“I don’t see how he’ll ever get us aboard,” Enid said despairingly. “I’ll tell him to go on in and send a boat back after us.”
She shouted the message across the water, but Rex was unwilling to leave. Deliberately, taking every precaution, he edged the amphibian in close to the yacht. Anxiously the girls watched him maneuver. The bay was unusually quiet and Rex maintained perfect control, yet they realized that the slightest miscalculation of distance or an unexpected roll of the yacht might result in a crumpled wing.
As he succeeded in making contact, the girls hastily lowered themselves into the front cockpit. Madge obtained only a fleeting impression of the young pilot’s face, for it was half-masked with goggles and helmet. He was not handsome but his eyes were friendly and there was a quality about him that was most likable.
“You shouldn’t have risked your plane to take us off,” Enid protested after she had introduced Madge.
“I knew what I was about,” Rex returned, smiling broadly. “Sit tight now and we’ll run in to the beach.”
He opened the throttle and the amphibian skimmed lightly over the water. In a few minutes they drew near the shore where a flagman signalled them in. Rex beached the plane and aided the girls in alighting.
“Now tell me what’s wrong,” he commanded.
Enid poured out her story with Madge adding additional details. Rex listened in amazement, and when they had finished promptly agreed that the wisest thing was to notify the authorities without delay.
“It doesn’t sound like an ordinary case of kidnapping to me,” he declared, and then as Enid’s face grew even more distressed, he added quickly: “Don’t worry. The police will find your father.”
“If it’s a case of money, I can arrange with Father’s banker,” Enid returned earnestly. “I’ll give any amount they say—anything to secure his release.”