Adventure Magazine, March 1916 — page 29: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Secret of Caprice near to the boat, and headed still higher. He felt sure now that the men below would make a landing soon and he wanted to run no chances of having his motor heard when the thunder of their own should cease. Coming about again, he saw that the thin wake of the craft was edging inshore and that the boat had apparently slackened its speed. He peered ahead, looking for some signal light or other evidence of human beings. There was nothing but blackness along the shore. Several miles down, however, he saw that the coast curved inward and then out again and a moment’s flying showed him that it was another such inlet as the one into which they had taken the scuttled yacht. He grunted with satisfaction. “That’s your lair, I’ll bet my last dol- lar,” he said, as if speaking to the men far below. “All right, my boys. I'll stick to you until I find out all I can. It will help Greiner immensely.”’ pris CLOSER and yet closer the white wake on the water edged in until the occupants of the boat could evi- dently make out the two headlands of the inlet. Then, with renewed speed, it swung in a great curve and headed straight in. Ward nodded and his eyes gleamed. He was so high now that there was no danger of his Gnome being heard. He could make out none of the details of the scene below but he knew that a fire or a lantern would be plainly visible to him. He made a rapid survey of the inlet and the cove into which it opened. It was much like their own, with two branches, one curv- ing around the typical long sand- ‘spit on its northern entrance and running up almost parallel with the shore, leaving only a nar- row strip of land between it and the ocean; the other running almost straight inland to- ward the west and then, apparently, sweep- ing up toward the north. He grunted approvingly. “T can land up there, ” he muttered, ‘‘and you'll never hear me.’ In another moment, he was once more tense and alert. In the deep shadow of the sand-spit, almost at its point and on its in- ner edge, he had caught the faint flicker of a red flame. He watched breathlessly. It came again, red and faint and uncertain but definite enough to leave no doubt what it meant. 27 “Camp-fire!” grunted the aviator. ‘Just what I thought. Now, swing in and land, you fellows in the boat.” As if in answer to his directions, the wake on the water swung in and cut up the cove, Bringing the camp-fire abeam, it swerved in and then suddenly disappeared. “Exactly!” Fenton exclaimed. “Cut off your power and now you're floating quietly up to shore.”’ He shoved into a gliding angle and opened his switch. Silently, save for the air shriek- ing through his machine, he descended so slowly as almost to stall the aeroplane, but his practised hand kept it safely on the right side of the danger-mark. Floating easily in a wide zigzag, he watched the light below, saw a whiter dot that moved, and muttered: “Lantern coming out to meet you; of course.” His lips shut in a bight line of determina- tion. “Tm going to take a chance with you people,” he said. “I’m going to land and look you over.” Still volplaning, he headed into a steeper descent and swung away from the camp. The outlines of the cove were perfectly clear to him in the moonlight and he aimed for -its upper end, something over a mile north of the fire on shore. Silently he glided down to the surface of the water, taking it with a shower of foam that churned under his blunt bow, and heading inshore as soon as his speed had slackened suffi- ciently. A moment’s inspection showed him that the beach was smooth and sloping. He worked his way in to it and, leaping ashore, hauled the nose of the machine up the firm sand and made her fast with the lines he had stowed in the hull. A final look about convinced him that she was snug there and that there was little probability of her be- ing seen. Then he turned south and started for the camp below. It was easy walking for practically the entire distance. The shore was smooth and clear and, had he been on a less serious mis- sion, would have compelled his admiration by its graceful curves in and out, with high, steep banks making up from the beach, thickly wooded and fairly riotous with the pink-and-white flame of the mountain lau- rel. But he had no eyes for the beauties of nature then; his brows were gathered in a GEomichoo E (E(9)