out of it yet!--the flyers would have roared with
laughter. As it was, they kept the light traveling over the Fulbees
until the very last one had fled. Then at a quick word from John, they
all jumped out of the cabin and swung the airplane around for a quick
take-off.

Tom spun the propeller; there was a roar as the engine caught, and a
few seconds later they were mounting up into the starlit heavens of the
equatorial night. At a height of two thousand feet, they presently
looked down, safe from the menace of the black populace whose reception
had been so rabid.

But Kuka was blotted out in the mantle of gloom which lay between.
Only the sparkling ripples of Lake Chad, struck by the beautiful
tropical moon, could be seen.

CHAPTER XX

A JUNGLE ADVENTURE

So fast had the flyers in the Sky-Bird come across the western part of
the African continent, at its greatest bulge, that, coupled with their
very brief stop in Kuka, they found they were starting out for Aden,
Arabia, with a gain of approximately seven hours upon their lost time
of fourteen hours in Freetown. They were now, therefore, just seven
hours behind schedule--perhaps a little more than that behind their
rivals,--but in the very fact that they were cutting down both items,
they felt vastly encouraged, and as the airplane headed eastward across
Lake Chad there was only one thing to worry them to any extent.

This was the need of water; that is, all felt that the need would
become an urgent one before daylight should come and a chance be given
to land and replenish the limited amount which they knew must now be in
the radiator, owing to the impossibility of getting water as expected
at Kuka.

John was at the throttle, with Tom assisting. Paul and Bob were
playing with Grandpa, still too excited over their recent adventure to
turn in and get some sleep, as John said they ought to do. After a
little while they turned their attention to studying the chart and
schedule. Frequently they compared notes, and now and then jotted down
some figures on a pad.

"Do you know, John," observed Paul, looking up very cheerfully, "that
if we continue to travel at the rate we did between Freetown and Kuka
we shall make up all lost time by morning, and arrive at Aden about on
schedule?"

"You don't say!" exclaimed John.

"You kids have made a mistake," informed Tom disbelievingly.

"No mistake about it," protested Bob; "it's an out-and-out fact."

"Well