"Next time I see you," I said to one melancholy-looking victim, "I hope it'll be with a pocketful of good, powerful glands."
"I trust that will be soon," he mumbled. "I've enjoyed this voyage, but it's nearly been the death of me."
"Oh, you'll be all right as soon as you reach Swakopmund. Anyway, good luck until we meet again."
Thus we went about--Gran'pa, Dr. Croft, Stringer and I--scattering a few words of hope and comfort to the aged of our race.
And, when they had set out to sea again, we wandered homewards to food and a quiet smoke.
"Oakley and I are going out first thing in the morning for a trial flight over the Gorilla country," I said to Gran'pa, just before we retired. "We want to get the lay of the land--and air."
"That's the spirit, George! No grass growing under your feet, nowadays, eh?"
"Not a blade! I'd go to-night--if we could persuade the sun to reappear."
We wished one another good-night and, after what seemed only a few hours in bed, I was awakened by a nudge from Oakley.
"We're late," he said, "You'll have to bustle."
I sprang out of bed, dressed, and accompanied him to the aerodrome, where in less than another ten minutes we were sitting in the machine ready for our first flight into the Great Unknown.
Watkins, a greasy but competent little man belonging to the new profession of air mechanics, swung the propeller, and the natives held on to the 'planes and tail until the engine was running full out. Then the human anchor was weighed by the natives simply letting go, and the machine began to move slowly forward over the uneven ground.
I had had an idea that we should rise almost immediately, but instead of this the machine seemed to scuttle through the grass as if its wings were too stiff for flight, and it was not until we had nearly reached the end of the aerodrome that the wheels at last left the earth. Even then we were apparently in difficulties, for less than fifty yards away the tops of the cocoanut palms rose above our heads in a threatening barrier of dark green. Could we clear them, I wondered, my heart thumping with excitement?
Suddenly, the machine shot upwards, leapt over the tree tops, dived again on the other side--into what was fortunately a glade-like clearing in the wood--and then, with a shudder, settled into a steady climb.