"There are the Queen Anne flats at Victoria station," observed Torrence.
"True; but surely we did not go as far to the west as that?"
"Indeed we did. I ran considerably out of our course intentionally. You see I wanted to take in London by daylight; and wouldn't have missed the sight for a barrel of money. I ran slow, as well as indirectly, or we would have been well out of Middlesex by now. But I really thought we were higher, and should have consulted the barometer; but in getting away from those hounds I never thought of it. But thank God we're all right now. How do you like the air ship?"
"It's the grandest thing on the earth or off of it!" I answered; "but you haven't told me why those fellows wanted us; and why we had to sneak out of the hotel like thieves."
"There's lots of time for that," he answered; "but let us not miss this sight while we have it."
And I did not want to miss it myself, but before we had quite passed the suburbs Torrence explained as follows:
"You remember Hart?" he began.
"Perfectly; you mean Wetherbee's partner; the fellow we had our first interview with."
"Yes. Well, do you know that when the scoundrel discovered that we were building the machine without his aid, and that we were becoming the talk of London for our wealth, and manner of living, he was consumed with envy, and fearing that he had lost a good thing, got out an injunction against our moving the vessel, on the ground of being Wetherbee's partner? Of course he totally misrepresented the facts, and——"
"Then you did violate the law after all!" I exclaimed, feeling that I had been deceived.