Captain Brice and Jack were in the air in less than five minutes after they had received the word from Bob.
The Captain had long before explained his plan to the boy.
“Jim and I reckoned that he’ll likely make about seventy-five or eighty miles an hour, and will probably go towards Boston. That will bring him somewhere over Augusta at the end of the first hour. So I’m planning to be in that vicinity at about that time and we ought to pick him up. Of course it’s largely guesswork and if he goes off in another direction we’ll be out of luck, that’s all.”
As the big plane left the ground Jack experienced a thrill such as he had never had before. He had often dreamed of chasing an enemy plane through the air but had never dared hope that he might actually take part in such a flight. The Captain had provided him with a powerful field glass and he knew that his part in the game was to catch sight of the other machine.
He began using the glasses almost as soon as they started.
“It won’t do any harm and he may be coming more in this direction than we think,” he told himself.
But for nearly an hour he saw nothing more closely resembling an airship than a distant hawk.
“Keep an eye peeled,” Captain Brice shouted back. “We’re apt to pick him up most any time now.”
The words had hardly left the Captain’s lips when Jack saw through the glass a speck which sent a thrill of excitement through his body. Was it the plane or only another bird? It was higher than they and too far off for him to be sure. He waited a few minutes and then handed the glass to the Captain pointing toward the speck as he did so.
Captain Brice looked through the glass for several minutes then he handed it back with a nod of his head. Immediately after he changed the direction of their flight slightly and, as Jack again got the focus, he realized that the chase had begun in good earnest. Yes, there was no longer any doubt as to the identity of the distant object. It was a plane and he did not hesitate in feeling sure that it was the one they were after.