The order was promptly obeyed, and the rays of the 10,000 candle-power lamp were directed vertically downwards.
Leaning well out of the open window, Kenyon peered along the glistening length of tautened cable until parting from the converging rays of the searchlight it vanished into space.
"Two degrees left," ordered Kenneth. "Good--at that. By Jove! What's that? A man!"
Filled with a haunting suspicion that the suspended body might be that of his chum Peter, Kenyon felt his heart jump into his throat; but a second glance, as the motionless figure slowly revolved at the end of the cable, relieved Kenneth's mind on that, score. Still, it was a human being in dire peril.
"Heave away handsomely," continued Kenyon. "Stand by to avast heaving," he added.
The orders were communicated to the hands at the cable-winch. Steadily the winch-motor clanked away until the word was passed to "'vast heaving." The luckless individual at the end of the wire was now dangling thirty feet below the bows of the fuselage.
It would have been useless to have hauled him up to the hawse-pipe, because there would be no means of getting him on board. The only practical way to reach him was by lowering a rope from a trap-door on the underside of the chassis midway between the two hawse-pipes in the bows.
Meanwhile Kenyon was deftly making "bowlines on the bight" at the extremities of two three-inch manilla ropes.
"Jackson," he said, addressing the leading hand of the duty-watch, "I'm going after that chap. Tell off a couple of men to attend to each of the ropes. If I make a mess of things and don't get back, keep the ship head to wind till daylight, and then make for our former mooring. There'll be plenty of help available."
Adjusting one of the loops under his arms and another round his legs above his knees, Kenneth slipped through the narrow trap-hatch, taking the second rope with him. It was a weird sensation dangling in space with about 8000 feet of empty air between him and land or sea, for by this time the "Golden Hind" was probably over the African coast. But soon the eerie feeling passed and Kenneth, courageous, cool-headed and accustomed to dizzy heights, had no thought but for the work in hand.