“Oh, don’t be so silly,” put in Linda, anxious to be off. “Let’s all go over to the Ladybug now.”
While Dot put the equipment into the autogiro, Chase filled the gasoline tank and Linda gave the boat a hasty inspection. Apparently everything was ship-shape.
They climbed into the cockpits and Linda started the rotors in motion. It was Chase’s first experience in an autogiro, and he watched her with absorbed interest. The ease with which the Ladybug rose into the air seemed nothing short of miraculous to him, accustomed as he was to the prolonged taxi-ing of a fast plane.
With the aid of her maps and compass, Linda was able to judge their location pretty definitely, and she flew westward to the Gulf of California, aiming to stop first at an airport to make inquiries about the Sky Rocket, and to refuel. They passed over the plateau, and caught glimpses of several Mexican villages, which, however, seemed too small to boast of airports. At last, however, about noon, she spotted a town of some size, with beacon sign-posts, pointing to an airport. Here she made her landing.
“We’ll be out of luck if they don’t speak English,” remarked Dot.
“Don’t worry about that,” returned Chase. “I can speak Spanish, and they all understand that down here.”
But it wasn’t necessary, for one of the attendants at the field spoke English perfectly.
“Have you seen a yellow biplane?” demanded Dot, as the man came out of the hangar. “A fast plane?”
The attendant nodded.
“Yes,” he replied. “I did. We got a radio yesterday, telling us to be on the look-out for a stolen plane. I’m pretty sure I saw her yesterday, but she didn’t stop here.”