"You don't say!" exclaimed John.
"You kids have made a mistake," informed Tom disbelievingly.
"No mistake about it," protested Bob; "it's an out-and-out fact."
"Well, that's cheerful news, then," said Tom. "I know we hit her up to well over two hundred an hour coming across to Kuka."
"And we'll do as much on this stretch, if our water only holds out," declared John determinedly.
"That's the rub," put in Paul. "I'm sure it won't hold out, and if we work right up to the last drop, I'm afraid we may have to make a forced landing, and that may be in the tops of the trees, for all we know."
"Or on an elephant's back," added Bob jocosely.
"Well, I don't know but that we had better try to make a landing as soon as we come to a favorable spot where there is water," remarked John. "It is a fine moonlight night, and if we strike the right place I think we can make the ground. In a pinch, you know, we can use our searchlight."
"Speaking about searchlights—oh my! oh, my! will I ever forget how frightened those blacks were?" And Paul laughed until the tears came into his eyes, now that the tension was off. Tom joined him until both of them staggered and bumped together, causing Grandpa to set up an excited chatter of inquiry.
John kept the Sky-Bird low, down to less than a thousand feet, after crossing the lower neck of Lake Chad, for the chart showed no marked elevations which would make flying at that height hazardous, and it was certain that the closer they were to the earth the better they could detect a favorable place to land.