CHAPTER XVIII.
OFF WITH THE AIR RAIDERS.
“Zip! we’re off!” cried Billy, as he heard the familiar whir of the motors, and felt the forward push of the sea and air craft.
Pudge was not so accustomed to being aboard one of the Sea Eagles when starting out on a cruise. His father, knowing the customary clumsiness of Pudge, had preferred as a rule that the fat boy stay upon the solid ground while his more agile chums attempted the aërial stunts.
But Pudge complained so much that Frank had thought it best to let him accompany them on this wonderful journey. It was likely to eclipse anything they had ever experienced before, and must ever remain as a memory worth while.
The speed increasing, they were soon rushing over the surface of the harbor at a furious rate. Then, as Frank slanted the ascending rudder, they left the water to course upward at a low angle, which, however, could be increased as they circled the harbor.
Loud cheers came to their ears from the shore, where that crowd had been standing. They were echoed, too, from several other points, showing that all Dunkirk must be on the alert this morning, as though it might be in the air that wonderful things were about to transpire.
“Are those cheers for us, do you think, Frank, or because they’ve discovered the fleet coming along?” Billy asked, although he had already waved his hand toward the shore.
“It’s hard to tell,” Frank replied. “Though they must have glimpsed the bunch heading this way, and guessed what it all means. I don’t see any person running to hide in a cellar, as they do when the Taubes are around.”
Mounting higher, they waited for the arrival of the fleet. It was a sight never before witnessed. The air was fairly filled with buzzing seaplanes of various patterns, jockeying for position much as is seen on the race course before the signal to start is given by the firing of a pistol.