Alec hurried off to carry out his instructions. It was a task after his own heart, a fairly-long out and home flight, which in his opinion was infinitely preferable to doing "stunts" over the lagoon. Assisted by Trevear, he had the planes reassembled and the engine tuned up in less than an hour and a half. Then, with additional help, the Cormorant was launched and given a preliminary flight.
"Good enough, Trevear, old thing!" shouted Alec. "Sorry you aren't in this stunt. Cheerio!"
The propeller began to revolve; the sea-plane taxied through the water, turned head on to the light breeze, and "took off" in faultless style.
Claverhouse "turned her nose at it", and rose steadily to a height of two thousand feet. Then, following a compass course and allowing for the slight side-drift, he held on for twenty minutes, at the end of which time he could discern the triple peaks of Ni Telang.
The time of day was favourable for a reconnaissance without running much risk of being spotted, for the sun was now almost overhead and blazing down fiercely. Provided he kept at a sufficient height and slowed down his engine until it "revved" just sufficient to give the sea-plane enough lift to counteract the force of gravity, the trick was easy.
Passing over the lagoon at an immense height, Alec got his glasses to bear upon the scene beneath. The Zug lay, apparently undamaged, at the spot where she had dropped anchor at the conclusion of the race to the the wrong island. Two or three boats lay alongside, but there were no signs of activity.
"Looks as if they've packed up ready to go home," soliloquized Claverhouse. "Wonder if they've realized that they've been done in the eye?"
The answer to that question was, in Parliamentary language, "in the affirmative", but Alec did not know that. Von Giespert was on the eve of his desperate venture. He had sworn to gain possession of the gold from the Fusi Yama at all costs. If he failed, then he would make doubly certain that Harborough would never get the precious metal to England.
Harborough's generous action in sending Claverhouse to ascertain that the Zug was safe or otherwise was unnecessary from a life-saving standpoint. The path of the hurricane had missed Ni Telang altogether, the outer edge of the comparatively narrow, curved track passing not nearer than twenty miles of the Zug's anchorage.
Having completed his observations, Claverhouse turned, and, making a long vol-plane, was well out of hearing-distance when he "opened out".