gla.s.ses aloft, for the operator had communicated the news of what the _Sea Eagle_ was about to do.
Suddenly the watching throngs of ocean travelers saw the _Sea Eagle_ poise in air like a hawk about to pounce. Then down she came, cleaving the air like a falling stone.
A great cry went up from the packed decks. It seemed as if the air craft must perish, that nothing could check her fall, and that she was doomed to plunge headlong into the sea. But in a flash the cry changed to a mighty cheer.
Less than forty feet from the water the _Sea Eagle_ was seen to shoot upward and straight toward the steamer. Like an arrow from a bow the great aerial craft shot whizzing above the liner"s bridge, and under the wireless aerials extending from mast to mast. Just as she roared by above the officers" heads, like some antedeluvian thunder-lizard, something was seen to fall downward and land on the top of the charthouse. It was the bundle of papers thrown by Harry. A sailor scrambled up and got them, while the crowded decks yelled themselves hoa.r.s.e.
Then the _Sea Eagle_ soared up high above the mast tips, and Harry seated himself at the wireless once more. Presently to his ears came a message from the speeding liner far below.
"Captain Seabury wishes to congratulate you on the most wonderful feat of the century."
CHAPTER XVII.-AN AeRIAL AMBULANCE.
Harry was about to flash back an answer to the message of congratulation when, suddenly, into the scene of triumph was injected a grim note of threatened tragedy. One of the pa.s.sengers, a young woman who had been leaning far out over the rail of the boat deck waving a handkerchief of filmy lace and linen, was seen, all at once, to topple from her perch.
The next instant, and while her shrill scream for help still rent the air, a young man who had been standing beside her jumped out into s.p.a.ce without waiting to do more than strip off coat and shoes. The _Ultonia_ was speeding ahead at the fastest gait her twin screws were capable of.
She was a large vessel, probably some 15,000 tons of registration, and her momentum was too great to stop her for a considerable distance.
From the _Sea Eagle_ horrified eyes saw the accident, and witnessed the young woman"s head bob up for an instant amid the frothy wake of the big craft. The liner"s whistle screamed out a shrill alarm, and men could be seen scampering to lower a boat, while life buoys were thrown overboard.
But before anything more could be done the _Sea Eagle_ took a sudden swoop, a swift dive downward, characteristic of the bird for which she had been named.
The wonderful craft struck the water with a force that sent a cloud of spray boiling up about her, temporarily hiding her substructure and her occupants from view.
"She"s sunk!" went up a moaning cry from the decks of the liner. But, no! An instant later it was seen that the _Sea Eagle_, an aeroplane no longer but a winged boat, was speeding as fast as her twin propellers could drive her toward the spot where the young woman had last been seen.
Hardly a word, except Dr. Perkins" caution to "hang on tight," had been exchanged between the aviators from their simultaneous observation of the accident till the moment the _Sea Eagle_ struck the water. But now orders came quick and fast.
"Attend to the engines!"
The order came from Frank, and Harry sprang into the place his brother vacated.
Frank hastily buckled on one of the life jackets and then, as the _Sea Eagle_ skimmed the water at a twenty-five knot gait, he scanned the seething lane of foam behind the liner. Suddenly he saw what he was looking for. A white, imploring face, crowned with a wealth of golden hair.
"Save me!" screamed the girl who, although she had been swimming, was by this time too exhausted with the effects of her immersion and the weight of her water-soaked clothes, to keep up any longer. Without an instant"s hesitation, Frank leaped into the water and began striking out with powerful strokes for the sinking girl. He reached her side just as she was going down for the third time.
[Ill.u.s.tration: WITHOUT AN INSTANT"S HESITATION, FRANK LEAPED INTO THE WATER.]
In the meantime the young man who had sprung after her had also become exhausted, and would certainly have sunk had not Dr. Perkins headed the _Sea Eagle_ in his direction. Leaning far out as they came alongside the struggling man, Harry grasped him by the collar, and then half dragged him into the hydroplane portion of the air craft. This done, full speed was made for Frank and the young woman.
None too soon did they reach Frank"s side. With the blind instinct of a drowning person the young woman was clinging so tightly to Frank that, strong swimmer though he was, he had much difficulty in keeping above the water. Dr. Perkins ordered the motor stopped as they neared the two, and allowed the _Sea Eagle_ to glide up to them. Then both he and Harry bent all their strength to hauling on board, first the young woman and then Frank.
By this time the liner"s speed had been checked, and her officers were swinging her in a broad circle to the scene of the accident. A boat had been lowered and was heading for the _Sea Eagle_, but Dr. Perkins, s.n.a.t.c.hing up the megaphone, hailed the oarsman and told them that everything was all right.
This done, power was applied once more, and the _Sea Eagle_ headed for the liner"s side. As if guessing his intention a gangway had been lowered, and all was ready for their reception as they came alongside.
In the meantime the young man had introduced the golden-haired young woman as his bride, and himself as Stanley Travers, of Portland, Me. To say that both he and Mrs. Travers were grateful would be not to state one half of their actual feelings.
In fact, their expressions of appreciation took so long that one of the officers at the head of the gangway shouted:
"This is a mail boat and we must hurry, please."
While this was going on congratulations on the plucky act had been shouted down from the uniformed skipper on the bridge and from a score of the pa.s.sengers that banked the rails three and four deep.
At last Mr. and Mrs. Travers, wet to the skin, clambered up the liner"s tall, black side, and the boat was hauled up on the davits. As the big craft, dipping her ensign and blowing her siren, heaved ahead, a shout of enthusiasm went up. But it was drowned by the roar of the _Sea Eagle"s_ motor. Hardly had the propellers of the vessel begun to churn the water once more before Dr. Perkins" craft rose from the water like a white-winged sea gull after a refreshing dip. As the gallant sea-and-air ship rose, her three occupants waved their hands in farewell in rejoinder to the babel of shouts beneath them.