Once more they were ready to take off. Terry taxied over the long field, making sure that the engine was working properly before she pulled back on the stick and sent Skybird nosing into the brilliant blue sky.
Terry’s heart was beating with happy excitement. The take-off never became a commonplace occurrence to her. She thrilled as she felt the ship lifting from the ground and in the face of the wind, rising to dizzy heights above the earth.
Allan and Syd followed and for half an hour they flew at about the same altitude. Then Allan lagged behind and rose above them to a height of five thousand feet. Both flyers were watching the sky behind them to make sure that their enemy was not in pursuit.
Joe Arnold had put in a busy morning in Havana. Here was where he had some shady business that would give him the ready money for taking up the option on the Dick Mapes Flying Field. And when he started out half an hour after the other planes, he flew high and well out of sight.
Terry and Prim were content to fly at about two thousand feet. They were enjoying the view of the southern sea dotted with islands and failed to see the pursuing plane, high above them in the distance.
But Joe Arnold was watching intently every move of the two planes, and the cold, menacing light in his eyes was a threat against these young flyers who dared to upset his plans, and keep him from realizing his ambition.
His mind was working fast. At the next flying field, he would have a show-down with them. His business deal in Havana had not been successful. It would be necessary to return to that city once more before he got the money. Joe Arnold did not know just what kind of a show-down he would have with these girl flyers. He would leave it to chance and his usual good luck unless he could think of some plan as he flew through the blue sky. Up in the clean air of the heavens this man was planning to destroy them.
But Terry and Prim, unconscious of his plans, were watching the changing colors of the islands, then faced once more the open sea toward Honduras.
CHAPTER III
Tropic Storm