“Eh?” Johnny gazed down toward the wide circle of the sea. “But where?”
It was true. From this point in the air, though they could see for many miles, only the unbroken expanse of dark green waters met their view.
“There!” exclaimed Pant in triumph. He was pointing to a long line of white. “That’s surf. Some coral island there. Surf’s breaking over it. If we can make the lee of it we’re safe.”
He brought the nose of the plane about until it pointed toward the white line. Silence followed—a silence that could almost be felt. Only the murmur of vast waters and the distant thunder of the breakers, like the falls of a great river, disturbed that silence. Their lives depended on the length of a single glide.
Johnny Thompson opened two small round windows, portholes to the cabin. The Professor, sensing the tenseness of the situation, without fully understanding it, did likewise. Then the three of them watched the rolling ocean as it rose up to meet them.
Now they appeared to be a mile from that white line of foam. They were twenty-eight hundred feet in air. At fifteen hundred feet they appeared to be scarcely half a mile away. Beneath them rolled the treacherous waves; before them the breakers roared. Just over that crest of foam there lay a narrow bay, still as a millpond. Could they make it? Pant lifted a trembling hand to his forehead to brush away cold perspiration. Johnny stirred uneasily. Only the Professor was silent. Motionless as a sphinx, he watched the ocean spin along beneath him.
Gradually as they sank lower and lower objects became distinct to them. The north end of the island appeared to rise some twenty feet above the sea. The south end was lower. The whole of it was lined with a fringe of palms.
“Better turn her a bit south,” Johnny suggested. “It’s lower there and less chance of a smash.”
Without a word Pant followed his directions.
Lower and lower they drifted. Closer and closer came the island. For a time it seemed that they must inevitably drop into the sea. Then it appeared that they would miss the ocean but drive into the palms.