"I do not. I had a little trouble with my engines, and was just on the point of going there to see what had happened."
It was perhaps the worst thing he could have said, for the two officers immediately climbed up and squeezed themselves into the observer's cockpit.
"Quick! You will carry us there. It is a command!" said the colonel. And Dennis's eyes roved in vain round the pilot's seat for any sign of a weapon.
He bent down under pretence of examining the shaft of the steering-wheel to collect his thoughts and compose his features, and then a thought came to him.
Had they been on the ground he would have pleaded that his engines were still wrong, but it was too late now.
"I will take you willingly, Herr Colonel," he said. And, sitting down, he passed the two ends of the securing strap round his waist, and drew the buckle tight.
"You are a long time, young man," said the colonel's companion.
"We are off now," replied Dennis, starting the engines to avoid any awkward questioning, and breathing a silent prayer that they were all right.
He thought of Laval, too, and wondered what he would think when he heard the whir; and it was as well that he did not know what was happening to his French friend, or possibly he would have failed to keep his nerve for the task he had set himself!
The horses shied, and bolted across the plain, but no one thought of them as the Aviatik ran uneasily forward over the soft ground and rose like a bird.