The aviator tilted the control, as if to watch the action, and
suddenly, to the amazement of all the spectators, what had been an
unusual looking double-decked motor-boat sprang out of the harbour into
the air. It rose gracefully and gradually to a height of perhaps four
hundred feet, flying as if it aimed straight for the far-distant
pearl-cluster of Bordighera, on the Italian coast.
Vanno had an extraordinary sensation, as if his heart stopped beating,
and as if at the same time an iron band across his chest stopped the
expansion of his lungs. It was such a sensation as a man might have in
the moment of death, and it was so unlike anything he had ever felt
before that, for a few seconds of physical agony, he asked himself
dazedly what was the matter. Then, suddenly, he knew that he was
afraid--afraid for the girl. And he hated Carleton for risking her life.
He felt a savage longing to do the young airman some bodily injury as a
punishment for what he, Vanno, was made to suffer.
The relief was so great when the _Flying Fish_ dropped slowly down and
settled again into the water that Vanno was slightly giddy with the rush
of blood through his veins. He watched the hydro-aeroplane turn and head
back for the mouth of Monaco harbour; and it seemed to him that he had
lived through years in a few minutes, as one can have a lifetime's
experience in one short dream. He sickened as he thought what would be
his feelings now if the machine had fallen and turned over, too far off
for any hope of rescue from land.
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