The engines banged, the propellers whirled, the stately craft glided down the waters with rapidly increasing speed, and in a few moments rose majestically into the air.
Like a bird loosed from its cage, it swerved about in an ever-widening circle, and then, to the manner of a homing pigeon picking up the scent, it turned its nose toward Europe and soon was lost to sight.
In the exhilaration of the "hop-off" the men had forgotten the difficulties that might lie ahead.
Could they have looked backward through a telescope as powerful as the one which was trained upon them they would have seen four strangers standing intently in the doorway of that which had been Henryson's hangar, while within three mechanics worked furiously while two other men with equal haste were putting aboard supplies almost identical with those on the plane which already was under way.
And could they have diagnosed this activity they would have known that Germany had had not yet given up all hope—that a last desperate effort was to be made to divide the Allies and to align Japan with the Huns.
They might have guessed then that this effort would be directed toward intercepting or delaying the all-important documents now on their way to the Peace Conference by a Transatlantic service never before attempted.