For a few minutes after rising in the airship, the boys were busy adjusting machinery and looking at various gauges to see that everything was running smoothly. The Comet had never behaved better, and was sailing along like a bird.
“Some class to this, eh?” inquired Bob, who, in addition to his appetite, had another failing—that of using slang occasionally.
“She’s running as well as we could expect, and a little better, considering the treatment she had at the hands of Noddy Nixon,” responded Jerry. “I’ll speed her a bit, now.”
He adjusted the lever controlling the motor and propellers, and the big blades, in front of the airship, that served to pull it forward, whizzed around so swiftly that they looked like blurs of light. Then, fastening the side rudder, so that the craft would head due west, Jerry left the pilot house, and joined his companions in the main cabin, where Professor Snodgrass was busy looking over his specimens, to ascertain if any had suffered harm when they escaped from the box during his rush through the crowd.
“How did you happen to hear we were going to make another trip, Mr. Snodgrass?” asked Bob.
“Why, your father mentioned it in a letter I had from him a few days ago,” answered the scientist. “I wrote, as I do, once in a while, to inquire how you all were, and when he replied he stated that you were going on a trip West, but he did not say what for. As it happened, the museum with which I am now connected, and for which I travel, collecting specimens, needed a flying lizard. They are very scarce, and only one museum that I know of has a specimen. So I decided to get another. These lizards are supposed to exist in certain parts of our country, and I think the west is as likely to contain them as is any other section. So as soon as I learned you were going there I hastily packed up, and came along. But I very nearly missed you.”
“Yes, a few minutes more and we would have been gone,” observed Ned. “But you didn’t bring your trunk with you, Professor.”
“No, I couldn’t manage it with my box of specimens, spare cases in which to put new specimens I may get, my net and other things,” and, truly, it did seem as if the professor could not have carried another thing, for every pocket bulged with something, and over his shoulders and around his waist were strapped boxes and cases, besides various nets, and other instruments he used in his capture of insects and reptiles. “I will buy extra clothing at the first place we stop,” went on the scientist. “But you boys haven’t yet told me why you are going West, and your father didn’t mention it, Bob.”
“We are going out to inspect our mine,” spoke Jerry quickly, at the same time guardedly motioning to Bob and Ned not to say anything about the incident of Jackson Bell, the former hermit. “We have heard that some one may try to get possession of it and we want to stop him.” Jerry decided it would be just as well, for the present, not to mention the trouble they had had with Noddy Nixon, and he also resolved to keep silent regarding the strange mystery they hoped to solve.
“Well, your plans will not be interfered with by me,” continued Uriah Snodgrass. “I will go anywhere you do, and look for the flying lizard.” The professor went on, and told of his hurried trip to Cresville, that he might join his friends. They talked of former trips, of his pursuit of the wonderful butterfly in the everglades of Florida, and of his search for the horned toad in California.
All this while the airship kept on, increasing her distance from the home of the boys. Jerry had sent the Comet up about two thousand feet, and finding favorable currents of air there kept her in that position. It was an easy matter to go higher or lower as they desired.
In about an hour, during which time many reminiscences had been exchanged, Bob exhibited signs of uneasiness.
“What’s the matter, Chunky?” inquired Ned. “Has one of the professor’s pink fleas got inside your clothes?”
“I sincerely trust not,” said the scientist in apprehension.
“No, it isn’t that,” replied the stout lad, somewhat awkwardly. “I—er—that is—I was just wondering if I hadn’t better go and see about getting dinner.”
“Dinner? Why, you lobster, it’s only ten o’clock!” cried Jerry.
“I know it,” answered Bob, “but I’ll have to start the gasolene stove, and it will take some time. I guess I’d better begin. I’ll cook,” he added, generously.
“Cook! I guess that’s about all you will do on this trip,” remarked Ned with a laugh, as his fleshy chum disappeared in the galley. “I never saw such a chap—never,” he added.
“Well,” remarked Professor Snodgrass, trying to think of some excuse for Bob, “we have to eat, you know. Even horned toads and flying lizards eat. And—one moment I beg of you—don’t move, please!” he exclaimed suddenly to Ned.
“Why not; am I going to fall overboard?” inquired the lad, in some alarm.
“No, but a new and rare kind of upper-air mosquito has just alighted on your shoulder,” spoke the professor, eagerly. “One moment and I will have it!” He stretched out his hand, containing a tiny net, and the next moment the insect was buzzing in it.
“Ah, I have you, little beauty!” exclaimed the bald-headed man, enthusiastically, and into a small bottle went the mosquito.
“I’m glad he didn’t bite me,” remarked Ned, who, just then saw Jerry beckoning to him from the pilot house. When the two chums were together, Jerry cautioned Ned about speaking of the possible solution of the mystery connected with Mr. Bell.
“Don’t say anything about it to the professor,” said Jerry. “We’ll wait until we get to the mine, and see how matters develop there. It may be that there is nothing to this, and that we are on the wrong track about Mr. Bell,” but it was not long before Jerry was to learn that there was even more in the mystery than he suspected. “Tell Bob,” he went on to Ned. “Then you can help him with grub. I’m beginning to feel a little hungry myself.”
The meal was served at noon, about a mile high in the air, with the Comet shooting along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, for the wind was favorable.
“It doesn’t seem so much of a novelty now,” remarked Bob, munching a sandwich, and looking down at the green earth spread out below him. “I remember the first trip we made I was a little nervous.”
“Well, I was the time when the professor nearly fell overboard trying to capture a queer insect,” said Jerry. “Don’t do anything like that again, please, Mr. Snodgrass,” he added.
“I’ll not,” agreed the scientist, who was trying to eat, and at the same time enter in his note book some observations about insects of the upper air.
Until the middle of the afternoon, the travelers flew along, high in the air. About three o’clock, when Ned was steering in the pilot house, there came a sudden gust of wind that heeled the airship over at a sharp angle.
“Quick! Try the lower currents!” called Jerry, from the engine room. “It may be quieter down near the earth.”
Ned shifted the deflecting rudder, and the Comet shot earthward on a long slant. As Jerry had predicted, it was more quiet there, the wind blowing gently.
Their course was now southwest, and, judging by the speed and the length of time they had been in motion, they figured that the airship was over Pennsylvania. As it raced along, about five hundred feet above the surface, and over a rather sparsely settled country, Bob, who was looking through a telescope, suddenly uttered a cry.
“What’s the matter?” asked Jerry.
“Why there’s a big crowd just ahead there,” replied the fat lad. “About two thousand people on the bank of a river. It looks as if something had happened.”
“Maybe some one has fallen in,” suggested Ned.
“Speed her up, and we’ll soon find out,” directed Jerry, and Ned yanked over the propeller lever.
As the airship came nearer, it could be seen that there were two good-sized towns, one on either side of a swiftly flowing river, that appeared to be swollen from floods. Gathered on the banks of the stream were two large crowds, and they appeared to be signalling to each other.
“I wonder what’s happened?” came from Ned.
“We’ll soon find out,” answered Jerry. “Go a bit slower.”
“There’s trouble of some kind; that’s sure,” was the opinion of Professor Snodgrass. “The people in the larger town seem to be in distress.”
Hardly had he spoken than from the midst of the larger crowd there came a flash of fire, and a volume of white smoke rolled out. Then came a dull boom.
“They’re firing! Firing a cannon!” cried Bob. “The people on one side of the river are shooting at those on the other side! What can be the matter?”