“I have it!” he cried. “I see through it now.”
“What is it?” asked Ned.
“They took us for part of the illumination,” went on the tall lad. “They fired at us to see if they could hit us, and——”
“They’ve hit that other airship!” shouted Bob, pointing to it. “See! They’ve set it on fire! Oh, what an awful death those poor fellows aboard it will have!”
“Let’s save them!” suggested the professor.
“There’s no one aboard her,” put in Jerry more calmly than any of the others.
“No one aboard her? Do you mean she’s a runaway airship?” asked Ned.
“No, it isn’t an airship at all. I’ll tell you,” and Jerry went to the engine-room, where he slowed down the motor, for the plan of putting out the lights had been effective, and no more rockets were shot at them.
“They took us for part of the celebration,” went on Jerry when he returned. “They probably arranged to have some sort of a miniature, automatic airship sent up, aimed to go across the place above where the fireworks were being set off, but high in the air. Then it was the game to try and hit it with rockets.”
This later was found to be the case.