CHAPTER XXII
LOST IN THE AIR
“This is serious, fellows,” spoke Dave. “Get ready for the worst.”
“What is the worst?” inquired Elmer Brackett.
“A sudden drop. You had better have the breeches buoys ready.”
“Oh, Dave!” cried Hiram Dobbs, in actual distress. “You don’t mean tosay that the brave old _Comet_ is going back on us just as it looks asthough the home stretch is right ahead of us?”
“It’s the fog, fellows,” explained Dave. “We have beaten around in itfor twelve hours, until I feel certain we are all out of our course. Ina word, we are lost.”
“Lost in the air!” exclaimed Hiram—“who’d ever have thought of it!”
“Yes, just like a ship in strange waters,” said Dave. “If we were not sofar from the mainland we left last week, there might be some hope.According to my calculation, we have missed St. Helena. If that is true,we can count on no land this side of Trinidad.”
“That must be hundreds of miles away,” remarked Hiram.
“Worse than that,” declared Elmer, who was pretty well posted on chartand “log” details. “If the fog would only lift!”
“That is our only hope,” declared Dave. “I do not wish to alarm you,fellows; but we must face the music like men. I don’t believe the_Comet_ will last out six hours.”
“As bad as that?” said Hiram, in a subdued tone.
“Yes,” asserted the young airman. “If we could sight some ship I wouldnot hesitate to descend upon its deck. This fog, of course, shuts outany chance to depend on that. The trouble is with our wires. That strainwe had in last night’s wind seems to have played havoc with the entiresteering gear.”
“Can’t it be fixed?” inquired Elmer, anxiously.
“Not while we’re flying,” replied Dave. “You know, the post is really alever and the wheel a handle. The cloche, or bell-like attachment thatruns to the warping wires, has got out of kilter. You know, the steeringpost is made of one-inch, twenty-gauge steel tubing. At the lower end ofthis is a fork made of pieces of smaller tubing, bent and brazed intoplace. The fork forms part of the universal joint on which the post ismounted. From this run the warping wires through pulleys to theelevators.”
Hiram nodded intelligently at this technical explanation. Elmer, too,understood what their pilot wished to convey to them.
“Some of the tubing is loose,” continued the young airman. “I have feltit vibrate for the past hour. If any part gives way, and a puff of windshould come up, we will lose all control of the steering gear.”
“The mischief!” ejaculated Hiram, who always got excited readily. “We’rein a bad fix; aren’t we?”
“Bad enough to keep on a low level, for fear we may turn turtle at anymoment,” declared Dave.
The young aviator had not misstated conditions. The situation was acritical one, and he had known it for some time. Even now, as they madea straight volplane, there was an ominous creak in the tubing joints,and the machine wabbled.
“Fellows, she’s going!” declared our hero. “We’ve got to drop or take arisk of a sudden plunge that may end everything.”
The _Comet_ had no float attachment. Hiram got the breeches buoys andthe life preservers ready. The fog was so heavy they could not see thesky above nor the sea beneath them. Dave allowed the machine to drift ona long, inclined dip. Something snapped. The _Comet_ wavered from sideto side but did not upset. There was a second sudden jar.
“Get ready. It’s a sure drop, any way we manage it,” shouted Dave.
All hands were ready to leap from the machine when it struck. SuddenlyDave shut off the power at a contact. The machine grated, ran on itswheels, and came to an astonishing but substantial standstill.
“Dave, Dave,” cried the delighted Hiram, springing out. “Land, solidland!”
“It can’t be! Must be a rock!” gasped Elmer, unbelievingly.
“Whoop! hurrah!” yelled Hiram. “Oh, glory!”
Dave’s young assistant acted mad as a March hare. He could not help it.He sang and danced. Then he reached down and grabbed up handfuls of thelight sand at his feet, and flung it joyously up in the air as if itwere grains of precious gold.
“Sure as you live,” exclaimed the bewildered Elmer. “It’s solid land—oh,what luck!”
