hardly had the red arrow stopped, some of her men coming out of the cabin to drop a light anchor, than tom ran to the prow of his craft, where there was a little landing stage. seeing kilborn tantalizingly smiling at him, the young inventor cried:
“what do you mean by that?”
“mean by what?” sneered the pilot of the rival plane.
“by landing so close to me that you nearly grazed my wing tips? don’t you know how to make a landing yet? seems to me there was room enough for even an amateur!”
kilborn’s face turned an angry red at hearing this taunt.
“i know as much about running a bus as you do!” he retorted.
“you don’t seem to!” fired back tom. “after this you keep your distance!”
“aw, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” sneered kilborn.
“don’t i?” retorted tom. “well i think i do! and, what’s more, i have a strong suspicion that you wouldn’t have cared much if you had crashed into me. it would have given you a chance to take off ahead of me. but you didn’t pull your trick, did you?”
“i wasn’t trying any trick!” snapped kilborn. “and if you accuse me of——”
“i’m not exactly accusing you,” broke in the young inventor. “but i have my suspicions and i’m going to watch you. don’t forget that your tool hussy and the fellow with him are still in jail!”
“i don’t know anything about hussy!” stormed the owner of the red arrow.
“i think you do,” was tom’s reply. “but keep away from me and my machine—that’s all i ask. i can beat you in a fair race, and i don’t want any dirty work, nor will i stand for it!”
tom turned and went back in his ship. the talk was in english of course, and few of the portuguese who had gathered about to view the strange craft knew what it was about.
“he sure tried to foul you,” declared ned when his chum had rejoined him. “he had plenty of room to land clear.”
“more than he needed,” agreed peltok. “that man will bear watching, mr. swift!”
“and we’ll watch him!” replied tom.
“here come a couple more of the contestants, i guess,” called hartman as he pointed upward, where two specks, like big birds, were observed in the sky.
“either that, or it’s a welcoming delegation of portuguese airmen,” suggested tom.
but the first surmise proved correct, and a little later two big hydroplanes, one piloted by jed kimball and the other by harry walton, whom tom knew slightly, settled down in lisbon harbor.
this harbor, while not an official landing, since the race was a go-as-you-please one, was the objective of most of the contestants who flew eastward in aircraft. some were not able to cross the atlantic in one hop, and were obliged to stop at the azores. but the bigger machines, including tom’s, the red arrow, and the two to arrive later, carried fuel enough for the longer journey.
“they’re making almost as good time as you made, tom,” remarked ned when informal greetings had been exchanged with the two latest arrivals. “doesn’t that mean they’ll give you a hard rub?”
“you forget, ned,” said the inventor, “that we were forced down by a hot bearing and lost a lot of time. even with that, we beat the other three. if we did that, bucking the hurricane as we did, it shows we are a lot speedier than they are, unless they, too, were delayed. we must find out about that, but we’ll have to be diplomatic. no use letting them know just how speedy we are.”
while oil and gas, together with some more food and other supplies, were being taken aboard all four of the competing craft, tom signaled a small boat and visited jed kimball.
“run into any bad weather on the way over?” tom asked casually.
“not a bit,” was the answer. “had smooth sailing all the time. and so did walton. he and i were close together on the way over.”
tom’s heart rejoiced at this. it meant that the other craft had pushed their engines to the limit and had been traveling steadily in clear air, only to arrive after he did.
“and we lost considerable time,” said tom to ned when he was back on board the air monarch. “that means we have a lot the best of them. the only one i’m in doubt of is the red arrow. i’m not friendly enough with kilborn to ask him if he had any delays. if he did, and yet came in soon after us, it means he is pretty nearly as fast as we are. but if he came right along without a stop, it means we’ve got him beat.”
“let’s see if brinkley or hartman can’t pick up a bit of information,” suggested ned. “they’re going ashore for a half hour, and i notice some of the red arrow’s crew also going to take shore leave.”
“that might be a good way,” agreed tom, and he instructed the two mechanics to get into casual conversation, if they could, with the men from kilborn’s craft, but, at the same time, not to give a hint of their own speed.
hartman and brinkley managed to get friendly with some mechanics from the red arrow, but the information they secured was not the most reassuring to tom. it developed that his most formidable rival had also been delayed by the hurricane, though not forced down, being, however, blown far off the course.
“then since he arrived about the time we did,” said tom, talking the matter over with ned, “it means that he’s going almost as fast as we are. i’m afraid we’re going to have trouble with kilborn.”
“do you really think he has a chance to beat you?”
“he has a good chance. the only thing is that if he gets disabled so he can’t travel in the air, he can’t do very much on the water and nothing at all on land. i might have him there. but it’s only a chance. we’ve got our work cut out for us, ned!”
“well, then, the sooner we get away from here the better!” suggested the financial manager, and his chum agreed with him.
the work of taking on the gas, oil and other supplies was hastened, and at last the air monarch was again ready to hop off. the mechanics had gone carefully over every part of the motors, and they were tuned up to the highest notch of efficiency.
“well, let’s go!” called tom when, about three hours after landing in the lisbon harbor, they were ready to leave again.
the motors roared as the gas was turned on when the starters had turned the flywheels over, and tom was about to guide his craft down a long, wide lane of water in the bay when ned exclaimed:
“there goes the red arrow!”
tom turned to see the rival craft making ready to take off, and then he suddenly shut down the motors and let his craft come to a slow stop while the other increased her speed and was ready to take the air.
“what’s the idea?” cried ned. “has anything happened?”
“no. but something might if i tried to take off just when kilborn did,” said tom quietly. “there’s too much chance of a collision—planned or accidental. let him get up—i’ll follow. i can do as i please then. let him go!”
it was evident that the red arrow had been waiting for the air monarch to lead the way, for just as soon as tom started the other craft had followed, and when tom shut down it appeared to puzzle kilborn and his men. however, they must have imagined that it was only a temporary halt, for they roared on their way, finally leaping into the air from a foam-crested wave and speeding off ahead of tom swift.
“let him go!” the young inventor said. “i can pass him when i need to. but i want a clear field.”
a few minutes later tom started his motors again, and his craft was in the air shortly before the other two hydroplanes took off. but by this time the red arrow was only a speck in the sky.
“hope he won’t get too far ahead!” mused ned.
“i’m not worrying,” declared tom swift.
up and up soared the air monarch and when she was high enough tom straightened her out and sent her ahead on an eastern course, steering over spain, the mediterranean sea, the lower part of italy, and, in turn, across turkey.
it was when sailing rather low over a wooded section of this latter country that something happened which showed tom how dangerous his trip might be.
he, with ned, was leaning out of the window of the forward cabin looking down below and trying to figure out just where they were when ned called:
“look at the horsemen!”
below them was a squad of turks riding along and seemingly much excited by the airship over them. the motors, though muffled, were making too much noise for tom and ned to hear what the horsemen were shouting, but their actions were plainly discernible.
suddenly some of them brought their guns around and aimed up at the airship.
“look out!” cried ned. “they’re going to shoot!”
“let them!” chuckled tom. “they must be uncivilized fellows who have never seen or heard of an aeroplane before. they can’t hit us up here!”
“i wouldn’t be so sure of that,” warned ned. “better go a bit higher.”
“but i want to see what river that is we’re coming to,” tom said. “i need to be low down to make an observation.”
he had hardly ceased speaking when several puffs of smoke came from the horsemen below, and though the reports of the rifles could scarcely be heard, there was no doubt as to the firing.
“duck!” yelled ned as he caught the hum of whizzing bullets.
suddenly he saw tom give a start and fall back from the window.
“he’s hit!” cried ned, springing to his chum’s side as he yelled to peltok, who was at the wheel: “go up! go up! we’re being fired on!”
