w!"

Further comment on the situation would have been useless. All hands,
each with disturbing thoughts of his own, went silently into the
bathhouse and resumed his regular garb.

Mr. Choate and his wife begged them so hard to remain over another day at
least that Mr. Giddings assented. That afternoon they went for a long
automobile ride along improved roads, both sides of which were lined with
palms in places, luxuriant tropical grasses in others, and towering
forests covered with creeping vines. They stopped the car a number of
times to visit great orange groves, and the boys had their first taste of
the luscious fruit just as it ripened on the trees.

The following morning, directly after breakfast, they were besieged by
two or three local newspaper reporters. Seeing no use of further
concealing their identity, Mr. Giddings gave out a little information to
the gleeful newspaper men, but was careful to wire in to his own
newspaper much more detail of their doings since leaving Yonkers, even
mailing some photographs which they had taken of the tussle with the big
devil-fish.

In the afternoon our party paid a visit to the aquarium again, extending
it to the Biological Laboratory nearby; and took supper in the beautiful
white casino, which fronts the beach, after they had had a refreshing
plunge in the ocean's waters. Then Paul and Bob took up Mr. and Mrs.
Choate for a short flight in the airplane.

Early the next morning they bade their Miami friends good-bye, and once
more took to the air, this time to complete the last leg of their journey
to Panama. It was found that the Sky-Bird's fuel tanks were apparently
still full enough to carry them to their destination, so it had not been
necessary to store either gasoline or oil in Miami. This was very
gratifying, as it showed quite conclusively that, later on in the race,
the Sky-Bird would be able to make her longest jumps without the peril of
fuel shortage.

At a height of close to two thousand feet they headed across Florida
Strait, with Paul at the throttle. It was a real joy to be looking
through the glass panels of the airplane's cabin once more, to hear the
muffled roar of her engine and propeller, and to realize that probably
before dark they would be across the five hundred miles of blue waters of
the Caribbean and hovering over the world-famous Canal Zone.

It was a fine morning. What clouds could be seen were well above
them--light, billowy, and