, and they were surprised to observe the
_Clarion_ rising up over the field. They watched the machine until it
had disappeared in the cloud mists to the east. Then they awoke.

All saw the game of their rivals now. By making the Sky-Bird's crew
believe they did not intend to leave until noon, the latecomers would
be inclined to take their time fitting up for the next hop, and this
would give the _Clarion's_ party a chance to make a sudden exit and
gain a good lead before the others could get under way.

There was no getting around it--Pete Deveaux was clever, if he were a
rascal. This our friends had to admit to themselves, despite their
dislike of the fellow. His methods of getting the best of them seemed
to have no limit; and yet thus far they had been able to cling, by the
hardest kind of work, right at his heels. This last trick was more
honest strategy than Deveaux had exhibited before, and they could
therefore admire it in that sense. They hoped that from now on his
maneuvers might be as free from maliciousness.

But their rivals had not fooled them as badly as they thought. Our
flyers had lost no time upon landing in refitting, and when they saw
the _Clarion_ take off, they speeded up operations so fast that they
were able to depart only fifteen minutes later.

Almost straight eastward they headed, bearing just a little to the
southward, so as to strike Singapore on a bee-line. They hoped to
reach this stop some time before dark, which would give them
approximately twelve hours' flying time. Under ideal weather
conditions, they could make the journey in considerably less time, but
it was the season for the well-known monsoons of the Indian Ocean, and
it was quite unlikely that they would be able to wing their way across
the fourteen hundred odd miles of sea without encountering some of
these deterrent trade-winds.

It took them just an hour to cross the island of Ceylon, and flying at
about fifteen hundred feet, they winged their way out over the
whitecaps of the ocean. To their unspeakable pleasure they found the
winds not at all bad, and made good speed. Bob was at the throttle,
Paul was observing, and John and Tom were sleeping.

They had been flying thus for perhaps two hours, when Paul saw that for
which he had been keenly watching for some time. It was a faint black
speck, like a tiny bird, against the blue of the heavens ahead of them.
He continued to watch this silently, after calling