“We’re going down!” yelled Ned.
“Keep cool,” advised Jerry, as he shut off the power. “I think I can glide down safely.”
“Shan’t I start the gas machine?” yelled Bob.
“Yes,” replied Jerry. “Maybe we can make enough to bear us up before we hit anything solid.”
But the vapor could not be generated fast enough to do any good, and it looked as if the Comet was going to strike the earth with force enough to demolish it. Jerry, however, kept his head, and, by the skillful use of the deflecting rudder he threw up the head of the craft so that, striking a heavy strata of air, the ship slid down on it, like a sled upon the ice. The craft came to the ground with considerable force, but the improved springs in the starting wheels took up most of the shock, and the boys suffered no more than a severe jolt.
“Well, we came down out of that fairly well,” remarked Jerry, with a sigh of relief. “Now we’ll see if we can fix things.”
“Guess we’d better wait until morning,” suggested Ned, after a glance at the broken plane. “We’ll have to cut a new frame for it.”
Jerry agreed with this, and, after tying the craft securely, to prevent it being blown away during a high wind, the boys prepared to spend the night on top of one of the higher ranges of the Rockies. They were undisturbed, save for the far-off howls of some big mountain lions.
They set to work in the morning, and, by dint of hard work, had the repairs made by noon. Then, at Ned’s earnest request they did go on a mountain lion hunt. But the lions seemed to prefer darkness to daylight, and the only one seen was a small specimen, which Ned killed after three shots. He wanted to save the skin of it, but his chums persuaded him that he could get larger and better specimens where they were going. As usual, the professor began a search for insects as soon as the landing was made, and he kept it up until they were ready to start.