"We're Going Up!" Howled Sam.
A glance over the side showed the platform dropping from beneath them at a rapid rate.
Sam made a move as if to jump from the basket.
"Sit down!" commanded Dan. "Do you want to kill yourself?"
"But we're going up," protested Hickey.
"We can't help it. We don't know how to stop the car, and even if we did, I doubt whether we could do it from here. I have an idea that the car is controlled from that engine house down there. I know now why the man came up to look at the car. He wanted to see that everything was right before he started the basket upward."
"Do—do you think we are going to the top?"
"It looks very much that way," answered Dan, with a mirthless laugh.
The basket appeared to be gaining a little speed as it moved upward. It was swaying giddily from side to side, and had the boys not been used to being in high places on a rolling ship, they no doubt would have been made sick by the swinging of the basket.
"Hurrah!" cried Dan. "I know what I'll do!"
"Are you going to jump overboard?"
"No. Do you see the 'Long Island' lying out there in the harbor?"
"Sure I see her."
"I'm going to wig-wag to her."
Dan stood up while Hickey held him. Then Davis began making signals to the ship with his handkerchief.
"There they go. Some one is answering," cried Davis in high glee. "Won't they be surprised?"
"What are they saying?"
"I can't read the message so far away. I wish we had a glass."
"Come on up, fellows. We're having a ride up to the clouds," wig-wagged Dan.
Glasses already were trained on them from more than one ship in the harbor.
"Two enlisted men going up on the cable, sir," said the officer of the deck to the captain of the "Long Island."
"Who are they?"
"I'll ascertain, sir."
Dan caught a flash of the signal flag as the sun shone down on it, and, with quick intuition, he understood that the ship was asking who they were. He signaled their names back.
"I can't read you so far away. Have no glasses," wig-wagged Dan. "Going up by accident."
The information was quickly conveyed to the captain of the "Long Island."
"Those boys are both wired for electricity," laughed the commanding officer. "All they need is a dynamo to set them in operation, and they usually carry the dynamo about with them."
"I'm afraid they will get into trouble with the authorities, sir," said the executive officer.
"Why so?"
"They have no business to go up there. The English government is, as you know, very secretive and very strict about its fortifications here at Gibraltar."
"Never mind, Coates. Leave that to the lads. They have a way of getting out of scrapes."
In the meantime the swaying basket was mounting higher and higher into the air. So lost were the Battleship Boys in admiration of the wonderful view unfolded before them that they almost forgot to take note of their sensations.
A gun was fired from somewhere below them. The boys instinctively threw their hands to their ears. It sounded as if the gun were right beside them.
"We are a pair of landlubbers," announced Dan Davis, with a sheepish grin.
"I thought it was right here."
"So did I, for a minute," answered Dan. "Sound travels up fast and strong, you know. There is the signal tower. We shall be up there pretty soon. Look out for a row when we get there, Sam."
"I'm ready for any old kind of a row. I'm having the time of my life this morning."
Looking up with shaded eyes, they saw the lookouts examining their basket with their glasses.
"They have spotted us," said Dan.
"I don't care. Let them spot. Maybe they will know us next time they see us."
The basket mounted the last stage of the journey, going more and more slowly. At last it reached the landing. Dan was the first to leap from the car, followed quickly by Hickey.
"Good morning," he greeted, coming to a salute, as he found himself facing three red-coated soldiers.
"Who are you?"
"Men from the U.S.S. 'Long Island.'"
"What are you doing here?"
"Just taking a little pleasure trip," answered Hickey, before Dan could open his mouth to explain. "You've got a fine place up here, but it must be rather drafty in winter time. I never did like drafts at that time of the year. Do you know——"
"Get back into that basket!" interrupted the lookout sternly. "You have no business, up here."
"Well, I must say you fellows are not very hospitable," grumbled Sam. "Can't we take a look around your shack?"
"You cannot. You will be lucky if something worse doesn't happen to you."
"I am sorry if we have done anything wrong," spoke up Davis. "We got into the basket to look it over and the machinery started. But that is no reason why you should be so gruff about it."
"Get in there!"
"Come on; he's a grouch," exclaimed Sam. "I'd rather be viewing the scenery on the way down than standing here looking at that. Why, he needs only a cake of soap in his hand to make a full-page ad. of him."
Sam made a dive for the basket.
"Start your machinery going as soon as you want to," said Dan. "We are ready."
There followed a peculiar grinding sound. The basket began to move, gaining speed as it proceeded. It was going down much faster than it had ascended.
The boys waved their hands in farewell to the grouchy sentry.
"That's what I should term a formal call," announced Davis with a laugh.
"It wasn't a call at all; it was a call down," retorted Sam. "Wow! Just look over the side!"
Dan took one peep, then withdrew his head.
"What a fall that would be," he breathed.
"Yes, we'd be the Batteredship Boys instead of the Battleship Boys, were we to fall down the rest of the way," jeered Hickey.
"That was an awful joke, Sam; but perhaps it is better to get a thing like that out of your system. My, but we're going fast!"
The basket seemed to be gaining momentum every second. Sam Hickey's hair was rising, his cap having soared away on the breeze.
"Stop it!" howled Sam.
"I'd like to, but I can't."
"Put on the brakes! There must be a brake. Do something!"
"Do something yourself. I don't know how the machine works."
"We are nearing the bottom. I think the car has slackened its speed some. I see that I've got to do whatever is done here, or we'll both land in the middle of the bay with a loud splash," retorted Sam.
Hickey ran his hands over the mechanism, finally discovering a lever on the outside of the basket.
"Here it is. Here's the brake. Now you'll see me steer the old tub. I'll make a landing that would make our quartermaster green with envy."
"Be careful. We are nearly at the bottom now, Sam. I think it will slow down without any effort on our part. That evidently is the way the basket always comes down."
Sam gave the lever a shove.
"Shut it off! What have you done?" yelled Dan.
The basket shot forward, as if impelled by some sudden force.
"I—I can't. The—the thing won't work."
"You've done it this time," groaned Davis.
"You've killed us both——"
"Wow!" howled Hickey.
Dan made a grab for his companion just as Sam's heels were disappearing over the side of the basket. Davis missed the heels, then he followed Hickey, while the basket was smashed with terrific force against some solid object. The boys shot from the basket, turning somersaults in the air as they plunged downward.
They did not cry out, but each lad believed that his time had come.