The boy inventors’ craft had been in the air about an hour when Tom descried, far below them, the gleam of a light. In that wild country it was not likely to betoken anything else but the site of Herrera’s plantation houses. They all agreed on this, and Jack, after a consultation with his comrades, decided that the time had come to descend. The plan they arrived at, after threshing the situation over in all its bearings, was to drop in the most suitable place they could find, adjacent to the plantation buildings. Then the gas bag was to be reinflated, ready for emergencies, and two of the party were to reconnoiter the ground as carefully as possible. The remainder of the rescue was to be left to circumstances. At one hour and ten minutes after midnight. Jack started the exhaust engine up. Instantly the Flying Road Racer began to drop downward through space with her planes set at a slight angle, as Jack did not want to coast to earth too rapidly. This course soon brought the craft above the summits of the forest trees, at a safe distance from the light they had perceived from aloft. To make assurance of being unnoticed doubly sure. Jack had shut off the motor. Silently as a night bird the great bulk of the flying auto settled earthward. All this time their eyes had been strained to sight an open space in which they might land without risk of damaging the balloon bag. Tom was the first to see, through the night glasses, such an area of cleared land amid the forest. It was a tract about ten acres in extent, and formed, as they surmised later, one of the outlying fields of Herrera’s plantation. It had not yet been put into cultivation, however, and afforded as fine a spot for an air craft to ground as could be imagined. Half an hour after the descent had begun the Flying Road Racer settled as lightly as a bit of breeze-blown down on earth once more. Thanks to her shock absorbers, hardly a jar was felt by those on board as she landed with her bag half deflated and limp and wrinkled. No time was lost in alighting and throwing out the anchors, contrived by Jack, used for securing the craft to earth in case of a sudden wind springing up. These anchors differed considerably from the sea type of “mud hook.” They consisted, in fact, merely of discs of iron shaped like an inverted mushroom. One edge of the disc was driven into the ground, and the shape of the holding appliances was such that an upward tug merely served to force them more deeply into the earth. The adventurers figured that they were about half a mile to the west of the spot where they had seen the light, which they believed marked the site of Herrera’s plantation houses. They also estimated that there were left to them about two hours and a half more of darkness. There was urgent necessity then for immediate action.