"And we're going to be IN it—or on it—in a little while, I'm thinking," Lieutenant McBride said, grimly. "Are you ready for a bath?"
"There won't be any trouble about that," answered Dick. "The hydroplanes will take care of us. I only hope it isn't too rough to make a safe landing."
Paul took a telescope from the rack, and, going out on the deck, looked down. The next moment he reported:
"It's fairly calm. Just a little swell on."
"Then we'd better get ready to lower the hydroplanes," went on Dick, with a look at the aviator.
"That's the best thing to do," decided Mr. Vardon. "We'll see how they'll work in big water."
The hydroplanes, which were attached to the airship near the points where the starting wheels were made fast, could be lowered into place by means of levers in the cabin. The hydroplanes were really water-tight hollow boxes, large and buoyant enough to sustain the airship on the surface of the water. They could be lowered to a point where they were beneath the bicycle wheels, and were fitted with toggle-jointed springs to take up the shock.
Lieutenant McBride took out his watch, and with pad and pencil prepared to note the exact moment when the airship should reach the surface of the lake.
"I shall have to take official notice of this," he said. "It constitutes your first landing, though perhaps it would be more correct to call it a watering. As soon as you are afloat, your elapsed time will begin, and it will count until you are in the air again. You will probably be some time making repairs."
"No longer than we can help," said Dick. "I don't want Uncle Ezra, or anybody else, to get ahead of me."