“Oh, I think they’re alive,” spoke Jerry, cheerfully. “Just think how many cases there have been of shipwrecked persons living for weeks in open boats, with hardly any food and water.”
“But it’s awful, just the same,” sighed Bob.
“Oh, we’ll pick ’em up,” declared Jerry, with more cheerfulness than he really felt.
The Comet sailed steadily onward, high above the earth. It would be an hour or more, on the route Jerry had selected, before they would be over the ocean. Then the real search would begin.
Meanwhile the occupants of the motorship busied themselves about various tasks. Bob, as might be expected, was in the galley, getting ready the next meal. Ned went about the machinery, oiling it, and seeing that all the apparatus was working properly. Jerry remained in the pilot house. All of the boys took turns steering, but Jerry seemed more fitted for this exacting task than either Ned or Bob.
As for Professor Snodgrass he was still engaged in making notes about the new worm he had found. He paid little attention to the working of the airship, though, in case of necessity, he always lent his aid.
The boys had gone on for perhaps ten miles when Ned, looking back, and seeing a speck in the sky, called out:
“I say! What’s that? A bird?”
Bob, who had come out on the rear deck where Ned was, looked long and earnestly.
“That isn’t a bird,” he said. “It’s another airship, or I’m mistaken.”