“Here we go!” he cried. “Look out, boys! Shoot the hydroplanes out when I give the word!”
Jerry turned off the power. The great propellers ceased revolving. The airship was now diving rapidly downward under her own momentum.
“Ready!” suddenly shouted Jerry; and Bob and Ned pulled on the levers, folding up the bicycle wheels, and shunting into place on the toggle-jointed arms the hydroplanes that would keep the Comet afloat.
The boys were hardly prepared for what followed, for as soon as they struck the water they were at once tossed about by the violence of the waves, the airship being so buoyant that she was like a chip on the lake. Up and down on the long swells, from side to side, she was thrown most violently.
“We can’t stand this!” yelled Ned. “We’ll tear the motor from the bed-plates.”
“Start the water propeller,” called Jerry to Ned and Bob, “and I’ll head for shore. Be ready to jump out when I give the word, and haul her up with ropes. I’ll let down the wheels as soon as we get in shallow water.”
A moment later the craft was a little steadier, for Jerry had headed her up into the eye of the wind, and her bow instead of the side was taking the breaking waves. Then she moved forward toward the distant shore.
It was a hard fight, and one the boys never forgot. Time and again they were in danger of being swamped. But the gallant Comet struggled on, proving herself almost as good a water navigator as she was in the air. Then, as they neared the shore, Bob and Ned leaped out and reached the bank, holding long ropes attached to the airship. Jerry dropped the bicycle wheels and a little later the craft was pulled out on land.
Fortunately this was during a lull in the gale, or even then she might have been dashed against the trees and wrecked. But before the blast could resume its howling the boys and the professor had rolled their airship up into a little opening amid the trees, and soon it was well lashed to the sturdy trunks, some of the wing planes being folded over to offer less surface to the gale.