Pant dropped silently into his seat. This was his chance. If he could make a clean get-away all would be well. Johnny and the Professor would be waiting at the north end of the island. He would pick them up and they would fly away. They would report the wreck of the steamer at the nearest port and leave the rest to the American consul.
Catching a quick breath, he touched a button, then pulled a lever. At once the engine thundered. They were moving.
“Now a little quick work,” he whispered to himself.
He whirled about, and with one swing of his powerful arm pitched the astonished purser from the fuselage into the sea. The next instant the plane rose gracefully from the water. He was away.
The purser came up sputtering, to swim for the shore. The captain roared at Pant, commanding him in the name of all things he knew to stop. Bullets from a seaman’s rifle sang over his head, but all these arguments were lost on him. He was on his way.
Taking a wide circle, that he might give his companions time to arrive at the meeting-place, he at last swung back to the end of the island.
To his surprise, as he eased the plane down into the water, he saw, not two men, but four, awaiting him. Besides his two companions, there was the Professor’s brother and the little shanghaied English sailor.
There was no time for demanding and receiving explanations; not even when he saw four large chests piled on the rocky shore did Pant ask a question. The canvas boat had been fastened to the “Dust Eater”; it was still there. Righting this, he pulled for the shore. The chests were quickly tied together, and the men loaded into the boat. Then, with the line of chests following in their wake, they pulled back to the plane.
The lashing of the chests, two back and two before the cabin, consumed time. When this was done, Pant tumbled into his seat, the other four piled, pell-mell, into the cabin; the motors thundered and they were away.
They were not a moment too soon, for the captain, suspecting the move, had ordered his men to race to the end of the island. Just as the “Dust Eater” rose, graceful as a swan, out of the water, the first man appeared at the top of the cliff.