“We’ll soon find out,” his chum answered.
Suddenly Hartman uttered a cry and pointed upward. There, hovering above them, was a great craft, painted red—a hydroplane—and it seemed to be steering straight for them.
“The Red Arrow!” cried Tom. “We were ahead of him after all!”
“But he’s going to land on top of us!” cried Ned. “Look out! Keep off!” he yelled.
The Red Arrow came down swiftly, and it was a close call for the Air Monarch as Kilborn’s craft landed, skimmed over the water, and came within a few feet of crashing into Tom’s craft.
CHAPTER XIV
WHIZZING BULLETS
Hardly had the Red Arrow stopped, some of her men coming out of the cabin to drop a light anchor, than Tom ran to the prow of his craft, where there was a little landing stage. Seeing Kilborn tantalizingly smiling at him, the young inventor cried:
“What do you mean by that?”
“Mean by what?” sneered the pilot of the rival plane.
“By landing so close to me that you nearly grazed my wing tips? Don’t you know how to make a landing yet? Seems to me there was room enough for even an amateur!”