“Don’t you do it,” urged the professor. “They only want something else to shoot at. They may elevate their cannon any minute and fire upon us.”
“I don’t believe so,” was Jerry’s opinion. “There’s something queer going on, and I want to find out what it is.”
The people continued to make motions to the boys, as if urging them to land. They were apparently calling out something, but the height at which the Comet was precluded the voices being heard distinctly, and Jerry, anxious as he was to learn the cause for the shooting, was not quite ready to descend.
Finally one man on the ground improvised a megaphone out of some newspapers, and pointing it at the airship yelled:
“Come down and help us! The bridge has washed away!”
“The bridge has washed away!” repeated Bob. “Well, what can we do? And why should they fire at one another, unless some one in either crowd cut the bridge loose, and started a fight?”
“The high water probably carried the bridge away,” said Jerry. “What we can do for them I don’t see. However, we’ll go down. Don’t you think we might venture, Professor?”
“Well,” answered the scientist slowly, “seeing that they have invited us, they will hardly fire on us now. Besides, I might possibly find the flying lizard there. Yes, go down, by all means.”