“The glass is not directed this way. As you say, he is looking for that crater,” Ynilea answered.
“Be a nice little treat if you could really shoot off a lid and chase him with a blast of smoke and fire,” Jim chuckled.
“It would indeed,” Ynilea agreed with a smile.
“Give him something to write home about.”
“Looks as if he is planning to land,” Jim explained, and the plane was descending closer. Soon it was so near that the pilot did not require the glasses, and again he stared with a puzzled scowl toward the cliff which was supposed to have erupted. Then his machine began to rock crazily and bump as if it were riding deep, choppy waves, and for the next few minutes he had to give his undivided attention to maintaining his equilibrium. As he attended strictly to his job they could no longer see him, but they could see that he had struck something which threatened to end his flight in a wreck. He banked, curved, climbed, and dived in a desperate effort to force himself out of the pocket, or whatever it was that he had struck, but it wasn’t until he was almost a speck in the sky again that he really recovered his balance. A moment later, the glass was pressed to his eyes and he stared through space as if determined to solve the mystery. Twice he descended quickly, but each time the plane misbehaved, so at last he gave it up, circled once more, then leveled off and shot away in the direction from which he had come.
“Pleasant entertainment while it lasted,” laughed Bob. “Thought for a while we’d have him on our piazza.”
“Sorry he didn’t stick long enough to give you a really good time,” laughed Ynilea. “One reason I wanted to see you boys today is to tell you that we have a small television we’ll attach to the ‘Lark’s’ radio. We were going to wait until you landed back in Texas to have it installed, but since you are staying over, we’ll fix it in a set and exchange it for you as soon as it’s ready. You can pay a visit to the Lab. to learn how it works.”
“Oh, that will be great. I say, you’ll soon have that plane so we won’t need to come to the ground at all,” announced Bob.
“Should you like that?”
“And how! But, Buddy we’d better get home or the De Castros will think we’re lost—or never coming down,” Jim warned.