“Then you mean to go back to Yucatan the noo?” inquired MacDuffy.
“Of course,” rejoined Jack, quick as a flash, and in a tone that showed he had indeed arrived at a definite conclusion in the matter. “It’s my duty and Tom’s to rescue our relatives, and that as soon as possible.”
“And you’ll no be countin’ on taking me?” asked MacDuffy, rather piteously.
Jack shook his head.
“The capacity of the Vagrant is limited, Mr. MacDuffy,” he said, “and we may have to adopt another means of transportation before we get through—I mean the aero-auto.”
“Good. The very thing,” was Ned’s enthusiastic comment.
“I guess Captain Andrews, Tom, Ned, Jupe and myself will be a big enough force to take along,” went on Jack; “of course, we’ll carry the gas-guns and a supply of ordinary firearms and ammunition.”
The boy’s plans were so clear and well-defined that there was no opposition. By this time the sky was streaked with gray and rose color in the east, and a wan light overspread the sea. It showed them the faint and distant outlines of the Tarantula, drifting seaward in the clutch of some strong ocean current. Evidently, then, they had nothing to fear from that source.
The work of hoisting the aero-auto from its well on the Sea King, and transferring the odd land-and-air traveler to the Vagrant was set about at once. Blocks and tackles were reeved on the derrick boom of the after mast of the Sea King, and with wondrously little effort, the vehicle the Boy Inventors had evolved was transferred to the flush after deck of the Vagrant, where it was lashed in place, the ropes that bound it being affixed to ringbolts on the deck.
The Flying Road Racer must be described in some detail here, as it is destined to figure largely in after events of the Boy Inventors’ lives. The auto part of the wonderful machine, then, was a cigar-shaped affair of aluminum, with four wheels of the “disc” type. It was fitted much like an ordinary auto, with padded seats in front and in the tonneau, equipped with shock absorbers, and was twelve feet in length.