“All right. We’ll listen to Ferdinand first.”
“I think this is all a pipe dream of the airship man’s,” declared Fes, who was an extremely practical youth and always demanded evidence before he would believe anything. “I think he struck his head on a rock and hasn’t come to his senses yet.”
“Don’t you believe he had a bag of souvenirs?” inquired the instructor.
“Naw,” was the skeptical answer. “If he did, what became of it? It’d had to fall with the airship.”
“Yes, if it was tied to it,” conditioned Juan Del Mar.
“He says it was tied to the aeroplane,” reminded Mr. Porter.
“I think he’s dreaming,” insisted Fes. “If he had a bag of specimens with him, it wasn’t tied to the airship; or if it was, it broke loose or came untied while it was falling.”
“I think it came untied,” declared Pickles.
“What do the rest of you think?” inquired Mr. Porter.
As any thought on the subject must be largely a matter of guess, none of the boys besides Fes and Pickles were inclined to be very positive. All, however, were willing to accept Ferdinand’s explanation.