"All right—I think I can see as much as you or Tom," responded the youngest Rover. "If I get off the course, and you find it out, let me know."
Darkness was settling down when the boys finally bid the girls good-bye and flew away. "Beware of old Crabtree!" sang out Dick.
"We'll watch out!" answered Nellie.
"Indeed we will!" came from Dora and Grace.
"If you catch sight of him, have him arrested!" yelled Sam, and then the biplane sailed out of hearing.
Sam knew how to handle the Dartaway almost as well as did Dick and Tom, and as there was but little wind, and the flying machine appeared to be in good condition, the others did not doubt but what Sam would make a fine flight of the trip.
"Keep a little to the south," called out Dick, after Hope had been left behind and when they were sailing over some broad fields. "If you do that you can follow the old turnpike for quite a distance."
"I thought I'd run for the railroad tracks," answered the lad at the steering wheel.
"You can do that later—after we pass that big farmhouse with the four barns."
Running along in the air is a different proposition from running on the ground, and the air-man has to be careful about the lay of the land below him or he will soon go astray from his course. The earth looks altogether different when viewed from the sky from what it does when looked at from a level, and when an air-man is five or six hundred feet up he has all he can do to make out what is below him.