“That will do,” commanded Tom in a low voice. He had troubles enough on hand without a fight starting between his two helpers. A signal was given for Wright to descend to the cabin, and when he came down Tom went up through the enclosed ladder. “Is it bad up there?” he asked his workman. “Bad?” was the reply. “Say, you ought to feel it!” He was wet through—as dripping as though he had fallen into a tub of water. When Tom took charge of the cockpit Dolan descended, glad enough to get out of the way of the stinging pellets of rain, driven by the hurricane wind. He, too, was soaked. Ned followed his chum up into the cockpit, and, though they were protected by goggles, helmets of leather, and rubber coats, they felt the force of the storm. What with the roaring of the motors, the howl of the wind, the crash of thunder, and the rattle of the rain, it was impossible for the two to communicate, even though they had speaking tubes running from the forward cockpit to the one built aft. The young inventor, who had taken personal charge of piloting the big plane through the storm, that it might arrive on time, soon realized that he had his “work cut out for him,” as he said later. While it is not at all unusual for aeroplanes of even less power than the big ones Tom used to fly through storms, still there is always the element of danger. But Tom’s _Osprey_ had one advantage. Because of the heavy car slung below it, the center of gravity was thus made much lower than usual, and this served to keep the craft steady. Tom glanced at the oil gage, at the gasoline indicator, and at the needle of the dial which showed their height above the ground. He had noted the tips of several jagged peaks below as they flew over them, and he realized that while they might be up sufficiently high in flying over level ground, they were not when traversing the Rocky Mountains. “A little drop and we’ll scrape some of those stone teeth,” thought Tom. “I’m going up a bit.” He was in much more comfortable circumstances than had been the two men whom he and Ned relieved, for the storm garments protected him and his chum. Consequently Tom could give more undivided attention to managing the craft. His first act was to increase the speed of the motor and tilt the elevating rudder to send them higher. “He’s going to try to rise above the storm,” decided Ned, though this was not actually Tom’s idea. He merely wanted to be a little farther above those towering mountain peaks. The _Osprey_ responded well, and soon they had lost sight of the jagged “teeth,” as Tom called them. But the storm was not to be cheated in this way, and still raged around them. “Why doesn’t he go higher?” thought Ned. “He’s often flown at a greater elevation than this and in bigger machines. Once he’s above the clouds he’ll be out of the storm and into sunshine,” for the sun was still above the horizon, though invisible to the travelers on account of the masses of storm vapor.