“I wish I could think that, sir,” said Ralph. “Gosh, if I only had my bug over there on that island! But I haven’t the nerve to fly it.”
“No, don’t!” pleaded Miss Carlton. “It would only add another disaster to our troubles. No, we’ll sail together tomorrow morning.”
“In the meanwhile, let’s go to our hotel and wash and have dinner,” suggested Mr. Carlton. “Then things may look brighter. I positively refuse to worry till I have just cause!”
“Wise man!” commented Jim Valier, as he picked up Miss Carlton’s bag.
So the little group had dinner together at the Ambassador, waiting all the time tensely for news. But none came. And the newspapers duly reported the story that the dinner for two famous aviatrixes had been postponed!
CHAPTER XVII
CAPTURE
The flight across the Pacific from Oahu to Lanai took less than two hours. Early in the afternoon Linda brought the Sky Rocket to a landing on the beach of the lonely island, near to the spot indicated on her map.
“That must be the agent’s shack over there,” she said, as she and Dot climbed out of the cockpit. “I hope he’s there.”
The girls walked along the beach a short distance. How different it was from Waikiki! How deserted! Yet just as beautiful in the bright sunlight. Before they reached the shack, however, a man in a linen suit came out to meet them.
“Miss Carlton and Miss Crowley, I suppose?” he inquired, holding out his hand. He was a pleasant-faced man of middle age, with a tanned complexion and eyes as blue as the waters of the Pacific. “My name is Jardin. I have the wireless from Honolulu.”