For a moment Terry withdrew her face from the opening, then like a flash she had scrambled through the hole at the surface and was standing in plain view of the flyer. What’s more, she was sobbing and shaking her fist toward Joe Arnold.
“It’s Skybird! He’s taking our plane!” she cried.
As if mocking her, Skybird flipped its tail gracefully and zoomed into the blue.
As Terry stepped on to the plateau, the women surrounded her, trying to hide her from the man watching them from above. Terry could not be sure that he had seen her, but Prim had no doubt in the matter.
“Now you’ve done it, Terry Mapes!” she cried. “Why don’t you think before you do such a thing? You’re apt to get these people into trouble! Joe said he’d clean them out!”
“Oh, I know, Prim. I’m sorry I did it, but just then I couldn’t help it. I was crazy! I can’t bear to have Skybird used by a smuggler. I’ll feel as if my little plane were dirty after he’s had his hands on her. Prim, what are we going to do?”
But Prim had no suggestions to offer. They were prisoners without question. How long they would have to remain here, she had no idea. They knew only too well what their father and mother were thinking. If Allan and Syd had escaped destruction in the storm, their report would leave no doubt in Dick’s mind, at least, that the girls had been lost in the hurricane. Terry knew that the suspense would mean torture for her parents. How thankful she was that Sally Wyn was with them to comfort them and, with her cheerful ways, keep them hoping that all was well.
If Dick and Alice could only have seen them surrounded by a horde of blacks, they would not have been any more hopeful of their final escape.
Joe Arnold had flown off into the blue with Skybird, and Terry’s heart was sore and bitter with anxiety and anger against her father’s enemy.
If she could have known Joe’s thoughts at that moment, she would have realized that she was in grave danger. Joe Arnold had planned to search for the girls as soon as the important matter of the smuggled silk had been attended to. He guessed that Terry was on her way to Peter Langley’s mine to plead with him to renew the contract and extend the option on the flying field. He had an idea that she was carrying some money.