“We must go down!” gasped Jerry hoarsely. “Go down, or we may be ripped all apart!” And he sprang to the lever of the depressing rudder.
[CHAPTER XXV]
A CLEW
For a few moments it seemed to the Motor Boys that the end of everything had come. It appeared impossible that their comparatively frail craft could weather the storm in the very heart of which she was being hurled along. Now tilted with her bow toward the earth; again, almost standing on her tail rudders; now on her port beam, and again on the starboard—the gallant Comet struggled on in the grip of the hurricane.
“Lend a hand, fellows!” gasped Jerry, as he tried in vain to bring the lever of the depressing rudder toward him. “Lend a hand! The wind pressure is so strong that I can’t work this alone.”
Bob and Ned sprang to their chum’s aid, and even then the task was almost more than that to which their combined strength was equal. Professor Snodgrass, seeing their trouble, was about to give them some assistance, when an instant’s lull in the gale so relieved the pressure on the planes that they were able to bring the lever to the right position.
“Jove, but it blows!” cried Ned. “It’s a wonder it didn’t rip off the wings, rudders and everything else.”
“Lucky thing for us they’re of double strength,” added Bob, for with the remodeling of the motorship, the wing-planes and rudders had been strengthened.
“I guess we’ll be all right, now,” observed Jerry. “We must have gotten into the hurricane by coming up so high. I’ll stay at a lower level after this.”