"What? Have you gone wacky on me?" the startled captain answered.
Craig pointed to the sea. Barely visible on the horizon was a tiny dot.
"Oh, the plane," the captain said, watching the dot. It was moving swiftly toward them.
Craig watched it, a frown on his face. "I thought you sent out only one plane," he said.
"That's right. I did send one."
"Well," Craig said slowly, "unless my eyes have gone bad, three planes are coming back."
"What?—But that's impossible?" Higgins snatched a pair of glasses, swiftly focused them on the plane. It was still only a dot in the sky. Two smaller dots were following swiftly behind it.
"Maybe a couple of those lizard-birds are chasing it?" Craig hazarded.
"Nonsense!" the captain retorted. "It can fly rings around those things. Those lizards are too slow to keep up with it. But there is something following it."
Higgins kept the glasses to his eyes, straining to see the approaching dots.