The four friends had an excellent breakfast with tropical fruits and delicious Cuban dishes. At times they forgot all about Joe Arnold and his threats to take away their father’s flying field. It was good to be together in this romantic city of Havana, and hard to realize that danger threatened them.
All about them were smartly dressed care-free people, spending money lavishly on the pleasures of the gay city. People came here from all over the world just to enjoy themselves.
But Terry would not allow them to forget that a difficult job lay ahead of them. It was necessary to push on. Consulting their maps, they laid out their route. The next hop would be across the open waters of the Caribbean to the landing field at Gracias a Dios in Honduras. That would be their next meeting place in case they became separated. Allan and Syd had planned to see them safely through the treacherous tropical weather of the Caribbean, before returning to Elmwood. Now that they were tipped off to the fact that Joe might make trouble, Terry could be depended on to keep her eyes open and avoid him. But the boys decided they would watch Joe and find out what he was up to.
The weather reports were favorable. There was always the warning to watch out for sudden storms that were common over the Caribbean.
Their take-off was delayed by Terry insisting that her engine was not working properly. Allan came alongside to listen as she warmed up the motor. “Why it sounds all right, Terry. I don’t hear anything wrong,” he said.
“But listen!” shouted Terry. “Listen to that rough hum.”
“You’re right, Terry,” said Allan as the girl shut off her engine and got out. Slipping into her overall suit, she started to work.
“Has anyone been near my plane?” asked Terry of the young mechanic whom she had warned.
“No. That is nobody touched it. There was another flyer who stood around admiring it and asking who you were. He even wanted to know where you were going. Then he said he’d like to take a look at your engine to see what kind you had. But I didn’t let him stick around,” replied the youth. “I told him to clear out!”
Allan and Terry got to work without waiting for further explanation. A full hour went by before they had the engine humming smoothly enough to suit the trained and sensitive ear of Terry Mapes.