"Oh! look at it, would you?" cried Larry, almost as much worked up as his smaller companion. "This time there's going to be something doing! I bet you Frank wants to just snatch a floating piece of wood off the water as he skims along, just like them Wild West riders do on horseback, when they throw their hats down. Why! Something must a-busted—they dropped splash on the lake; and look at the old biplane sitting right there like a great big gull! Ain't that too bad, though; I'm sorry for Frank and Andy!"
But Mr. Marsh, bending his head close to the ear of the man who sat in the front of the touring car, laughed softly, and remarked with an air of triumph:
"What did I tell you, Longley? Now say it was a false scent, will you? It isn't often I make a mistake, and already I believe we've struck great luck in coming up here."
CHAPTER II
A RESCUER FROM THE SKIES
"What if the bally thing takes a notion to duck under, Larry?" asked Elephant, staggered himself at the possibility of such a catastrophe happening.
"Wow! they'd stand a chance of being drowned, then, I take it!" answered the taller lad, shaking his head as if worried.
"Say, p'raps we ought to be chasing after a boat, and putting out there right now," the small boy exclaimed.
"O K say I. Let's make a dash for Cragan's dock, and borrow his skiff!" suggested Larry, ready to toss fishing poles, and even the fine catch in the dusty weeds bordering the road, so that they might be unimpeded in their flight.
"Hold on, boys!" observed the gentleman in the tonneau of the touring car, as he reached out and caught Larry by the sleeve of his shirt. "No need of bothering yourselves in the least, I assure you."