“Impossible,” he said. “We had better all get on life jackets as quickly as possible. It’s lucky I had them put in that locker; but something I read about an airship being blown out to sea some months ago made me think of it.”
As quickly as possible all of them invested themselves in the cork-lined jackets, which were covered with stout canvas.
“Look! look!” cried Jack suddenly, “isn’t that an island ahead of us!”
Captain Andrews pierced the gloom with his keen eyes.
“It is! It’s an island, sure enough!” he cried joyfully. “If we can make it we are saved.”
But the Flying Road Racer settled lower even as he spoke.
The angry sea beneath looked savage and cruel as it leaped upward toward them, as if impatient for the end to come swiftly.
Ahead lay the island; a large one, with a sandy beach extending in their direction. Could they reach it before the air craft sank into the waves?
CHAPTER XXIII—THE BOY INVENTORS SOLVE A PROBLEM
The engine had been shut off, and amidst a dead silence, so far as any talk was concerned, the Flying Road Racer drifted down toward the island.