“Time enough,” the other drawled. Seizing his oar, he pushed the boat away from the plane.
The next moment they disappeared silently into the fog. They had been gone but an incredibly short time when Johnny reappeared in his shallow skiff.
“Well, she’s still here,” he breathed with a sigh of satisfaction. “Guess I ought not to take such chances, but who’d be out here that knows our secret?”
He climbed happily back to his seat in the plane, buckled on his harness, then touched his lever.
But what was this? The engine gave a few sput-sputs, then stopped dead.
“What?”
He could not believe his senses. He tried it again. No better results.
Snatching off his harness, he leaped to the platform beside the motor.
For a moment his eyes and his fingers played over the line of spark plugs of the twelve-cylinder motor, as a skilled musician plays over the keys of an organ.
Then his face went blank.