"Stand clear!" shouted Ned, as he sprang into the seat of his machine--or rather Professor Luminetti's--"this machine isn't stolen--_it's borrowed on Uncle Sam's service_!"
The next instant the machine skyrocketed upward, leaving behind it a trail of smoke, and sensation that furnished talk for the village of Blackhaven for more than a year.
"Bulkley, do you see some object in the air--off there to the northwest?"
Commander Dunham, of the Dreadnought _Manhattan_, paused in his steady pacing of the after deck, and turned to Ensign Bulkley, the officer of the deck.
Ensign Bulkley brought into play the insignia of his diurnal office, a powerful telescope, done in brown leather, with polished, black metal trimmings. With it, he swept the sky in the direction indicated by his superior, for some minutes.
"I do see something, sir," he said presently, "a black object, like a large bird. But it's bigger than any bird I ever saw. By Jove, sir, it's--it's an aeroplane!"
"An aeroplane! Impossible. How could one find its way to Blackhaven Bay? And what could be its errand here?"
"I've no idea, sir. But I'll wager my commission that it is one. Suppose you look yourself, sir?"
The officer of the deck handed his telescope to his commanding officer. Commander Dunham gazed intently through it for a few moments. Then he turned to Bulkley.
"By all that's wonderful, you're right, Mr. Bulkley. It seems to be coming this way, too."
"Not a doubt of it, sir. But at the rate it is advancing it should not be long before we are aware of its errand."
"At all events, it will relieve the monotony, Bulkley. Anchored here since yesterday and no orders yet. However, I suppose mine practice and general gunnery will be the program."
Both officers gazed over the leaden expanse of the landlocked bay about them.
Five battleships, two cruisers, and three torpedo-boat destroyers lay at anchor, in regular files. Hard by was a "parent ship," with her flotilla of submarines nestling alongside, like small chickens round a motherly old hen.
"Desolate country hereabouts," said Commander Dunham presently. "I shouldn't have thought that an airman could have found his way here."
"It hardly seems possible," agreed his junior; "it's as barren a bit of coast as can be imagined."