e ahead. Two of them quickly opened
the portals, for a grave danger menaced them.

Less than sixty yards ahead was the lower fence of the field, and just
back of this arose scrub trees and houses, with no opening between
which could be utilized. They must clear these formidable obstacles,
looming bigger every second, and the distance was alarmingly short, for
the last pool had again retarded their momentum to such an extent that
they had just barely staggered through it.

Picking up speed once more at every turn of her propeller, the Sky-Bird
shot down the last stretch of ground reaching to the fence. How fast
this obstruction loomed up! Just in the nick of time the airplane left
the ground. They sailed over the tops of trees and houses so close
that the wheels of their landing-gear almost scraped. It was one of
the finest maneuvers of the whole voyage, and the boys praised John so
for his good piloting that he had to ask them to desist.

After a wide sweep above Singapore, they headed for the open water,
which in this case happened to be South China Sea.

The weather was very threatening. Dark-looking clouds began to efface
the moon and stars, whose light had aided in the take-off at Singapore,
and within fifteen minutes occasional flashes of sheet-lightning could
be seen far ahead, throwing into relief the immense bulk of the
foreboding clouds and shedding a pallid gleam over the sea.
Occasionally a light zephyr came out of the east, but it would last
only a moment.

"We ought to be just about over the equator now," announced John a
little later.

Paul and Bob had stayed up on purpose to witness this event, and by
dead reckoning had computed their position so closely that John's
announcement had come just as they were about to make a similar
statement. Although they could see no "line" stretching along down
there in the sea, they fancied they could, with the most pleasant
imagery. That great line, the belt of the universe, dividing the
Northern and Southern hemispheres, they had already crossed once, in
their zigzagging course, at the mouth of the Amazon. Now here in the
South China Sea they were crossing it a second time. At no time had
they been more than thirteen degrees away from it. One more crossing
of it, if all went well, and they would be almost within sight of the
end of their journey--Panama!

With this pleasant thought Bob and Paul rolled up in their hammocks,
trusting John and Tom to