I clambered aboard (with our gorilla in the middle seat), the propellers were swung, and off we went—upwards and upwards into the blue sky and the refreshingly cool air.
My excitement was intense. I had not even bothered to take off my gorilla skin. The head had been removed, of course, and I had slipped into my great coat and helmet, but I had not yet rid myself of the feeling that I was half-man and half-anthropoid ape.
For the first hundred miles, we flew without anything unusual happening.
Our own gorilla made neither movement nor sound, but the rear one on Oakley's machine kept straining at its bonds, with a stupid, brutish persistency. It was the huge beast which Stringer had commenced to bind while I was lying under the evil influence of that gas, and once or twice I couldn't help thinking:
"Is that brute secure?"
When we reached the upper course of the "Moondah" I scribbled a note on a scrap of paper and thrust it over to Newland.
"Keep as near as you can to Oakley's 'plane," I had written.
I watched him read it, saw him nod his head, and felt the machine put on an extra spurt until the two 'planes were flying almost side by side.
Oakley's machine was now about fifty feet to the right and a little below the level of ours, so that I could see his passengers quite distinctly. The front one was quiet and resigned, but the rear one was still viciously struggling to escape. I was getting anxious, and, had there been any landing place visible, I should have felt very much inclined to signal Oakley to make a temporary halt for the purpose of examining the animal's bonds. The thought of its breaking loose in mid-air was appalling.
I kept a careful watch on its every movement and once, when it looked vindictively upwards at our 'plane, I shook my fist at it threateningly, waved my arms, and tried in every way I could to distract its attention. But it was useless. It turned its face away with supreme contempt and merely renewed its efforts with more enthusiasm than ever. It wrenched, and twisted, and strained; and suddenly something seemed to give way. After that, it kept very still for a while.