Prim made friends easily and by the time Terry had registered for them at the desk and made arrangements for getting away early the next morning, Prim had a group of girls around her and was laughing and joking with them as if she had always known them. Terry envied her sister this ability to get acquainted with people at a moment’s notice. It would have taken her a week, at least, without Prim to break the ice, to become friends with these strangers.
When the two girls came down to the dining room half an hour later, their new acquaintances hardly recognized them. Prim was dressed in a fluffy gown which made her look like a lovely bit of Dresden china. Terry was very boyish and trim in her sports dress. She had an aristocratic manner, attracting notice by her very aloofness.
The dancing pavilion was built out over the water and they could hear the surf breaking about the pier. Prim danced to her heart’s content, for partners flocked about her. But Terry was uneasy for pinned to her slip were the valuable papers she must deliver in Peru. She was relieved when Prim finally consented to go back to the hotel, exchanging addresses and promising life-long friendship with her new friends as she went along.
At the first flush of dawn, Terry and Prim were at the hangars preparing to take off. Terry made a careful check-up on her plane to see that everything was in order and as they were about ready to climb into the cockpits, they heard a shout and their new friends came hurrying to the field to bid them goodbye.
Prim was glad they had come. She wanted to show off her quiet sister who always got her plane into the air so gracefully, and her face glowed with pride as Terry taxied across the field, swung around and headed into the wind for a good take-off. Skybird took to the air like a great bird and under Terry’s guidance circled the field several times for the benefit of their friends, then headed out over the Atlantic, flying south.
They did not know that a plane had been set down on the field half an hour before. The pilot had recognized Skybird and kept well out of sight. As he watched the girls from the shelter of the hangar, his face expressed the hatred and treachery that he felt.
It was Joe Arnold, their father's business rival and dangerous enemy!
“What are those girls doing here? Do they imagine they can fly to Peru and see Peter Langley?” thought Joe to himself. He made up his mind that the girls would never reach Peru. He would stop them, somehow. He must do it.
Joe Arnold frowned. As his plane was more powerful than Skybird, he could easily out-fly them and reach the mine a day before they could do so. But, first, he had some mysterious business to attend to before he would have the money for the option. Meanwhile he must do something to prevent the Mapes girls from continuing their trip until he was ready.
Before Skybird had disappeared in the clouds, Joe Arnold had left the field and was following after that tiny speck in the sky, trailing it relentlessly.