[CHAPTER XXI]
CAPTURING AN AËROPLANE
As they sat with downcast countenances, reflecting upon their uncomfortable position, Orissa said quietly:
"I've thought of something to relieve us. The idea came to me when Chesty insisted our launch could run the blockade."
"Speak out, Ris," exclaimed Steve. "Your ideas are pretty good ones, as a rule. What's the proposition?"
"Why, we all seem to have forgotten the Hy."
"The Hydro-Aircraft?"
"Yes. It is lying quite safe, and in apple-pie order, in the little ravine at the foot of the bluff where we camped."
"But it is minus its plane-cloths," added Sybil. "Our tent is still standing, for I saw it from deck only an hour ago."
"It won't take long to attach the plane-cloths," said Steve, "provided those brigands will let us do it. It's rather odd they haven't taken the trouble to capture the Aircraft already. It would be easy for Ramon to declare it 'wreck.'"
"What would be the use?" asked Madeline. "They could not fly it, even if they knew how to put it in order; and, as they imagine we cannot get to it, they are not worrying about the thing. Of course they are able to see that tent on the bluff as easily as we can, and by and by they will go there and capture whatever the girls left."