“It may turn out that you will—stranger things have happened.”
Billy proved to be a prophet, but it was not a “little jaunt,” but a long ride that the boys took in that aëroplane.
An unpleasant surprise was in immediate store for them.
They decided that it was about time that they should return to their friends and the sea-plane, and were full of and eager to tell Johnson and Freeman of the results of their scouting.
“Guess the captain won’t wonder at anything we do since we brought that automobile into camp,” declared Billy. “You know he said that he hadn’t any breath to save for our next harum-scarum performance.”
“I can just see Freeman grin when I tell him that we have found a flying-machine that can beat his sea-sailer a mile. That’s my part of the story, you know,” added Henri.
“I can’t help thinking of the poor fellow who rode her last,” was Billy’s sober response.
The boys were nearing the point where the heavy walking began. Otherwise they would have broken into a run, so eager were they to tell about their adventures.
Coming out of the weeds and ooze, they stood looking blankly at the spot where the sea-plane had rested.
The sea-plane and their friends were gone!