CHAPTER IV
A NEW QUEST
Fortunately for our heroes the _Comet_ was a staunch craft, even thoughbuilt to navigate the air, and, like others of her kind, light inconstruction. But the motorship had passed safely through hard blowsbefore, and Jerry and his chums hoped this would be no exception. Alsothe boys, when the first warnings of the blow were observed, had madeeverything as snug as possible. Now all they could do was to remain inshelter and navigate their craft as best they might.
And glad indeed were they of shelter, too, for, after the first fury ofthe blast had whipped the sea into foam, there came a burst of rain,almost tropical in its volume.
“I should say it _was_ a blow!” gasped Bob, as he righted the coffeepot. “Look at that!” he cried. “All wasted!”
“Don’t worry about that,” advised Jerry, who was having all he could doto hold to the steering wheel, which was twisting and turning in hishands as the wind forced the big rudder this way and that. “We’re luckyto be as right as we are, so say nothing about losing a little coffee.”
“Well, I’m hungry!” exclaimed the stout lad who, it seemed, would notbe balked of his meal, even in a bad storm. “I’m going to make somemore,” he went on. “That is, unless you need me here, Jerry.”
“No,” panted the tall steersman. “I guess Ned and I can manage thingsfor a while, unless something happens. We’re going up fairly well, andperhaps we can get above the storm.”
The _Comet_ was now under better control, and was steadily mountingunder the influence of the powerful lifting-gas, and the push of herpropellers, the elevating rudder being tilted in the proper direction.Of course she was also headed toward the shore in order to take herfrom above the dangerous water, but her progress in that direction wasnot as rapid as it would have been had it not been necessary to mountin an endeavor to rise above the gale. At least, that was what Jerrywas trying to do.
Of course the craft, as I have said, was built to navigate on the waterby means of pontoons or hydroplanes, but this could be done only oncomparatively calm surfaces. With the sea boiling and seething as itnow was, the _Comet_ would have been wrecked had she fallen into it.
“I almost wish we were in that submarine,” said Ned, as he came tostand near Jerry, to aid him if necessary.
“Why?” called Bob from the little galley.
“Because then we wouldn’t mind the storm, no matter how hard it blew.Don’t you remember reading that a comparatively short distance belowthe surface the effect of a storm is not felt? Those fellows can sailalong, deep down under the ocean, and not even know a blow is going onup above.”
“Well, they may be safer than we are,” exclaimed Bob, as he put onanother pot of coffee, taking care to secure it to the electric stoveso it would not spill off, “but, all the same, I don’t go in much forsubmarines. They’re too likely not to come to the top when you wantthem to.”
“Not the newest models,” defended Ned, who seemed to have taken asudden interest in the under-water boats. “They rarely have an accidentnow-a-days. I’d like to take a chance in one.”
“I think I would too,” spoke Jerry, eagerly.
“Well, if you fellows go, of course I’m not going to back out,”asserted Bob, who, to do him credit, was as full of grit, when the testcame, as either of his chums.
“Oh, I don’t know that there is any likelihood of our navigating one,”went on Jerry. “Still, you never can tell. It’s about the only kind oflocomotion we haven’t tried yet.”
“Well, I only hope one thing,” spoke Bob, as he began to make somesandwiches for himself and his chums, “and that is that this submarinedoesn’t try to blow up, or sink, the _Hassen_ with my uncle and cousinon board.”
“Nonsense! There’s about as much danger of that happening as there isof the moon falling on us,” said Jerry, with a laugh.
“I guess Bob means he doesn’t want the submarine to tackle that shiphis uncle is on until he finds out what it is that his respectedrelative is bringing over,” spoke Ned.
“Or until he introduces us to his pretty cousin,” added Jerry with asmile. “Eh, Bob?”
“Oh, you fellows make me tired. Here, take some of this grub. I’mhungry.”
“Your usual state,” commented Ned, drily.
Perhaps my new readers may think it strange that the boys could talkthus lightly while trying to escape from a bad storm in an airship,but my old friends will understand of what sort of material Bob, Nedand Jerry were made. They were used to danger--not that they courtedit, but when it came they could meet it face to face, and they seldomallowed it to get on their nerves. And their talk, in this case, wascalculated to restore their own confidence for, in a measure, it tooktheir attention from the fury of the elements.
And there was fury and to spare. The wind seemed to increase inviolence every moment, and the rain, beating on the roof of the cabin,almost drowned the sound of their voices, and hushed the hum of themachinery and the whine of the dynamos.
It was fortunate, in a way, that the craft was not manœuvering as anaeroplane, for the broad expanse of the wing and rudder planes wouldhave offered so much resistance to the wind that the _Comet_ might haveturned turtle. As it was, some of the planes had been folded back outof the way. This was a new improvement in the boys’ craft, and one thatenabled it to be used to better advantage as a dirigible balloon.
True it was that the expanse of the gas-bags offered a large surface tothe gale, but this could not be avoided. It was absolutely necessary tohave them filled, or the ship would have plunged into the sea.
Jerry was operating to the limit the motor which whirled the greatpropellers, and all the force at his command was needed to make headwayagainst the wind. The _Comet_ was shooting almost into the teeth of it,which was to her disadvantage.
Holding with one hand each to the steering wheel, Jerry and Ned atetheir sandwiches and drank their coffee. The last was not easy as themotorship plunged and swayed, spilling part of the beverage.
“But it’s fine--what I can get of it,” said Jerry.
“That’s right--and the sandwiches are bully!” exclaimed Ned. “You’reall to the mustard, Bob!”
