The snow laden air reeked with petrol fumes and the smoke from the exhaust, but the noise of the motors was hardly audible without. The throbbing sound seemed to be confined to the interior of the fuselage.
Both lads, agog with excitement, held on tightly. For some seconds nothing appeared to happen; then with a sudden, powerful jerk the battleplane seemed to stand on end. Kept in a natural sitting position by a delicately-balanced seat, the two chums were forcibly aware of a pain in their necks, as if they had banged their heads violently against a door-post. The sudden starting or stopping of a lift was nothing to the jerk, for the battleplane had to clear the tree-tops with little lateral space to spare.
For the present they could see nothing except the whirring tips of the wings and the streaks of white as the machine soared against the falling snow. Already the manometer registered a height of four hundred feet and the needle was still moving rapidly round the dial.
Presently the fuselage assumed a horizontal position. The movement was now regular and free from vibration, for the direction of flight was no longer in an inclined motion.
"Easier than I thought," remarked the inventor.
Without raising his voice he could comfortably communicate with the rest of the crew, since the rush of air did not disturb the interior of the fuselage. Nor did the snow accumulate upon the wind-screens as Dick had surmised, for the nature of the transparent substance caused the impinging flakes to disperse without any suspicion of moisture being deposited upon the glass.
Owing to the design of the wing-screens it was now possible for the lads to learn and observe the ground almost immediately below them. Eight hundred feet beneath was a blurr of white, across which were traced several winding dark lines, for the battleplane had run out of the falling snow and was now heading southwards.
"Not much of a day for observation purposes," said Blake, who had relinquished his grip on the levers and was now trusting solely to the "stabilisers" or automatic devices for maintaining a straight course. "We are now over Ludlow. That patch is the ruins of the castle. You can just discern the town."
"I thought Ludlow was built on the side of a steep hill," remarked Athol.
"It is," assented the inventor. "That street is almost as steep as a roof of a house. Altitude tends to impart an appearance of flatness to the landscape, especially in the snow. We'll turn now, and follow the Shrewsbury railway. I don't like getting too far afield on an experimental run when so many landmarks are obliterated. Now, Athol, make your way for'ard and I'll show you how to manoeuvre the plane. Dick will have his turn later. It is essential that every man of the crew should know how to handle the steering and elevating gear."