"It's Orissa!" they cried in chorus and Chesty Todd added: "She wants to land on deck. Clear a space—quick!"
They did the best they could. It seemed like a tiny place for that great sweeping thing to land on and even Sybil exclaimed: "She'll never make it in the world!" But Orissa, hovering above them in her Aircraft, observed carefully the conditions below and shutting off her engine began to volplane.
The huge machine settled quietly down and alighted fairly upon the deck. One rail caught the lower plane and tipped it, but the girl leaped lightly from her seat and was caught by Mr. Cumberford, whose gray eyes sparkled with joy from behind their spectacles.
You may be sure the brave girl received a glad welcome, but as soon as her safety was assured she was deluged with questions. The ping of a rifle ball warned them to scuttle below to the cabin, where Orissa tried to explain.
"Why on earth did you venture to come back?" demanded Madeline. "We had told ourselves that you, at least, were safe from the dangers that menace us, and it pleased us to know that. But where is your brother?"
"Did you get to land?" cried half a dozen voices, eagerly. "What did you do? Tell us!"
Orissa laughed and held up both hands, imploring silence.
"I came to bring you good news," she began. "And now that you are assured of that, please let me tell the story my own way, or I shall bungle it."
"Go ahead," they answered and settled themselves to listen.
"We followed the route Captain Krell had mapped out for us," said Orissa, "and in four hours after leaving here we sighted the Mexican coast. Fifteen minutes' run to the north brought us to the village of San Blas, where there is a telegraph office. We landed and had some difficulty in satisfying the authorities that we were harmless Americans, but finally they agreed to escort us to the telegraph office under guard. We wired our story direct to President Madero, putting it as briefly as possible and asking him for a warship to rescue our friends and capture Ramon Ganza. There was no answer until evening, when we received a message from the Secretary of the Navy saying he had conferred with the President and Secretary of State and would be glad to accede to our request. In eight or ten days he thought he could spare a warship to go to the island for Ganza. Unfortunately, the entire navy was in use at the present time.