“Glad you like them,” responded the stout youth, evidently well pleased.
There came a sudden burst of fury in the gale, and the craft seemed toplunge downward.
“Look out!” cried Ned, glancing toward the glass floor in the pilothouse, through which he could see the crests of the angry waves. “Lookout, Jerry!”
The tall lad gave a twist to the elevating rudder, which overcame thedownward tendency, and once more the _Comet_ was moving upward. Therain still fell, the wind howled and roared and the lightning now beganto play about the ship, while the thunder rolled almost incessantly.But the gallant craft held on in spite of all.
Suddenly there came a sharp, breaking sound, accompanying a brilliantpinkish flash of light, and then came an awful roar. For a moment theboys were almost paralyzed, and they felt a tingling as of pins andneedles all over their bodies. Their ear drums seemed burst.
“That bolt passed close to us!” yelled Ned, above the thunder-echoes.
“I should say so,” agreed Jerry. “A little bit more and it would havestruck us. Smell the sulphur!”
A pronounced odor was noticeable in the cabin.
“Look!” cried Bob, “it put the small dynamo out of business, too. Itshort-circuited it!”
“That’s right!” cried Jerry, looking at one of the pieces of apparatusused for generating the powerful lifting-gas. “But we won’t need thatnow, I guess. We ought to be over land pretty soon and able to make alanding.”
“We can’t in this wind,” said Bob, who went over to make a closeinspection of the damaged dynamo. “We’d be blown into a tree or house,and smashed.”
“I’m going to try to get out of the path of the storm,” said Jerry,who well understood the danger of going down to earth in this gale.“I think its path is comparatively narrow. Is she much damage
d, Bob?”referring to the dynamo.
“No, those new fuses you put in saved her. It just burned out a coupleof them. I can connect it up if you say so. We might need it in ahurry.”
“No, we have some gas in the reserve tank yet, and there is no usetaking chances monkeying around a dynamo in a thunder-storm. Come awayfrom it!”
That one terrific stroke, which had come so near to the motorship,seemed to have broken the backbone of the storm, in a measure, andthere was a noticeable diminution in the force of the wind, while therain fell less heavily.
It was late afternoon, and night was coming on, so with the clouds toadd to the gloom of the sky, it was so dark that the boys could hardlysee the water below them.
A little later, when the storm showed more evidence of dying out, theylooked down and saw below them the lights of Boston.
“We’re safe!” cried Jerry. “The bay isn’t under us any more.”
“Good!” cried Bob. “Now we can have a regular supper!”
“You sure are the limit, Chunky!” cried Ned. “But never mind. We won’trub it in. This has been a strenuous afternoon, all right, from thetime we sighted that submarine.”
“I wonder where it is now?” asked Bob, and his chums could see that hereally was worrying over the safety of his uncle and cousin.
“No telling,” said Jerry. “I don’t believe we will ever see her again.”
Neither he nor his chums realized what fate had in store for them inconnection with that same submarine.
Jerry knew the course he wished to take, though it was necessary tosteer by compass, and soon, when the storm had quieted down to onlya comparatively gentle blow, the tall steersman guided his craft tothe ground in a big open field, some miles from Boston. There it wasanchored for the night and the boys prepared to stay on board, as theyhad often done before. They had come down in a lonely neighborhood, sothey were not troubled by curious spectators.
In the morning scarcely a trace of the storm was to be seen.
The boys made some necessary repairs, fixing the refractory rudder sothat it could be used temporarily.
“And then I’m done with it,” said Jerry, firmly. “I’m going to attachan entirely different kind.”
Again the _Comet_ soared into the air, and this time her blunt nose waspointed toward Cresville, which the boys reached in record time, nohappenings worthy of note occurring on the way.
“Well, I’m glad you boys are home!” exclaimed Mrs. Hopkins, as theairship landed near Jerry’s house. “We were just beginning to getanxious about you.”
“Oh, we’re all right, Mother!” exclaimed the tall lad, as he kissedher. “Had a little blow, that’s all.” He seldom told of the dangersthrough which he and his chums passed.
“There’s someone here to see you,” went on Mrs. Hopkins, with a smile.
“Is it Bob’s uncle?” asked Ned, with a laugh.
At that moment a voice was heard coming from the house. It said:
“One moment now, Susan! Don’t move. Stand very still!”
“What for? Am I going to have my picture took?” asked a voice Jerryrecognized as that of his mother’s maid.
“No, I am not going to photograph you,” was the answer. “But there is avery rare specimen of a blue lady-bug on your left shoulder and I wantto get it for----”
“A bug! The saints preserve me! Take it off quick!” cried Susan.
“One moment! There, I have it!” was exclaimed triumphantly, and theboys, with one accord, as they looked at each other cried out:
“Professor Snodgrass!”
It was indeed he, and a moment later the jolly little bald-headedscientist stepped to the door, holding tightly in one hand the new bughe had captured.
“Ah, good morning, boys!” he exclaimed. “Well, you see I came hereagain, and this time I think you’ll agree that I have a difficult questunder way.”
“Is it to get more luminous snakes?” asked Jerry, as he and his chumsshook hands with the professor.
“No, though that commission was hard enough. This time I have an orderfrom the Boston museum to get a specimen--three or four, if I can--ofthe hermit crab, the _Pagurus_, or _Eupagurus Bernhardus_. And to dothis I shall have to search on the bottom of the sea. So if you have asubmarine boat anywhere around, boys, I’d like to use her, for I mustget that specimen!”
Jerry, Ned and Bob looked at one another. The professor’s words stirredstrange recollections.