Shortly afterward the dirigible also went by, with several lights displayed about her decks. The boys shot up a ray of light from the searchlight on the auto, and were greeted by a cheer from the men on the dirigible.
“Well, if those fellows think they can steal a night march on us, we’ll fool ’em,” exclaimed Frank. “Here, Harry, let’s have a look at that map. I must lay out a course, and then we’ll get after them. You fellows break camp and be ready to follow us in the auto.”
There was a lot of bustle and excitement while Frank, by the light of an auto-lamp, with compasses, dividers and measured rule, worked out a course. A route was soon devised.
“All ready?” he cried at last, when final directions had been given.
“All ready,” said Billy, tightening the ropes that held the tarpaulin covering the supplies in the auto.
“Then we’re off,” cried Frank, as he and Harry jumped into the Golden Eagle, and with a rattling roar of explosions glided into the air.
CHAPTER X.
A NIGHT VOYAGE.
Sailing through the air at night is a vastly different thing to the delightful exhilaration of a day voyage. In the latter case, all is plain going—provided, of course, the weather conditions are right—below the aviator is spread out, like a many-colored carpet, a glowing landscape dotted with peaceful hamlets, busy smoky cities, and quiet farms and patches of woodland. But at night all is changed. The darkness hangs about the driving air-craft like a pall. The aviator anxiously scans the earth below him for an occasional light or the glare that a distant city casts on the sky. It is by those means alone that he can get his bearings, unless he is a skilled navigator and steers by the compass. Even then he may get lost. All is uncertainty.
So intent on overtaking their rivals, however, were the boys, that they reckoned little of the risks they ran, and kept the Golden Eagle headed on an almost due westerly course. The tiny shaded light above the binnacle was the only speck of illumination about the air-ship. Luckily the moon cast a bright, white illumination, but the luminary was waning, and was already low in the western sky. Soon all would be as black as a well.
“Heard anything from the auto?” asked Frank, with a backward glance, after they had been running about an hour thus.