Yes, let's
drop down, and if the field turns out to be pretty smooth, we'll land."
Accordingly, the hydroplane which was of course now in a condition for
making a landing with the wheels below the aluminum pontoons, circled
around, dropping lower and lower, until presently it came to a stop in
the field close to the fence.
When it landed it was done so beautifully that, as Andy enthusiastically
said, an egg would hardly have broken had it come between. And there,
not more than twenty feet away, the man, dressed in a blue uniform and
wearing a silver shield with the words "Chief of Police" engraved upon
it, was soothing his horse, which had apparently been badly frightened
by the swooping down of what seemed to be a great roc, or some other
species of now extinct gigantic kings of the air.
"What's up, Chief?" asked Frank, as soon as they had reached the road
together.
"Then you haven't heard the terrible news; they told me you left home to
come up here about daybreak; and we didn't find it out until an hour
ago. The bank in Bloomsbury was broken open last night, the safe rifled,
and the thieves have disappeared in the queerest way ever heard of, for
they left no trace behind. And when I saw you boys aloft, I was in hopes
you might have seen something of the bank looters.
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