, that's cheerful news, then," said Tom. "I know we hit her up to
well over two hundred an hour coming across to Kuka."

"And we'll do as much on this stretch, if our water only holds out,"
declared John determinedly.

"That's the rub," put in Paul. "I'm sure it won't hold out, and if we
work right up to the last drop, I'm afraid we may have to make a forced
landing, and that may be in the tops of the trees, for all we know."

"Or on an elephant's back," added Bob jocosely.

"Well, I don't know but that we had better try to make a landing as
soon as we come to a favorable spot where there is water," remarked
John. "It is a fine moonlight night, and if we strike the right place
I think we can make the ground. In a pinch, you know, we can use our
searchlight."

"Speaking about searchlights--oh my! oh, my! will I ever forget how
frightened those blacks were?" And Paul laughed until the tears came
into his eyes, now that the tension was off. Tom joined him until both
of them staggered and bumped together, causing Grandpa to set up an
excited chatter of inquiry.

John kept the Sky-Bird low, down to less than a thousand feet, after
crossing the lower neck of Lake Chad, for the chart showed no marked
elevations which would make flying at that height hazardous, and it was
certain that the closer they were to the earth the better they could
detect a favorable place to land.

It was really a beautiful night, and they opened the cabin windows
after a while to enjoy the soft balmy air to the full. The wind then
rushed through the cabin like a hurricane, roaring so that conversation
was out of order; but they enjoyed its cool touch on their hot faces.

One by one the stars had made their appearance, until now the heavens
fairly glittered with them. How pretty they looked up there in the
great blue vault in which they seemed the choicest settings of an
angel's handiwork! Somehow they seemed to sparkle more brightly, and
the sky seemed a richer cobalt, than the sky the boys knew at home.
But they missed many of the stars which they loved in America. The
swift airplane in which they rode had taken them, day by day, and night
by night, away from them. Many stars which were unknown to them had
taken their places, and they realized more strongly than all the
pictures in the world could have shown them how very unlike were the
skies of the northern and southern hemispheres.

One of the most striking sights to them now