“Si.” Jim was glad that this Gonzalas brother had been an airman, for of course he would see that he and his brother were not taking undue risk during the long flight through the night.
“Fine. Hang on!”
“The sister?”
“She is top hole,” Jim assured him.
“Bravo! We are the fruit!”
“Berries,” Jim had to chuckle.
“Si. Gooseberries maybe, but we are present. Can I assist?”
“Don’t know. Keep your ear plastered to the tube and leave the connection on. Also, watch what I do and be prepared to follow if necessary,” Jim answered briefly, then he smiled confidently at his companion and some of his spirit gave her renewed courage.
Up to that moment Cardow’s plane had made no overt move but continued in the course and kept its light, which was surprisingly brilliant, on the machine below it. Jim wondered what they looked like from the ground and if anyone happening to observe them would think of danger. For a moment he did nothing but fly straight, then suddenly he tipped the plane’s nose at a sharp angle and began to climb so swiftly that the menacing plane would be forced to slacken its speed or risk a collision, for Jim was shooting directly into its track. Up he zoomed and in a moment had shot beyond the rim of light, which apparently was not a revolving one and that fact was some comfort, but the boy had to blink quickly when he climbed through the intensified darkness.
Keeping his eyes on the plane still above him Jim realized that the pilot either was not calculating the point ahead where the two machines would come to grief, or else the man considered the Flying Buddy’s maneuver a bluff and expected that the smaller plane would scoot out of the path of destruction at the last moment. By that time Austin could see the two men in the forward cock-pit and suddenly he saw the man next the pilot rise as high in his seat as straps permitted and his mouth opened to its fullest capacity as if he were shrieking a warning. Not until then did the second machine tip its nose upward and veer slightly from its course so that Jim and his companions rushed like a rocket above them.