“Correct,” said Cobb, who had made a mental calculation of the weight. “Now I ask you to put on the vessel 12,000 pounds of meteorite and acid. Very well; if your ship can take care of 6,000 of these pounds, I will reduce the weight of the gas in the bag to 5,000 pounds, thus providing for the other 6,000 pounds.”
“But you cannot do it!” cried Hugh. “Hydrogen is the lightest gas known; you cannot reduce its weight.”
“I can.” Cobb looked calmly into the face of his friend.
“You, perhaps, think you can,” insinuated Hugh.
“I know I can,” firmly replied the other.
“Then the changes shall be made.”
“And day after to-morrow, at 12 dial, we sail for the north pole?” asked Cobb. “Is it to be so?”
“As you wish, Junius.”
Their plans being settled, they returned to the executive mansion, where Hugh immediately sought his father, and told him of his interview with Cobb, and what the latter had promised to do. He then asked for the order permitting the changes in the Orion.
Without evincing any surprise, the President wrote the order, and gave it to him, adding: