the fight which was climbing wildly with full throttle and pointed out to sea. To the other pilots, it appeared that I pursued a pirate plane which was attempting to escape; but I saw what it was—a blue monoplane without a machine gun which never had taken part in the fight. It was the radio-controlled seaplane in which Bane had brought her to see the show of his power. He was shot down; so it was flying wild, without control or possibility of control.
What had been his word to her on the lake? "You'll come back—if I do." So he had planned this, in his broken brain; so he had arranged to bring her back with him, if he was to return; if he was shot down—this.
He had left her flying with full throttle; for with full throttle I pursued and scarcely gained. I would not have overtaken her at all except that, having no control, she did not fly straight. She shot away in a series of zigzags which were caught and corrected only by mechanical balances and wind strains. Similarly she climbed and dropped, climbed and dropped again.