ter and faster it dashed earthward without a
controlling hand to guide it. It was at this instant that Roy and
Jimsy became aware of what had happened.

[Illustration: Both girls uttered a cry of terror as the air craft fell
like a stone hurled into space.]

Instantly they swung their machine around in time to see the _Golden
Butterfly_ make her sickening downward swoop. Both lads uttered a cry of
fear as they saw what appeared to mean certain death for the two Girl
Aviators.

Roy's fingers scarcely grasped the wheel of his machine as he saw the
downward drop. Jimsy was as badly affected. But almost before they could
grasp a full realization of the accident the _Golden Butterfly_ was
almost on the ground. It was in a hilly bit of country, interspersed by
small lakes or ponds.

A freak of the wind caught the blazing aeroplane as it fell and drove
it right over one of these small bodies of water.

The _Golden Butterfly_ appeared to hesitate for one instant and then
plunged right into the water, flinging the two girls out. Both were
expert swimmers, but the shock of the sudden descent, and the abrupt
manner in which they had been flung into the water had badly unstrung
their nerves.

Jess struck out valiantly, but the next instant uttered a cry:

"Peg! Peg! I'm sinking!"

Peggy pluckily struck out for her chum and succeeded in seizing her.
Then with brisk strokes she made for the shore, luckily only a few yards
distant. It was at this juncture that the boys' machines came to earth
almost simultaneously. High above Bess's _Dart_ hovered, and presently
it, too, began to drop downward. Apparently the accident had not been
seen from the auto, at any rate the car was not turned back toward the
scene of the accident.

As the boys' aeroplanes struck the earth not far from the bank of the
pond toward which Peggy was at that moment valiantly struggling, the
two young aviators leaped out and set out at a run to the rescue. They
reached the bank in the nick of time to pull out the two drenched,
half-exhausted girls.

"At any rate the fall was a lucky one in a way!" gasped the optimistic
Peggy, as soon as she caught her breath, "it put out the fire."

And so it had. Not only that, but the aeroplane, buoyed up by its broad
wings, was still floating. On board the _Red Dragon_ was a long bit of
rope. Jimsy produced this and then swam out to the drifting _Butterfly_.
The rope was made fast to it and the craft dragged ashore.