“All right, I guess there’s no particular danger only you want to be quick when the time comes.” “I’ll be quick,” Gordon promised as he climbed over the side of the cockpit. The plane was resting on a slight elevation or knoll about thirty feet wide but the ground was very uneven especially right in front. As soon as Gordon was out Bill once more started the elevator and when he reached the next to the last notch the plane quivered and slowly left the ground. “Hold her now,” Gordon cried when the wheels were about a foot from the ground. “Now start the other motor and I’ll hold her as long as I can and then I’ll jump.” Bill did as ordered and the speed of the forward propeller increased until the plane began to move in spite of Gordon’s efforts to hold it. “I’m coming,” he yelled as he gave a spring. The plane gave a sudden side lurch and one of the wings brushed the ground, but the wheels did not touch the earth and the wing was not damaged. Another minute and Gordon had climbed over the side of the cockpit and the Albatross was twenty feet in the air. “I told you,” Gordon exulted. “But no one but you would have thought of it,” Rogers declared. “And I don’t think anyone else but he would have tried it even if he had thought of it,” the Jap added. “You’ll give him a swelled head,” Bill called back. “He deserves it,” Rogers declared. “I thought sure I was doomed to stay behind and I didn’t want to a little bit and I don’t mean maybe.” “She seems to be riding all right,” Gordon told than as the plane passed out over the ocean. “Oh, she’d carry twice this load once she got going,” Bill declared. “And I imagine she’d have taken off all right if it had been smooth enough.” “I’ll bet,” Gordon added. “A wonderful machine and it seems so strange not to hear a racket,” the Jap said. “I’ve been up two or three times and I was nearly made deaf by the noise.” “Yes, it’s some different,” Rogers told him. They were now flying smoothly at an elevation of about two thousand feet but there was a haze in the air and they were unable to see but a short distance. “Don’t get lost, Bill,” Rogers said. “I don’t think I will,” Bill told him. “But it isn’t very clear up here.” “Sure you’re going in the right direction?” Gordon asked. “Seems to me we’re heading too far to the south.” “I think you’re right,” Bill agreed giving the wheel a slight turn. “I can’t use the compass as I don’t know the exact direction.” “Oh, well, it’s only about thirty miles to the end of the island and I guess we can hit it all right,” Gordon told him. “But the air is a mighty big place,” Rogers added. “Seems to me we ought to be getting somewhere pretty soon,” Bill declared ten minutes later. “We’ve been in the air twenty-five minutes and we’ve been making about sixty most of the time.” “I see it,” Gordon cried, pointing off to his right. “That’s a bank of clouds,” Bill told him. “Bank of clouds your eye. I tell you that’s land,” Gordon insisted.