getting closest to them. They found the
stores small and mostly unpainted, and the houses principally shambling
and squatty, most of them having thatched roofs. The streets were
narrow, crooked, and dirty, but there were areas about some of the more
pretentious dwelling-places which were really entrancing in the wealth
of their tropical plants and stately palms. On the whole, the stone
garrison, setting a little remote from the town proper, was the largest
and best-constructed building, although this looked old and somber.
Freetown, the capital of the little British colony of Sierra Leone, is
all on low ground, and the air is moist and extremely humid, even
unhealthful for those not accustomed to it.

Just before dark a terrific thunder-shower sprang up with all of the
suddenness of such equatorial storms, and Bob and Paul made for the
field as fast as their legs could carry them. They sprang inside of
the Sky-Bird's cabin, wet to the skin, where John and Tom were already
ensconsed, and Grandpa the monkey gave them a noisy and hearty welcome.
A little later, with the rain pattering heavily down upon the roof, all
hands turned in for the first ground sleep they had had since starting
out upon their trip.

Shortly after daylight the next morning they were astir, to find the
rain had ceased but that the field was a mass of ooze. Through this
Tom made his way to the cobblestone street and down to the piers. But
the coasting steamer had not yet arrived; in fact, she did not come in
until after eight o'clock, and it was two hours later before the flyers
succeeded in getting their tanks filled with the gasoline she had
brought. Then it was found necessary to secure the aid of a half-dozen
negroes, and to lay down many strips of heavy bark for traction, before
the Sky-Bird could be run out of her mired position.

Paul was at the throttle as they took off. When he had attained a fair
altitude, he gradually increased the speed until they were running full
out. Never since the beginning of the trip had they felt such urgent
need of putting the airplane through at a fast clip, but that time had
now come, for they were fourteen hours behind schedule time and sixteen
hours behind their rivals.

The Sky-Bird fairly cut the air like a knife, and the roar of
propeller, wind, and engine was so great that our friends found
conversation out of the question except by shouting in one another's
ears. Poor Grandpa cowered in the