CHAPTER V.

CAPTURED! When I recovered consciousness I found myself lying in the sand with Mercer sitting beside me. It was still night. The tangled wreckage of our airplane lay near by; evidently Mercer had carried me out of it. I sat up. "I'm all right," I said. "What happened?" He grinned at me with relief. "The damned engine stopped. I don't know what was the matter. You had the light off. I couldn't see anything when we got down close." He waved his hand toward the wrecked plane. "It's done for," he added; "but I'm not hu…