“Boys!” he cried, “it’s going to be a deluge! There will be a lot of water, and the river is sure to rise very high. I think we had better get in the airship, and go up until it’s over. There may be air currents down here so powerful that we can’t make headway against them. My advice is to go up.”
The others thought this good, and so, in the midst of the pelting rain, and against a current of air that every moment grew stronger, the Comet arose out of the canyon. Of course they did not escape the rain by going up, but they were in less danger. All night the storm continued, but the adventurers were in comfortable circumstances, for they had anchored in a little shelter of rocks, securely tying down their craft.
“Well, now to see if there is any of Snake Island left,” remarked Jerry next morning, when the sun came out to dry up the dampness. “We’ll have another try for the radium.”
Instead of stopping at the same place where they had made the first landing, Jerry sent the airship toward the lower part of the island.
“We’ll begin there for a change,” he remarked.
It could easily be seen that the river had risen considerably, and, had they remained anchored at the spot where they had seen the “ghosts,” they would have been in grave danger. Though the water was now going down, it had lodged on the upper part of the island many big trees and piles of driftwood.
“Look at that!” suddenly cried Bob, as they were hovering over the lower end of the island, looking for a suitable landing place. “There’s a hut on the side of the hill that I didn’t notice before.”
“That’s right,” agreed Jerry, gazing at a rude structure of logs built under a sheltering bluff, about a quarter of a mile from the shore. “We passed over this place in the airship, too, but I didn’t see that. We must see what it means. Maybe there is some one living on this island. Perhaps——”
He did not finish, but they all knew whom he meant—Mr. Bentwell, the missing scientist, might be there.
Ned took the binoculars, and directed them toward the hut.