his eyes. "Jinxed
again!" says he. "There'd be no blessed map to hand in."

"Eh?" says I. "Map of what!"

He explains jerky. This scoutin' stunt of his was to locate the tank
works and get close enough for an observer to draw a plan of it--all of
which he'd done, only by then Martin had got past the drawin' stage.

"So it's no use going back to-night."

"Ain't it?" says I. "Say, if a map of that smoky hole is all you need, I
guess I can produce that easy enough."

"Can you?" he asks.

"Why not?" says I. "Ain't I been cooped up there for nearly a week? I
can put in a bird's-eye view of the Major in command; one of his
secretary, too, if you like. Gimme some paper."

And inside of five minutes I'd sketched out a diagram of the buildin's
and the whole outfit. Then we poked Martin up long enough for him to
sign it.

"Fine work!" says Donald. "That earns you a hop, all right. Now buckle
yourself into that cloud costume and I'll show you how a 110-horse-power
crow would go from here to the middle of Long Island if he was in a
hurry."

"You can't make it any too speedy for me," says I, slippin' into the
sheepskin jacket.

"Ever been up before?" he asks.

"Only once--in a hydro," says I; "but I ain't missed any chances."

"That's the spirit!" says he. "Come along. The old bus is anchored down
the field a ways."

I couldn't hardly believe I was actually goin' to pull it off until he'd
got the motor started and we went skimmin' along the ground. But as soon
as we shook off the State of Connecticut and began climbin' up over a
strip of woods, I settles back in the little cockpit, buttons the
wind-shield over my mouth, and sighs contented.

Allen and I didn't exchange much chat. You don't with an engine of that
size roarin' a few feet in front of you and your ears buttoned down by
three or four layers of wool and leather. Once he points out ahead and
tries to shout something, I don't know what. But I nods and waves
encouragin'. Later he points down and grins. I grins back.

Next thing I knew, he's shut off the motor, and I gets a glimpse of the
whole of Long Island behavin' odd. Seems as if it's swellin' and
widenin' out, like one of these freaky toy balloons you blow up. It
didn't seem as if we was divin' down--more like the map was rushin' up
to meet us. Pretty soon I could make out a big open space with a lot of
squatty buildin's at one end, and in a couple of minutes more the
machine was rollin' along on its