CHAPTER XIV
A PRECARIOUS POSITION
Airship travel was scarcely a novelty to our heroes now, but, like manyother things, there was always some new feature to it. Just as on anauto trip you never can tell what is going to happen, and just as twoauto trips are never the same, so with travel in a motor-ship.
"We may start off all right, and we may get there all right," saidJerry, "but you never can tell what is going to happen in themeanwhile."
The start of our friends was auspicious enough. Rising high above thecountry surrounding their home town, they soon found themselves ina favorable current, and then, allowing some of the gas to flow outof the bag, and into the compression container, Jerry speeded up thepropellers so that the _Comet_ was sailing along now as a regularaeroplane, depending on her forward motion and on the pressure of airon the surfaces of the wing planes for support.
"We want to get used to travelling both ways," remarked Jerry to hischums, "for it will be wise to save our gas for emergencies. Anyhowthe _Comet_ is as good an aeroplane as she is a dirigible balloon,and we can go faster in the former shape, as there is not so much airresistance when the gas bag is not fully inflated."
There were many small tasks to do after they had gotten well under way,and the better part of the morning was taken up in performing them.Jerry looked to the machinery, which, in spite of several adjustments,needed some attention. Bob saw to it that his provisions were all inplace, and Ned checked over his stores, to make sure he had forgottennothing.
As for Uriah Snodgrass, it mattered little to him where he was, whetherin the air, or on the earth or water, save that in the air there werenot so many chances of gathering specimens. However, when he could notcapture bugs he could look over those already in his specimen boxes,arrange and classify them, and jot down notes concerning them. It wasthis latter work which now occupied him.
"Where is Mr. Snodgrass?" asked Ned when Bob, after a time spent in thekitchen, announced supper.
"He was in the main cabin a few minutes ago, writing in his note-book,"said Jerry. "I saw him as I passed through."
A glance into the cabin showed that the professor was not there.
"Perhaps he's already eating, in the dining-room," remarked Bob. "Hemight have gotten hungry, and couldn't wait."
"Oh, I guess he's not like you," retorted Ned. Still he looked into thecabin where the table was set, but no scientist appeared. The motorroom was equally unproductive, and the boys now looked anxiously at oneanother.
"Can he have fallen overboard?" asked Bob, his voice trembling withapprehension.
"We'd have heard him cry if he fell," said Jerry. Still, he went to therail and looked down. They were passing over a broad stretch of meadowland, and there was no evidence that their friend had tumbled down.
"The storeroom," suggested Ned. They hurried there, but found noprofessor!
Suddenly Bob, who had gone out on the after deck, uttered a cry ofalarm. His companions hastened toward him, and looked to where hepointed.
There, lying face downward on the projecting stern of the motor-ship,his head and shoulders out of sight, was the missing professor, in amost precarious position!
The Motor Boys Over the Ocean; Or, A Marvelous Rescue in Mid-Air Page 15
