"All right, Boss, we're with you every minute," declared Jack.
The boy was already in the fuselage of the Eagle. He reached an eager hand to assist Harry with the gasoline. Harry climbed up to a favorable position and was about to pour the gasoline into the fuel tank while Ned, in his haste to be off, was priming the motors.
Suddenly all three were startled to hear a voice from the rear of the machine they were occupying.
"Halt!" they heard. "Come out of that machine or I fire!"
"Who's that?" asked Jack, pausing in the operation of emptying the fuel. "What do you want and how did you come there?"
"Give her the gas, Ned!" urged Harry. "We're all ready to go and he's on the ground. He can't catch us in a million years."
"I can't make the engine go at all," almost sobbed Ned in his excitement. "Somebody has been monkeying with the machinery."
"Ha, ha!" laughed the newcomer. "So the engine won't run, eh?"
"No, it won't!" snapped Ned as he turned a wrathful face toward the rear of the Eagle to observe the stranger. "Did you do it?"
"Yah!" came the answer. "Mine comrade and myself, ve done tings mit der wires. Dere is no current by der spark plugs alretty!"