'At a hundred and fifty miles an hour.'
'Well, we won't lose elevation that fast.'
The ship struck a down current and dropped a hundred feet, careening wildly. The screams of the Princess Sborov and Annette, the maid, mingled with the curses of Alexis.
Jane gasped. 'Well, we went down pretty fast that time,' she said.
'But when she drops like that, you can be sure you're not on the ground, anyway. The air has to have some place to go. It can't get through the earth; so they never carry you all the way down.'
For tense minutes the two sat in silence. Then suddenly Jane voiced a quick exclamation. 'Look, Brown,' she cried, 'trees! We're below it.'
'Yes,' he said, 'and with five hundred feet to spare but—'
She looked at him questioningly. 'We're not much better off, are we? How much gas have you left?'
'Oh, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes, and I don't need to tell you—well, it doesn't look so hot.'
'Nothing but forest,' she said; 'there's not a place to land anywhere.'
'We may find an opening, and believe me it won't have to be a Croydon either.'
'And if you don't find an opening?'
He shrugged. 'We'll just have to set down in the tree tops,' he said. 'The chances are pretty fair that we won't all be killed, Miss.' He turned and looked back in the cabin. 'Tibbs, get into a seat and fasten your safety belt. Put your wraps and pillows in front of your faces. I am going to make a forced landing in a few minutes. I will tell you when. If you pad your faces, you may not get hurt at all.'
Nobody made any reply. The princess moaned, and Annette sobbed.
'There's a terrific wind, isn't there?' said Jane. 'Look at those tree tops bend.'
'Yes,' he said, 'and in a way that may help us. The wind will cut down our ground speed a lot; and if I can hook the tail skid into those trees, we may land on them easy-like and hang there.'
'You know those tree tops may be a couple of hundred feet from the ground, or even more?'
'Yes,' he said, 'I suppose they may, but I don't think we'll go through them; they look too dense. And if I set her down easy, the wings and fuselage will catch and hold her. I think we've got a chance.'
The ship skimmed on a few hundred feet above the swaying forest top for several minutes. There was no sign of a clearing; no break in those wildly tossing waves of green.
'We're out of gas now, Miss,' said Brown, and mechanically he cut the switch. Then he turned back once more to the cabin. 'Hold everything,' he said; 'I'm going to bring her down.'
Chapter 4 In the Kraal of Udalo
THE SHIP settled toward the madly tossing sea of green foliage below. Blinding rain drove in sheets against the windows of the cabin. Vivid lightning shot the gloom beneath the dark, glowering clouds. Thunder crashed. Straight into the teeth of the gale, Brown nosed down. The force of the wind held the ship until it seemed to hover above the tree tops as the pilot leveled off just above them; and as the ship settled, he brought the tail down sharply. There was a crash of splintering wood, the ripping of torn fabric as the ship nosed down into the swaying, slashing branches. And above the noise of the storm and the crashing of the ship were the screams and curses of the terrified passengers in the cabin.
But at last it was over. With a final ripping, tearing jolt, the ship came to rest.
Then, for a tense and terrible moment, silence.
Brown turned to the girl at his side. 'Are you hurt, Miss?' he asked.
'I don't think so,' she said; 'just dazed. It was terrible, wasn't it?'
He turned then and glanced back into the cabin. The four passengers were hanging in their safety belts in various stages of collapse. 'All right back there?' he demanded. 'How about you, Annette?' There was a note of greater concern in Brown's voice.
'Oh, mon Dieu!' moaned the French girl. 'I am already dead.'
The Princess Sborov groaned. 'Oh, how horrible! Why doesn't someone do something for me? Why doesn't someone help me? Annette! Alexis! Where are you? I am dying. Where are my smelling salts?'
'It would serve you right,' growled Alexis, 'dragging me off on a crazy adventure like this. It's a wonder we weren't all killed. If we'd had a French pilot, this would never have happened.'
'Don't be so stupid,' snapped Jane. 'Brown handled the ship magnificently.'
Alexis turned upon Tibbs. 'Why don't you do something, you idiot? You English and Americans are all alike— stupid, dumb. I wanted a French valet in the first place.'
'Yes, sir,' said Tibbs. 'I am very sorry that you didn't get one, sir.'
'Well, shut up and do something.'
'What shall I do, sir?'
'Sapristi! How should I know? But do something.'
'I am sorry, sir, but I am not a mountain goat nor a monkey. If I unfasten this seat belt, I shall simply land on your head, sir.'
'Wait a minute,' called Jane. 'I'll see what can be done.' And she unfastened her belt and climbed up into the cabin.
The ship had come to rest at an angle of about 45 degrees with the nose down, but Jane easily made her way into the cabin; and Brown followed close behind her. She went first to the Princess Sborov.
'Are you really seriously hurt, Kitty?' she asked. 'I am torn in two; I know that all my ribs are broken.'
'You got us into this, Brown,' snapped Alexis. 'Now get us out of it.'
'Listen,' said the American, 'you may be better off in than out, for when we get on the ground I ain't pilot no more. I ain't responsible then, and I won't be taking any of your lip.'
'Did you hear that, Kitty?' demanded Alexis. 'Would you sit there and let a servant talk to me like that? If you don't discharge him, I will.'
Brown snorted 'Don't make me laugh. You didn't hire me, you little runt; and you ain't going to fire me.'
'Don't be impudent, my man,' cried Alexis, his voice trembling. 'You forget who I am.'
'No, I don't forget who you are; you ain't nothing. In the country you come from, half the cab drivers are princes.'
'Come, come,' snapped Jane. 'Stop bickering. We must find out if anyone is really injured.'
'Get me out of here,' wailed Princess Sborov. 'I can't stand it any longer.'
'It would be foolish to try to get out now,' said Jane. 'Just look at that storm. We shall be safer and much more comfortable here in the ship while the storm lasts.'
'Oh, we'll never get down from here. We are way up in the tops of the trees,' wailed Annette.
'Don't worry none, sister,' said Brown, reassuringly. 'We'll find a way to get down from here when the storm lets up. The ship's lodged tight; she won't fall no farther; so we might as well sit tight like Lady Greystoke says and wait for it to quit raining and blowing.'
Tibbs strained his eyes upwards through the window at his side. 'It doesn't seem to be clearing any, if I may say so,' he remarked.
'These equatorial storms oftentimes end as suddenly as they commence,' said Jane. 'It may be all over, and the sun out, within half an hour. I've seen it happen a hundred times.'
'Oh, it won't ever stop raining; I know it won't,' wailed the princess, 'and I don't see how we are ever going to get down from here if it does. This is terrible. I mean I wish I'd never come.'
'Crying about it now, Kitty, won't do any good,' said Jane. 'The thing to do is try to make ourselves comfortable and then make the best of it until the storm lets up and we can get down. Here, Brown, get a couple of those seat cushions and put them down here on the floor in front of the princess' chair. Then we'll unfasten her seat belt and she can turn around and sit on the floor with her back against the pilot's compartment.'
'Let me help, milady,' said Tibbs, as he unfastened his belt and slid forward.
'The rest of you had better do the same thing,' said Brown. 'Unfasten your belts and sit on the floor with your backs against the seat in front of you.'
With some difficulty and much sobbing on her part, the Princess Sborov was finally arranged in a more
