They kept about five hundred feet or so above the sea. Somehow it gave them a little encouragement just to catch the glint of the stars on the tumbling waves below. There was a friendliness in the billows, a something that seemed to keep them in contact with their fellow men; a thing which they missed when pa.s.sing along two thousand feet or more above the surface of the terrestrial globe, even beyond the floating clouds.

So the long vigil was taken up. Hour after hour the giant bomber must wing its swift flight, ever speeding onward into the realm of s.p.a.ce through which it was now making a voyage unequalled since Columbus sailed his three high-decked boats into that unknown ocean at the end of which he expected to come to the East Indies.

By turns they managed to get some sleep, each serving his trick as pilot.

The hours grew into early morning. How eagerly did the pilot often turn his tired head to gaze backward toward the east, to see if but the first faint gleam of coming dawn had appeared there. And how joyfully did he welcome it when that desire became reality.

So the unfolding day found them, still heading onward, and with everything promising well. Jack, of course, had his binoculars out as soon as it was possible to see any distance. Shortly afterwards he made an important announcement.

"Smoke head of us, fellows. Much too much to come from any one steamer.

You can see it with the naked eye, dead on there!"

After taking a good look, Tom, who was at the wheel, gave his opinion.

"It might be a vessel afire," he said slowly. "One of those tank-oil steamers would make a fierce smoke, you know. But on the whole I rather believe it's a convoy of troop ships going across to France."

"I never thought of that, Tom!" cried Jack, again clapping the gla.s.ses to his eyes; "but I reckon you're right, for I can see funnels of black smoke rising from different quarters. Yes, there must be dozens of boats in that flotilla. What had we better do?"

"Go aloft, and try to keep out of sight among the little clouds," was the immediate reply Tom made. "We could continue to watch, and see all that pa.s.sed below, at the same time keeping ourselves fairly invisible.

They'll hardly be looking up so as to discover a speck floating past. And then again all that smoke is bound to make it difficult for them to see."

He lost no time in commencing a spiral climb for alt.i.tude, boring upward with the powerful bomber in a way that was wonderful.

By degrees they attained the height desired, and once again did Tom head into the southwest. Jack reported what he saw from time to time, calling above the noise made by engines and propellers.

"It's a big convoy, all right," he told them. "I can see ever so many steamships following one another in double column. Each is loaded with our boys in khaki, I presume. Then off on either side and ahead are little specks that I can just make out by reason of their smoke streamers. Those must be the score or more of destroyers, guarding the flotilla against U-boat attack. It's a great sight, let me tell you!

Here, Colin's getting out his gla.s.ses to take a look. Tom, you must have a chance too."

Each in turn managed to survey the stirring spectacle as spread out upon the sea far beneath them. And the pulses of those gallant lads throbbed with pardonable pride when they realized what magnificent efforts America was making to win the war in favor of the Allies, after entering it so late herself.

Gradually the great smoke cloud began to grow more distant, the fleet with its convoy having pa.s.sed by, continuing to head into the east, where the lurking U-boat would possibly be waiting to attack.

"That was a great sight!" exclaimed Tom, as their attention again turned to possibilities lying before them, rather than what had pa.s.sed by.

"Never forget it as long as I live!" Jack declared vehemently.

"It's been a good thing for us in more than one way," Tom went on to say.

"You see, personally, I've been just a bit in doubt about our actual bearings; and this has set me straight. I can put my finger on the actual spot on the chart where we'd be likely to meet the fleet. So now we've got to change our course sharply."

"Running more into the south-southwest, you mean, I suppose, Tom?"

asked Beverly.

"Just that," continued the acting pilot. "We want to strike the Virginia sh.o.r.e, you understand, and right now we're off Long Island. After several hours on our new course we'll again make a sharp swing into the west, and then look for land!"

"And that land, oh, joy! will be our own America!" cried Jack, his face fairly beaming with expectation.

