It's a form of committing suicide, I
imagine."

He went off, hunting savagely for the supplies of fuel and lubricant
which would be stored at any emergency field. He found them. He was
pouring gasoline into the tanks before what he was doing was noticed.
Then there was stunned amazement in the house. When he had the
crankcase full of oil the young man came out. Bell tapped his revolver
suggestively.

"With no man about this house," he said grimly, "Ribiera will put in
one of his own choice. And you have a wife and children and they'll be
at that man's mercy. Don't make me kill you. Ribiera may not blame you
for my escape if you tell him everything--and you're hurt, anyway.
Either we get away, and you do that, or you're killed and we get away
anyhow."

He toppled two last five gallon tins of gasoline into the
cockpits--crowding them abominably--and swung on the prop. The engine
caught. Bell throttled it down, kicked away the stones with which he
had blocked its wheels, and climbed up into the pilot's cockpit. With
his revolver ready in his lap he taxied slowly over to a favorable
starting point.

* * * * *

The ship rose slowly, and headed west again. At three thousand feet he
cut out the motor to shout to Paula.

"One place is as good as another to us, now. The whole continent is
closed to us by now. I'm going to try to find that headquarters and do
some damage. Afterwards, we'll see."

He cut in the motor again and flew steadily westward. He rose
gradually to four thousand feet, to five.... He watched his
instruments grimly, the motor temperature especially. There were
flakes of metal in the oil lines. Twice he saw the motor temperature
rise to a point that brought the sweat out on his face. And twice he
saw it drop again. Bits of shattered metal were in the oiling system,
and they had partly blocked the stream of lubricant until the engine
heated badly. And each time the vibration had shifted them, or
loosened them....

They had left the big amphibian no earlier than nine o'clock. It was
noon when they took off for the _fazenda_ of Paula's kin. But it was
five o'clock and after when they rose from there with an engine which
might run indefinitely and might stop at any second.

Bell did not really expect it to run for a long time. He had worked as
much to cheat Ribiera of the satisfaction of a victory as in hopes of
a real escape. But an hour, and the motor still ran. It was