“We might miss Mr. Jackson,” spoke Ned.
“Oh, you needn’t go far away from the grounds,” put in the secretary, “and you can see Mr. Jackson’s balloon when it heads back this way. I don’t believe he’ll go far off.”
“Might as well then, to pass the time,” suggested Jerry, and as Ned was willing, under these circumstances, the boys went back to their machine to get it ready for a flight. But Ned kept anxious eyes on the sky, watching for a first sight of the returning dirigible.
[CHAPTER XXI]
A MESSAGE FOR HELP
“What sort of stunts are you going to try, Jerry?” asked Ned, as the tall lad hurried here and there about the Comet, looking to see that all the machinery was properly adjusted.
“Oh, I don’t know. We’ll go up quite a distance—higher than any of the craft they have here, I guess, and we’ll do some aerial evolutions. Then I thought we might show them how we can change from a dirigible to an aeroplane and back again, in mid-air, by letting the gas out of the bag, and filling it again.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Why don’t you demonstrate the hydroplanes, too?” asked Bob, who, for some time now, had not mentioned eating.