At last the tiny silver dot had grown till it became recognizable as the
pirate plane. They were drawing up to it now, slowly, but steadily. At
last the little machine was directly beneath them, and a scant hundred
yards away. They had long since been forced to run the machine on the
storage batteries, and now they applied a little power to the vertical
power units. Sluggishly, as they absorbed the sun's heat, the machine
was forced lower, nearer to the machine below. At last a scant ten feet
separated them.
"All right, Morey."
There was a snap, as the temporary switch was closed, and the current
surged into the big magnet on the keel. At once they felt the ship jump
a little under the impulse of the magnet's pull on the smaller machine.
In a moment the little plane had drifted up to the now idle magnet,
touched it and was about to bounce off, when Morey again snapped the
switch shut and the two machines were locked firmly together!
"I've got him, Dick!" Morey exclaimed. "Now slow down till it falls.
Then we can go and wait for it. Being a glider, it ought to be quite
manageable!"
Now the energy of the power units on the roof of the machine began to
slow down the two machines, the magnet grinding slightly as the momentum
of the plane was thrust upon it. They watched the speedometer drop. The
speed was sinking very slowly, for the area of the absorbing fins was
not designed to absorb the sun's heat directly, and was very
inefficient. The sun was indeed sinking below their horizon; they were
just beginning to watch that curious phenomenon of seeing dawn backward,
when they first struck air dense enough to operate the power units
noticeably. Quickly the power was applied till the machines sank rapidly
to the warmer levels, the only governing factor being the tendency of
the glider to break loose from the grip of the magnet.
At fifty miles the generator was started, and the heaters in the car at
once became more active. There was no heat in the car below, but that
was unavoidable. They would try to bring it down to warm levels quickly.
"Whew, I'm glad we reached the air again, Dick. I didn't tell you
sooner, for it wouldn't have done any good, but that battery was about
gone! We had something like twenty amp-hours left! I'm giving the
recharge generator all she will take. We seem to have plenty of power
now."
"I knew the cells were low, but I had no idea they were as low as that!
I noticed that the magnet was weakening, but thought it was due to the
added air strain. I am going to put the thing into a nose dive and let
the glider go down itself. I know it would land correctly if it had a
chance. I am going to follow it, of course, and since we are over the
middle of Siberia we'd better start back."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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