“Oh, I don’t know that he’ll take a tumble,” went on Jerry, “only he won’t know how to run her so as to get the best speed out of her. That means that he’ll be longer than he thinks he’ll be in getting to the canyon, and we’ll have a chance to catch up to him, even if he has a good start.”
“I wonder what he’ll do, if he does get to the canyon?” asked Ned, as, in response to a sign from Jerry, he adjusted the carburetor so as to give the engine a richer mixture.
“Why, he’ll hover over it, the same as we would, I suppose,” replied the tall lad, “and try to pick out Snake Island. He doesn’t know exactly where it is, any more than we do, but I guess there aren’t many islands in that part of the river, and so he won’t have much trouble picking it out. The only thing for us to do is to get there first.”
“Can we do it with this machine?” asked Ned.
“Well, it’s a pretty good craft,” replied Jerry, as he turned on more power, and did various evolutions in the air to ascertain how the Chaser responded to the helm. “Of course she isn’t as speedy as the Comet, but she might be, with Noddy tinkering with our machinery, and not getting the best out of it. We’ve got to take our chance.”
The Chaser was indeed a fine craft of her class, and soon the motor boys were high in the air, sailing in an almost direct south-western direction from Denver, to reach the Colorado.
For several miles they proceeded in a straight line, at a height of about a mile, as this gave them a good view ahead, unobstructed by any clouds which would have hampered them had they gone higher. But the clear air held not a speck that might be taken for the missing Comet. The boys strained their eyes in vain. They were making good time, and the wind cut into their faces, for there was no protection as in the comfortable cabin of their own craft.
“Don’t you think you might slow up a bit?” suggested Bob after a while.
“Why?” inquired Jerry.
“Because it’s ’most lunch time, and—er—well, you know you can hardly breathe if you open your mouth going at this speed, and if we try to eat any sandwiches we may get choked. So if you slowed up——”