“No danger? And we falling down about a mile? No danger?” Mr. Brill was greatly excited.
“Not a bit,” said Jerry, with a smile. “You pulled the emergency lever, that stopped the motor suddenly, but I’ll start the gas machine, and we’ll float like a balloon until the motor gets to working again.”
The Westerner seemed doubtful, and there was even a worried look on the face of Jim Nestor. For, though he trusted fully to the boys, he could not recall ever having had an experience like this before.
And, undoubtedly, the Comet was falling earthward at great speed. But a look at the three boys—showing them calm and collected—and another glance at Professor Snodgrass, who was eagerly scanning the air for a sight of some rare insect, rather put the Westerners more at their ease.
“Are you sure there’s no danger?” asked Mr. Brill, as he made his way back into the pilot house.
“Not a bit,” answered Jerry. “You see we are not falling as rapidly as we were,” and he indicated a dial on the side wall, the hand of which registered the height. It had moved rapidly over the clock-face, but now was going more slowly.
“I haven’t started the gas machine yet,” went on the young pilot; “but I threw up the head planes, and so checked the descent, just as a birdman volplanes to earth with his motor shut off. Now I’ll start the gas generator, and we’ll become a dirigible balloon for a change. Let her go, Ned!”
Ned, with Bob’s aid, swung over the handle that set the gas generating machine in operation, and, with a hiss, the powerful vapor began to fill the big bag. In a few minutes all downward motion was checked, and the Comet floated in the air—a balloon.
“Well I’ll be grub-staked!” exclaimed Mr. Brill. “That was clever, all right.”