I've got to rush off."

He shook hands all round, and jumped on board.

Rodier had already taken his place at the engine. It took a minute or
two for the soldiers to force the crowd back, an interval which Smith
utilized to trace on the map, for Rodier's guidance, the course he had
decided to follow. Then, the clatter of the starting engine silencing
the clamour of the crowd, the aeroplane ran forward and soared into
the air. Its ascent was hailed with a babel of shouts and cheers.
Smith waved his hand to his friends below; then, seeing that Rodier
had the map before him, he spread himself in his seat for a
comfortable nap.

CHAPTER VIII

A SHIP ON FIRE

Rodier had his full share of the Gallic dash which had won first
honours in airmanship for France, but it was combined with the
coolness and circumspection bred of scientific training, so that Smith
was able to take repose in serene confidence that, barring accidents,
the aeroplane would fly as safely under Rodier's charge as under his
own. Karachi was soon a mere speck amid the sand. In less than
half-an-hour the aeroplane was crossing the swampy delta of the Indus.
Soon afterwards it flew over the Run of Cutch into Gujarat, leaving
the hills of Kathiawar on the right. Sweeping over the head of the
Gulf of Cambay, it crossed the railway line from Bombay to Baroda, and
then the broad river Nerbudda. The city gleaming white in the
sunlight, far to the left, must be Baroda itself. The course traced by
Smith in the few minutes before leaving Karachi, avoided the high
western Ghauts that fringe the Indian coast to far south of Bombay.
Rodier therefore steered somewhat to the east, coming in the course
of twenty minutes to the river Tapti. Seeing a line of mountains
straight ahead, he swung round still more to the east, following the
valley of the river until he had completely turned the mountains, the
northernmost spurs of the Ghauts.

Now he turned south-east once more, crossed the Chandaur chain, and
presently came in sight of the Godaveri river, which traverses the
whole breadth of Hyderabad. Near Indor he left the river on his left.
By this time it was becoming dark. Smith still slept, and Rodier, who
was not able to steer by the stars, was considering whether he had not
better waken his employer when he spied the characteristic glare from
a locomotive furnace far ahead. In half-a-minute he had caught up the
train, and slowed down to make sure of the di