"Ready for a right bank!" Jack called out an instant later. "Over now!"
Each man at his appointed place, each carrying out his expected task, they worked with the perfectly adjusted rhythm of a unified machine.
For what seemed several minutes they wavered at a terrific and dangerous angle. The wind tore at the wings with what seemed like maniacal fury. At any instant it seemed that they would be carried away. Jack grabbed a lever and suddenly shot a double dose of petrol into the engines. They put forth their mightiest effort in just the nick of time. It was sufficient to drag them upward a dozen feet, and another gale of wind that would have completely capsized them at their previous level, as suddenly righted them now—and they were headed down the hurricane at a speed that human beings never had traveled before.
They cut down their speed considerably by all but shutting the throttles and depending only upon the force of the storm; but at no time did they dare completely shut off their power, for at irregular intervals the sudden shooting on of a full speed was all that righted them when the wind unexpectedly swerved to another quarter and with no advance warning attacked them first upon the port and then upon the starboard sides.
For three hours the terror of the storm continued, and then it took a northern course and began abating almost as suddenly as it had appeared. The sea, too, began to subside almost as soon as the heavy winds ceased, and as dawn approached and the clouds began to break there was little to indicate that the lads, due to the staunch durability of their plane, had ridden out one of the worst northern storms of that season.
But repairs were necessary to more than one part of the plane, and it was impossible to make a safe landing where they were. The compass showed them that in the power of the hurricane they had been heading east by north. To seek a calmer sea they turned almost directly south, and at 8 A.M., with the sun shining brightly, made a landing upon the surface of the ocean, which seemed entirely undisturbed by the cyclonic rage of the storm which had mighty nearly cost the four young men their lives.
Wires needed tightening, the rudder required bracing, a thorough inspection was their only safeguard against further difficulties. They descended, knowing that probably valuable hours would have to be given to the task.
But the thought came to each, What would they have done had they not had pontoons for landing on the surface of the ocean?