"Hold him here, Jamison," he said drearily. "I'm going out to look at that big plane. There's a rowboat tied to the dock, here."
He swung down the side into the dock and rowed off into the harbor, while the horses attached to The Master's carriage pawed impatiently at the wooden flooring of the dock. Bell reached the two planes anchored on the still harbor water. The smaller one had brought them down from Buenos Aires. The larger one had gone after the beached amphibian and brought it and Paula on to the city. Bell, from the shore, was seen to be investigating the larger one. He came rowing back.
His head appeared above the dock edge.
"All right," he said tiredly. "The Master has a rule requiring all his ships ready for instant flight. Very useful. The big plane is fueled and full of oil. We'll go out to it and take off."
amison lifted The Master to his feet and with a surge of muscles swept him down to the flooring of the dock.
"Paula first," said Bell, "and then The Master, and then you, Jamison."
"One moment," said The Master reproachfully. "It would be cruel not to let me reassure my subjects. I will give an order."
Bell and Jamison listened suspiciously. But he spoke gently to the coachman.