Among the numberless things that had been stowed away aboard the plane, Jack had provided himself with a powerful flashlight to use in such an emergency.
As they swooped low over the ship they could see the rails lined with passengers staring up at them. Jack opened his window and thrusting the flashlight over the side started blinking the message as the Skipper tilted the plane over and began a wide circle around the liner.
Kiwi was craning his neck over Jack’s shoulder, and saw a light sending out flashes from the bridge. Profiting by Jack’s training, he was able to read the ship’s message. It said:
“Your flashes too weak. Can’t read them.”
Informed of this, the Skipper decided that they would have to write a note and try to drop it on the decks.
Jack hastily wrote out the message:
“Trouble over. We’re going on. Your position, please.”
Looking for something with which to weight it, his eye lighted on one of the bottles of water, and with a rubber band that he had been using to keep his writing pad in position, he fastened the note to the bottle and signalled the Skipper to fly into position to drop it.
The Skipper swung in a wide circle and approaching the ship from the stern as slowly as he could, he yelled to Jack: