"Huh!" he muttered, shaking himself violently, "this business is getting my goat. I'll be delirious if I don't watch out."
Again he fixed his gaze upon the spot of light as it traveled over the water.
He had kept steadily at the task for fifteen minutes, was wondering how much longer the gas would hold out, wondering, too, whether the storm was ever going to break, when he caught the pilot's signal in the tube.
"How about trying another message?" his companion called.
"Up here?" he asked in dismay.
"I know—awful dangerous. But we've got to risk something. Lost if we don't."
"All right, I'll try." He began cautiously to unbuckle his harness.
Scarcely had he loosened two of the three straps which held him in place when the plane gave a sudden lurch. Having struck a pocket, it dropped like an elevator cage released from its cable, straight down.
"Oh—ah!" he exclaimed as he caught at a rod just in time to escape being hurled away.
"Got to be careful," he told himself, "awful careful! Have to hold on with one hand while I work with the other. Feet'll help too."