They watched the airplane closely, expecting at every moment to see it head downward.
Then it came.
“Hurrah!” Bob was overjoyed. “Karl sees us, all right. And it’s Karl, too,” he observed, as the monoplane came closer.
As the machine flew closer it circled around the little group below, rapidly flying lower. When within a hundred feet of them, its cabin window opened, and Karl’s face was thrust out.
“Hello, up there!” shouted Bob, and received an answering greeting. But the noise of the ’plane’s engine made it impossible for the adventurers to understand the aviator’s words.
While the three were still gazing up at the huge monoplane they saw something that caused them to look all the closer. They made out Karl’s arm reaching out of the cockpit. Then they saw something white drop toward the ground.
“It’s a small parachute,” observed Joe, his heart beating rapidly. “Wonder what’s tied to it?”
As there was no wind, the object fell in a straight line, the parachute opened and began to float slowly above the onlookers. Before long it came to the ground within fifteen feet of them. Karl had certainly aimed accurately.
“Hurry!” cried Joe. “Let’s see what it is. Maybe something’s happened to our dads or the others.”