“If they had given up, so soon,” Dick mused2, holding his head low to avoid the icy blast of their high position, “if they’d given up Jeff would go straight to the hangar again. But they’re going across Long Island Sound toward Connecticut, just as the unknown person in the hydroplane boat did with the other life preserver.”
Larry, holding speed at a safe flying margin3 so that the sustentation, or lifting power of the air, was greater than the drag of the airplane as it resisted the airflow, let the nose drop a trifle, let the engine rev4 down as he glided5 to a lower level where the air would not bite so much. They would be able to follow quite as well, dropping behind just enough to keep the line of distance between them as great as if they were higher and closer over the amphibian.
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With his glasses, Dick could observe and indicate any change of direction or any other maneuver7.
They had devised a hastily planned code of signals, very much like those used by a flying school instructor8 giving orders to a pupil where the Gossport helmet was not worn.
Dick, watchful9 and alert, lowered his chilled glasses and Sandy, keeping watch, saw his right arm extend straight out from his shoulder, laterally10 to the airplane’s course.
Sandy repeated the gesture after attracting Larry’s attention by a slight shaking of the dual-control rudder which was still attached, but which, on any other occasion, he had been careful not to touch.
“Left arm extended! Turn that way!” Larry murmured.
Gently he moved the stick to lower the left aileron, bringing up the right one, of course, by their mutual11 operation; rudder went left a trifle and in a safe, forty-five degree bank, he began to turn.
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Almost instantly Dick again removed the chilly12 glasses, stuck his arm out ahead of him with his forearm and hand elevated, and motioned forward with the wrist and hand.
The signal was relayed by Sandy.
“Resume straight flight.”
Larry, getting the message correctly, reversed control, brought the airplane back to straight, level position on the new angle, and held it steady, revving13 up his engine and lifting the nose in a climb as Sandy gave him Dick’s sign, hand pointed14 straight upward, to climb.
“What in the world are they going to do?” he wondered.
“Have they discovered us?” Dick pondered the possibility.
“I can’t guess this one,” Sandy muttered. “They started to turn one way, then went on only a little off the old course, and now they’re coming up toward where we are.”
The problem was not answered, either by the continued gain in elevation15 or by the later change of plan.
“They’re gliding16!”
Dick, as he made the exclamation17, gestured with his arm toward the earth.
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To Sandy’s signal Larry cut the gun, keeping the throttle18 open just enough to be sure the engine, in that chill air, would not stall, and with stick sent forward and then returned to neutral, imitated the gentle glide6 of the amphibian.
What it meant none of the three knew any better than did the half frozen caretaker who wished very sincerely that he had never come.
“Sandy! Sandy!” Dick cried as loudly as he could. “They’ve done a sharp turn—they’re going back home I think!”
Larry did not need to have the intricate signal relayed, nor did he wait to be told his passengers’ deduction19. Their own maneuvers20 had given him a clue.
With the first change of direction and the following indecision that showed in the amphibian’s shifts of direction, Larry spelled a change of plan on the part of its occupants. The resulting glide, enabling his chums to speak above the idling noise of the engine, indicated a similar possibility in the other ship—Jeff and Mr. Whiteside were talking over plans.
He rightly decided21 that they had recalled sending the caretaker on a foolish errand. They must get back and make some explanation or he would suspect them, perhaps report to somebody else. They could not know that he was shivering, crouched22 down in the last place of Jeff’s own airplane.
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Now for a race, Larry muttered, almost automatically moving the throttle wider as he prepared to alter their course.
It came to him, swiftly, that this would be both a race and a complication.
Not only must they get the airplane back to the golf course and set it down and have its engine still, themselves being hidden before Jeff flew over it. Furthermore, they must get to the hangar and be somewhere near the field when Jeff brought home the amphibian—or they would never know whether he and his companion had found anything or not.
Larry had to do a little rapid mental arithmetic.
To avoid being sighted and identified when passing the amphibian, the airplane must cut inland instead of making a beeline for the golf course.
“That would make the return to their objective form a rough letter “L” in the air.
However, at the far end of its flight the amphibian must turn inland a similar distance to fly over the golf fairway. That made the flying problem one of speed and not of distance traveled.
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The airplane, selected for its wing-camber and span that gave it a low landing speed and good sustentation, was not fast.
The amphibian was even more slow.
“Distance to cover, seventy miles,” Larry pondered. “Our best speed, Jeff said, once, was about seventy miles an hour. The ‘phib’ does sixty, top.”
He made his calculation.
“No leeway to get to the hangar—Sandy might, barely, because he was on the track team, last school term. That is our only chance. But, at that, it will be ‘nip-and-tuck’!”
No air race can give the thrill of other forms of speed competition as does the horse race, the motor boat or sailing race, the track meet or the automobile23 speedway contests.
The distance is too great to permit spectators to observe it, the ships scatter24, seek different elevations25, or in other ways fail to keep that close formation which makes of the hundred-yard dash such a blood-stimulating incident.
The automobile contest generally follows a course where watchers have vantage points for gathering26.
The sailboats or motor craft can be accompanied or seen through marine27 glasses.
To air pilots, of course, there is plenty of excitement.
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It is their skill, their ability to take advantage of every bit of tailwind, their power to get the utmost of safe “go” out of engine, wings and tail assembly, that keeps them alert and decides the outcome.
So it was in Larry’s race, with Dick, Sandy and the caretaker.
It could not be watched or followed; but to the occupants of the ship it was a thrilling competition with the mystery element adding zest28; and when, with a fair tailwind aiding him, Larry shot the improvised29 “field” of the ninth fairway, making sure at cost of one complete circuit that no one was there, playing, the thrill for them was not over.
Sandy caught Larry’s idea even before the airplane had taxied to its place, close to the original take-off.
“I’m off!” cried Sandy, coat flung aside, collar ripped away, as he leaped fleetly along the soft turf. Not waiting to observe his progress, Dick and Larry busied themselves getting the airplane tail around into the same position it had originally occupied.
The engine had long before been stopped.
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From the air, to an observer who had no idea that his craft had been used, all should seem natural, Larry decided as he and Dick, with Sandy’s discarded garments, and with the caretaker ruefully grumbling30, chose a place of concealment31.
Already the drone of the amphibian came from the shore side of the field, and in a low, quick swing, followed by a zooming32 departure, Jeff and Mr. Whiteside passed overhead.
“Now,” Larry remarked, “it’s up to Sandy.”
“Yep!” Dick agreed. “And it will be a close thing for him.”
“If he does!” grunted33 the caretaker.
For the answer they had to wait till dark.
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收听单词发音
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1
amphibian
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| n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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laterally
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| ad.横向地；侧面地；旁边地 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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revving
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| v.（使）加速( rev的现在分词 )；（数量、活动等）激增；（使发动机）快速旋转；（使）活跃起来 | |
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14
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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16
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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17
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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throttle
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| n.节流阀，节气阀，喉咙；v.扼喉咙，使窒息，压 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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maneuvers
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| n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 ) | |
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21
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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elevations
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| （水平或数量）提高( elevation的名词复数 )； 高地； 海拔； 提升 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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28
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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zooming
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| adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
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33
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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