They kept booming along on the new course for several hours, and as it did not seem necessary to continue at such a great alt.i.tude they again descended to the old familiar line of flight, with the sea about five hundred feet below.

"Given another hour," Tom said, along about the middle of the morning, "and it will be time to strike for the west. We must be off Delaware or the tip of Maryland right now. Jack just reported a faint glimpse of land, but wasn't sure it might not be a low-hanging cloud bank."

"And now we're in for another experience, I'm afraid," called out Jack, "for there's a nasty sea fog sweeping along from the south. We're bound to drive into it before five minutes more--the first real mist blanket to strike us all the way across."

Jack's prediction proved no idle one, for in less than the time specified they found themselves suddenly enveloped by a dense mantle of mist through which it would have been utterly impossible to have seen anything a hundred feet away.

Tom for one did not like the coming of that fog just when they were about to drew near the land of their hopes. Unlike a vessel, they could not come to anchor and ride it out, waiting for the fog to lift; but must drive on, and desperately strive to find some sort of landing.

"The thickest fog I ever saw!" Jack observed, after they had been pa.s.sing through the moist gray blanket of mist for some little time.

"Just the usual kind you'll meet with on the sea at times," answered the lieutenant. "I was caught in one when out on the fishing banks, and it wasn't any too pleasant a feeling it gave me either. But for our compa.s.s we'd never have reached sh.o.r.e again."

"And but for the compa.s.s right now," said Tom, "it would be next to impossible to steer a straight course."

"One good thing," Jack told them; "very little danger of a collision, such as vessels are likely to encounter in so dense a fog."

"No, the air pa.s.sage across the Atlantic hasn't become so popular yet that we have to keep blowing a fog horn while sailing," laughed Colin.

All of them were feeling considerably brighter, now that their wonderful venture seemed to be drawing close to a successful termination. If only their luck held good and allowed them to make a safe landing, they felt they would have good reason for grat.i.tude.

"What makes it feel so queer at times?" Jack asked later on. "Why, I seem to have the blood going to my head, just as happened when looping the loop, and hanging too long in stays."

"I've noticed the same thing myself," added Colin briskly, "and tried to figure out the cause. Tom, what do you say about it?"

"A queer situation has arisen, according to my calculation," the pilot told them. "Fact is, without being able to see a solitary thing anywhere about us, above or below, it's often impossible to know when we're sailing on a level keel, or flying upside down!"

"That's a fact," admitted Lieutenant Beverly. "When you haven't the slightest thing to guide you, stars, sun, or earth, how can you tell which is up or which is down? We go forward because of the compa.s.s; but part of the time I do believe, just as you say, Tom, we've been flying upside-down!"

"I don't fancy this way of flying," Tom announced. "I think it would be better for us to climb in order to see if we can get out of this pea-soup."

"Ditto here!" echoed Jack. "I'm getting dizzy, with it all, and my head feels twice as heavy as ordinary. You can't mount any too soon to please me, Tom."

Lieutenant Beverly was not averse, it seemed, so the call became unanimous.

"All we want is to sight land," the Lieutenant remarked. "Then we can start for the interior, and try to pick a nice soft spot for landing without getting all smashed up."

Later on he was reminded of that wish by Jack, for they certainly found such a spot, as future events proved.

By climbing to a considerable height it was found that they could avoid the uncomfortable experiences that had befallen them closer to the surface of the ocean. Here the sun was shining, and while clouds floated around them there was no longer a chance of the plane being inverted.

Jack could make out land at times, though still faintly seen, and lying low on the uncertain horizon.

"I wonder if that can be Virginia I see?" he sometimes said; but talking more to himself than trying to make the others hear.

"It isn't far away at most, Jack," Beverly a.s.sured him; for he sympathized with Jack and the reason the other had for longing to get to the home town ahead of his scheming cousin.

"Show me the chart and just about where we ought to be right now, Tom,"

said Jack. "That is, if it's no trouble."

"No trouble to do it," came the quick reply, and with a pencil Tom made a cross on the chart while Jack's eyes danced with joy.