She climbed out, laughing — her blue eyes brilliant in the sunshine. “Be back soon,” she cried. “I will be waiting.”
Richard took off again, and in a few minutes had all the altitude he needed for this short flight. He could see the roof-tops of the tiny township to the east, how the streets twisted in and out among the houses. The orchards and fields spread out before him like a patchwork quilt; he could see the farmhouse again now.
De Richleau saw him first “But they will see him for a certainty,” he cried, anxiously.
The others had their eyes glued to the giant ’plane sailing serenely, high up among the little white clouds that flecked the empyrean blue. Suddenly it swerved from its course!
“He’s spotted!” cried Rex. “Look! The big boy’s circling!”
“We’ll never do it,” said Simon, nervously. “Richard’s ’plane can’t take us all. What about the car?”
“Useless,” the Duke replied, curtly. “The frontier guards would get us. It’s Richard — or capture!”
Valeria Petrovna was right. Leshkin himself was in the big ’plane; since the first light of dawn he had been patrolling the frontier, scouring the road for her car, determined that the fugitives should not escape. The sight of the small ’plane coming in from Rumania had roused his suspicions immediately; he knew that his enemies had powerful friends outside Russia.
“Higher,” he shouted to his pilot, “higher!” He did not want Richard to suspect their presence until he had actually landed.
Two thousand feet under the big bomber Richard’s ’plane showed like a cardboard toy against the flattened landscape. As it circled, and its wings gave free vision, Leshkin could see the tiny group of figures huddled in the farmhouse doorway through his binoculars. Sharply he gave the order to descend.