During the conversation, Kiwi suddenly remembered the things he had overheard, on the morning that Dad and Jack were at Trenton, in the back room of the hangar. He told Dad about it.
Dad frowned, and for several minutes seemed deep in thought. Then he said, “Billings, I don’t want to be unfair to Cosgrave—he may be all right. We have very little proof that he isn’t. But I am going to ask you to keep an eye on him. Watch his work on the plane, and if you see the slightest thing that looks suspicious, I want you to come and tell me.”
Billings had promised to do this, and the Skipper tried to dismiss from his mind the thought that there might be forces working against them other than the natural ones which they expected to have to contend with.
The Skipper and Jack pushed ahead with their preparations. Their collapsible boat was delivered and they tested it. When folded, it took up very little room. Attached to it was a metal cylinder containing compressed air, and it was the work of a moment to open the valve in this cylinder and inflate the boat. With it were two tiny oars and a water-tight pocket in which could be packed medical supplies and condensed food.
They inflated the boat, and Dad and Jack and Kiwi navigated their strange craft about the harbor, returning to the houseboat all too soon to please the boy who enjoyed this novel way of traveling.
The time before the hop-off was getting short, and there was still one detail that gave them considerable concern. They could not seem to prevent the vibration of the engine from interfering with the proper functioning of their instruments. It was annoying to have one or the other of their dials go wrong.
Jack finally decided to remove the whole thing, and regroup the instruments so that all those which had to do with navigation would be in one part of the board and the engine instruments in another. The compasses, the drift-indicator, the dial which registered their turn and climb were placed on one side, and in front of the Skipper were the oil-pressure, engine temperature, tachometer or engine revolution counter, the fuel gauges and the dial which showed their altitude.
The entire instrument board had to be protected in some way from the vibration, and it was Billings’ scheme to set it on four rubber blocks which he cut from ordinary rubber bath sponges.
All this took hours of Billings’ time, for each instrument had to be disconnected and replaced. However, late one night it was finished, and the Skipper decided that, inasmuch as the time was getting very short, they would test it at once.
As the plane was rolled out of the hangar, the news spread that they were about to go, and the crowds gathered. Their announcement that it was only a test flight was not believed.