“Think we’d better try landing?” Bill again asked. “Sure, why not?” Gordon answered. At the word Bill started the forward propeller at the same time slowing down the elevator. “Tell me when you think we’re right over it,” he ordered. “I’d say, now,” Rogers told him a few minutes later. “Same here,” Gordon agreed. They were now up only three hundred feet and the sound of the surf as it broke on the shore was plainly audible but they could not see a thing. “Keep your eyes open,” Bill cried as he stopped the forward propeller. “Pile of good it’ll do,” Gordon grumbled. “I’m going to let her down as slowly as I can and you must let me know if we’re going to hit anything,” Bill insisted. “If we land in a tree it’ll be all day with the plane. Watch now and yell if you see anything.” “I’ll yell all right,” Gordon promised him. Slowly the plane settled down until they were only fifty feet above the land and then Gordon shouted: “I see trees right under us.” Instantly Bill speeded up the elevator and the plane rose to a hundred feet. “No need of going up so high,” Gordon told him. “Well, I wanted to play it safe.” He started the forward propeller again but shut it off in a couple of minutes. “Now we’ll try it again,” he told them. But once more when they were nearly down they found that trees were in their way and they were forced to try again. “I’m afraid we’re over a good sized forest,” Bill said. “How about going back and trying to land near the shore?” Rogers suggested. “Usually there’s a fairly wide stretch of beach between the water and the forest. At least there is on most of the islands I’ve seen.” “I guess it’s the best plan,” Bill agreed as he started the forward propeller again and turned the wheel as far as he could. “If it was just dark we could see well enough with a flash light,” Gordon declared, “but it’s almost as much use as a yellow eyed bean in this fog.” “How about it?” Bill demanded a moment later. “Shut it off, I think we’ve gone far enough,” Gordon told him. “Look sharp now.” “Sharp is right.” A moment later the plane landed as light as a feather, as Rogers declared, and with a sigh of great relief, they jumped from their seats to the hard sand. “Well, we’re here,” Gordon cried. “We’re here all right but I wish someone would tell me where here is,” Bill returned. “Of course we’re on an island but I’d give something to know the name of it.” “Well, we’re not going to know before morning and that’s that,” Gordon told him. CHAPTER IV MOLOKAI AT LAST They found that they had landed about fifty feet from the water line but not knowing whether it was high or low tide they pushed the plane some hundred feet farther up the beach. By this time darkness had come and, together with the fog, they could hardly see their hands before their faces. Still they all realized that it might have been much worse and no one was disposed to grumble.