His remark served to set Karl Sutman to action.
“Let’s get the gas in the tank,” he suggested, walking over to the can that Bob and Mr. Wallace had brought filled from the city on the coast.
Together, Joe and the aviator lifted the heavy can up and poured out its contents. Then, after making the cap secure, Karl climbed in the cockpit and switched on the engine.
“This will take us from fifty to seventy miles—maybe farther, depending on how fast we fly,” he told the others, as they entered the cabin and snapped the door shut.
As they left the ground, Joe noticed that they were heading west. He wondered what was the meaning of this, since Bogotá, which was south, was their goal.
“I’m going to find out,” he thought, and, stepping over to the transmitter, he put the question to Karl.
“I decided all at once to go over to that coast city—Cartagena,” the aviator answered. “There we can fill both our tanks to capacity and won’t have to worry any more. Otherwise, if we merely used the gas that Bob and Mr. Wallace brought, we might find it necessary to hunt up another town that has gasoline.”
“You think of everything,” praised Bob’s father, moving up to the transmitter.
“I’ve decided to make another change, too,” Karl said with a laugh. “I think it might be best to miss Bogotá by a hundred miles and head at once for Lima, the capital of Peru. We can stop at Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for more gas, and then continue on to Lima. Here we’ll again land to fill our tanks. After that we’ll go on to—well, perhaps to Cuzco, if we want to look around a little before Mr. Lewis gets here by steamship. How does it sound?”