“You thought you’d get away, didn’t you?” grinned Carl.
“Look here!” shouted Jimmie as the powerful machine swept across the field and lifted into the air, “you can’t go with us!”
“Oh, I can’t?” mocked Carl. “I don’t know how you’re going to put me off! You don’t want to stop the machine now, of course!”
“But, see here!” insisted Jimmie, “we’re going on a dangerous mission! We’re likely to butt into all kinds of trouble. And, besides,” he continued, “Sam has provisions for only two. You’ll have to go hungry if you travel with us. We’ve only five or six meals with us!”
“So you’re planning a long trip, eh?” scoffed Carl. “What will the boys say about your running off in this style?”
“Oh, keep still!” replied Jimmie. “We’re going off on a mission for Mr. Havens! You never should have butted in!”
“Oh, let him go!” laughed Sam, as the clamor of the motors gradually made conversation impossible. “Perhaps he’ll freeze to death and drop off before long. I guess we’ve got food enough!”
There was no moon in the sky as yet, but the tropical stars looked down with surprising brilliancy. The country below lay spread out like a great map. As the lights of Quito faded away in the distance, dark mountain gorges which looked like giant gashes in the face of mother earth, mountain cones which seemed to seek companionship with the stars themselves, and fertile valleys green because of the presence of mountain streams, swept by sharply and with the rapidity of scenes in a motion-picture house.
As had been said, the Ann had been constructed for the private use of the millionaire aviator, and was considered by experts to be the strongest and swiftest aeroplane in the world. On previous tests she had frequently made as high as one hundred miles an hour on long trips. The motion of the monster machine in the air was so stable that the millionaire had often taken prizes for endurance which entitled him to medals for uninterrupted flights.
Jimmie declares to this day that the fastest express train which ever traveled over the gradeless lines of mother earth had nothing whatever on the flight of the Ann that night! Although Sam kept the machine down whenever possible, there were places where high altitudes were reached in crossing cone summits and mountain chains.