“We can’t bomb the place from an airplane, because we brought no airplane bombs. And we can’t shell it with the ship’s guns without knowing its exact location. Our planes aren’t equipped with range finders, either—so it would do no good to try to locate it from the air.
“That,” he added with decision, “leaves us no choice but a direct attack!”
“Well,” responded Dr. Gresham, “at any cost, we’ve got to try!”
At once we consulted the ship’s charts—and made a discovery.
Not far below our present location, a tributary fiord entered Dean Channel from the left, and with sudden hope we saw that this waterway twisted back among the mountains for several miles—reaching a point in one of its windings where it was not more than six or seven miles directly south of the region in which the power plant was hidden.
“There’s our chance!” Hallock announced. “If the sorcerers have missed the Albatross, they’ll think we are on our way out of the country as fast as we can travel. They won’t be expecting us to come back so soon—in broad daylight. We can steam up this side channel to the proper spot and then march across the mountains until we find the plant.”
“Good!” assented the scientist. “They are less likely to be on guard against an attack from that side, anyway!”
Day was now beginning to break, which made further navigation easy. In a few minutes we came to the tributary inlet, and swung the vessel in between its high, constricted walls.
The ensign was now imbued with marvelous activity. Orders flew thick and fast. A couple of the machine guns were made ready for land transport. Two light mountain mortars and a quantity of ammunition were brought up on deck. A supply of shrapnel hand grenades was distributed among the men.