But he never finished the sentence. The plane was only a few rods from the surface of the water when they saw that the forward propeller was revolving and just before the plane touched the water it had gained enough headway to arrest its downward plunge and in another minute the danger was passed and the Albatross swept over their heads with Bill leaning over the side of the cockpit waving his hand at them. “Do you know what he did?” Gordon gasped. “Started the propeller by the force of the air,” Rogers answered him. “Not a bit of it. You can’t start an electric motor that way.” “Gee, that’s so. I never thought of that, but you don’t mean——” “But that’s just what he did. He changed that cell to the other motor while the plane was falling and, thank God, he got away with it.” “Who’d have thought of it but he?” “And who else would have had the nerve to try it if he had?” “Who indeed?” Rogers echoed. “But, I say, we’ve got to beat it and beat it quick.” “I’ll say so,” Gordon agreed as they started on a run through the water which was now well above their knees. The plane was circling around overhead and, as they looked up, they saw that Bill was motioning to them to hurry. “I’m afraid he’s going to have trouble in landing,” Rogers panted as they hurried along side by side. “Probably that’s what he is trying to tell us,” Jack replied. The water by this time was touching the foot of the cliffs every time a roller ran up the beach and they knew there was one place just before they reached the path where it would be much deeper and they also knew that the depth was increasing every minute. “We may have to swim,” Gordon said. “Guess it won’t be that deep,” Rogers replied. And he was right, for although the water reached well above their waists, they were able to keep their feet, and a moment later were running up the pathway toward the camp. As they reached the place Bill flew by scarcely ten feet over their heads making as little speed as was possible to keep the plane in the air. “Going to hit just beyond the camp,” he shouted. “Stand by to help put on the brakes.” “Give us time to get set,” Gordon shouted back and Bill waved his band to tell them that he understood. “He’ll hit right about here,” Gordon told Rogers indicating the place. “And we want to stand right here,” he continued taking his position about twenty feet from the landing spot. “He won’t be going very fast and it’s up to us to catch hold of the plane and stop it before it hits those rocks, and it’s going to be some job.” “We’ll have to catch hold of the tips of the wings,” Rogers said. “I reckon.” “Think we can reach them?” “Come to think of it I doubt it. We could reach them perhaps but there’s nothing to get a grip on. No, we’ll have to let them go over us and grab hold of the sides of the cockpit.” “That’s my idea. Here he comes.”