The young aviator was filled with surprise and satisfaction. Such raregood fortune seemed incredible. He stood still, not caring if it was asand bank or a desert island. They had escaped a fearful peril—and the_Comet_ was safe.
“Who cares for the fog. Why, if it’s only a ten foot mud bank we’re soglad nothing else matters much just now,” declared the overwroughtHiram.
“It’s something better than that,” responded our hero brightly, allbuoyed up now after the recent heavy strain on nerve and mind. “We musthave landed on some island not down on the chart.”
“Let us explore,” suggested the impetuous Hiram.
“Let us eat first,” added the hungry Elmer. “It’s brought back myappetite, after that big scare.”
Dave went all over the machine, more with the sense of touch than actualeyesight inspection in that enveloping fog. He came back to his comradesnot a whit discouraged.
“How is it, Dave?” asked Hiram.
“I can’t tell exactly,” was the reply. “Some of the tubing is loose andthe gear is out of center. With what tools we have and duplicate parts,we may be able to fix things up good enough to carry on to the SouthAmerican coast.”
“Let’s do it, then,” suggested the eager Elmer. “Those other fellows mayget the biggest kind of a lead on us while we are delaying here.”
“They are probably having troubles of their own,” remarked Dave. “Itwould be impossible to do anything in this fog. Besides, it will take usat least a day to repair the _Comet_. We might just as well take aresting spell and a bite to eat.”
The food supply aboard the biplane was abundant, but no attempt was madeto cook a meal. The airship boys indulged in a lunch composed ofcrackers, cheese and some lemonade, in the manufacture of which beverageHiram had become something of an expert.
“I say,” he suddenly exclaimed, ten minutes later, as he bolted amouthful of cracker—“look there!”
The speaker pointed, and all hands arose to their feet. In the fardistance a growing yellow glow began to diffuse itself over the westernsky. As suddenly and completely as the dense fog had come down upon themearlier in the day, a grand clearing up transpired.
“Why, it’s just like the rolling up of a curtain,” cried Elmer.
The airship boys stood viewing a swift panorama. Vague shapes andoutlines began to stand out before their vision. The blue sky showed totheir left, the ocean at quite some distance. The sinking sun sent upits radiant beams and they made out that they were on an island.
Its rounding end was disclosed as they swept the scene with interestedglances. Little patches of forest and grassy plain showed.
“Why, a famous camping spot,” spoke the elated Hiram.
“How lucky we didn’t miss it,” added Elmer.
The young pilot could now inspect the _Comet_ more clearly. He reportedhis conclusions after going over every part of the machine.
“I think time and patience will fix things up,” he announced.
“How much time?” inquired Hiram.
“I hope not a great lot of patience,” said Elmer, with a longing thoughtof the home mainland.
“There will be some brazing and hammering to do,” explained Dave. “Wewill have to build a fire. It will soon be dark and we must wait fordaylight. Now then, fellows, don’t waste any nerve force worrying. Whatwe lose to-day we’ll try to make up for when we get started again. Wewill find a good camping spot, have a pleasant evening, and a fullnight’s sleep. That will put us in fine trim for real business in themorning.”
“Begone dull care,” sang Hiram, in a jolly tone. “We’ll forget thatwe’re cir
cling the globe for one ten hours, and be common, everyday boysout on a picnic lark, and report for duty in the morning.”
“There’s an inviting spot,” observed Dave, pointing to a copse on alittle rise in the near distance.
Before dusk the airship boys had gotten the _Comet_ safely placed,blankets out, a campfire built, and were settled down comfortably forthe evening. There was nothing to indicate that the island was inhabitedwith wild beasts. It seemed to be a little emerald patch set down in theocean, a sort of lost Crusoe reef, too small to have a name or a placeon the marine charts.
One by one the boys drifted into slumberland. It must have been nearlymidnight when Hiram and Elmer awakened to find Dave shaking themvigorously.
“Get up, fellows,” directed the young airman. “Something’s going on thatwe have got to investigate.”