“I don’t care where you take me, so long as there’s something to eat there!” the lad answered.
After a long consultation, it was decided to take the machines out of the canyon that night. The boys knew that in time the unlawful acts of the smugglers would bring them to punishment. Their arrest might take place within one day, or within one year, but, whenever it was, the lads decided that they could not afford to be in any way implicated by knowledge of the smuggling, or by being in a position to be suspected of knowing more than they really did.
After a hastily-eaten supper, the boys ran the Bertha around so as to face the sea and stowed on board of her the packages of provisions which had been removed and opened.
This done, Ben ran both machines back to the crag and paced the distance to the abrupt drop into the sea.
“How far is it?” asked Jimmie.
“Something less than a hundred paces!” was the reply.
“The machines will rise in that distance, all right!” Carl cut in.
“If they do, it’s all right,” Ben answered, “and if they don’t, we’ll all be dumped into the Pacific ocean.”
“Well,” chuckled Jimmie, “we came clear across the continent to get to the Pacific ocean, didn’t we?”
“Couldn’t we swim out?” asked Kit innocently.