“Then it’s all settled!” cried the professor, as if that was all that was necessary. “I’ll leave the details to you boys. When you have the submarine ready we will go. Meanwhile, I can be collecting other specimens. At present I must put away this rare lady bug that I got from Susan. It is really quite valuable, and I must make some notes concerning it before I forget them.”
He went into Jerry’s house, where he was always a welcome guest, leaving the boys to stare in surprise at one another.
“Well, if he isn’t the limit!” exclaimed Ned. “He tells us to let him know when the submarine is ready, just as though it was only a call to a meal.”
“Or as if we could produce a submarine at a minute’s notice, the way the magician in the show brings a rabbit out of a hat,” added Jerry. “The professor expects us to do wonders. A submarine, and we haven’t even so much as a ballast tank!”
“Well, maybe we could buy a second-hand submarine, if we could not have one made,” suggested Bob.
“Ha! Chunky is getting up his spunk,” spoke Ned. “Well, we’ll have to think this over. Meanwhile I guess I’d better be getting on home. Come on, Jerry, we’ll put away the Comet and to-morrow, or next day, we can talk over this latest stunt. I’m rather for it, myself.”
“So am I,” said the tall lad.
But the boys were not destined to immediately consider ways and means of obtaining a submarine. Hardly had Jerry and his chums put away the airship in the big shed than the storm through which they had passed, out near Boston, reached Cresville. The blow began gently enough, and for a time it seemed that there would be no special disturbance. But, as the day advanced, the fury of the gale grew until the wind had attained the force of a hurricane.