Engine trouble

Ryan and Rourke were travelling to America, flying for the first time and, more than apprehensive, they were frightened stiff. Every noise, every jerk of the plane had their hearts beating fast. To make matters worse they had one of those pilots who likes to relate every little detail to the passengers.

'Ladies and gents,' he began, 'You may have noticed a wee jolt just now. That was in fact the number one engine cutting out. It's a little irregular but don't worry because we have three more. It does mean though that we'll be an hour late reaching New York.'

Hardly five minutes were gone before the man was on the microphone again:

'Apologies folks, but we've lost engine number two. We still have two left, but we will be another hour late.'

Before the tremors of panic had settled themselves, the boys heard the next fatal announcement:

'Once again, my apologies ladies and gentlemen, but it now seems that we've lost number three engine. This will delay us a further two hours.'

'Begod,' said Ryan to Rourke, 'if we lose the last engine we'll be up here all day!'