"Shall we stow the gear in our cabins?" asked Bohannan, gesturing at
the doors that led off the saloon.

"Not yet," answered the Master, glancing at the chronometer that hung
beside the air-rules. "Time enough to get settled, later. Every second
counts, now. We're due to start in seven minutes, you know. Rrisa will
attend to all this. We three have got to be getting forward to the
pilot-house."

Bohannan nodded.

"Let's have some air in here, anyhow," said he, turning toward one of
the windows. "This place is damned hot!"

"We'll need all the heat, soon," the Master commented. "At a few
thousand feet, the engine-exhaust through those radiators won't be any
too much. Forward!"




CHAPTER VIII


THE EAGLE OF THE SKY

He slid open another door. The three men passed through the captain's
cabin and pilot-house. This place measured twelve feet on its longer
axis and nine on its shorter, being of approximately diamond shape
with one point forward in the very nose of the machine, one ending in