“It was no fire,” went on the scientist, as he kicked over the canvas shelter. “I had just made a little smudge on a piece of sheet iron. I was smoking one of the fish I had caught, to preserve the specimen. I built a fire out here on deck, where there would be no danger, and put certain chemicals on it to preserve the fish skin. That’s what made the smell.”
“It certainly smelled, all right,” grimly remarked Jerry. “Are you sure there’s no fire on the deck boards, professor?”
“Not a bit. Oh, I took good care there would be no danger. I put a pan of water on deck, and on top of that I laid some sheet-iron. Then I made a little fire of wood and old rags on the iron, sprinkled the chemicals in the flames, and held the fish over them. I’m sorry if I caused you any fright.”
“Well you did—a little,” admitted Jerry, “but I guess——”
“I more than paid for it,” interrupted the scientist with a smile. “However, it’s all done. I just got through as you squirted the chemicals on me.”
As he had said, he had taken precautions against the little blaze spreading, and now the charred wood and rags on the sheet of iron were dropped into the ocean.
“You never can tell what he’s going to do next,” complained Jerry to his chums, with a smile, as they went into the cabin.
All the next day they watched. Several times they mistook low-lying clouds, or a dark bit of mist for the balloon they sought, but, on increasing their speed, and hastening toward it, they saw their error.
It was toward the close of the afternoon when Bob, who was on the lookout in the bow, cried:
“Hi, fellows, here’s something!”