“Can we not land?” asked Jack after a time. “Surely it would be safer.”
“Safer, doubtless, once we could get to earth; but it would be madness to attempt a landing in this wind.”
“Then we must stay up here till the wind subsides?”
“Yes, or at least until the sand thins out. We should be blinded if we got into the thick of it, let alone the danger to our engine.”
“What speed are we making?” was Jack’s next question.
“About fifty miles an hour, possibly more.”
“Then we may be driven miles out of our way?”
“I fear that is possible. But see, Lieut. Diaz appears to be reviving. Can you reach me that medical kit?”
Jack, not without being fearful of the consequences of his taking one hand from the controlling devices, did so. Luckily, as we know, the aeroplane was equipped with the latest stability devices, making her comparatively steady compared to the older fashioned craft of the air. Jack’s maneuver, therefore, was not so risky as might have been thought.
While the aeroplane bucked and plunged its way through the storm Lieut. Sancho administered stimulants to Lieut. Diaz, who presently began to recover from his spell of air sickness almost as rapidly as he had been “taken down” with it. It is a peculiarity of such seizures, in fact, that they are not of long duration. Some authorities have held that there are poisoned strata in the air which cause the sickness and on emerging from them the victim becomes well again. However that may be, Lieut. Diaz was soon himself, and Jack was relieved at the wheel by Lieut. Sancho.