If the boy had hurried the first time for the binocular, he made the decks burn on his second trip. He knew that the professor’s big camera would take valuable time to unpack, so he fairly raced along the stateroom corridors to his own cabin for his own small camera, and he thanked his lucky stars, as he ran, that he had put in a new roll of film that morning.
He could not have gone faster, but, when he returned, his uncle was sweeping the horizon with the glass in a way that showed all too plainly that the object of search was no longer in view.
“Gone!” he cried, in apprehension.
“Yes,” said the professor, “gone!”
“But it must be there! We both saw it!”
“I thought I saw—”
“There! Uncle George! Over there! There it is again!”
Perry pointed almost directly abeam of the vessel.
The scientist looked, and shook his head.
“You try,” he said, and handed the glass to the boy.