“Do you think we shall sight the city to-day?” inquired Nat, as he and the professor stood on deck, just below, and in front of, the pilot house.
“Impossible to say, my lad,” was the rejoinder. “As I told you, the directions to reach it are vague in the extreme. We may have to cruise about for several days before we satisfy ourselves of its existence or non-existence.”
Nat looked disappointed. The boys, at a consultation among themselves, had about decided that that day ought to find them at their long-sought goal. Their expectation had been keyed up to such a height that delay was exasperating.
At noon the professor took his observations, and declared that, if the city existed in that part of the country, they ought to be within striking distance of it.
Excitement ran at fever heat. The boys could hardly leave the deck to eat a hasty meal. The field glasses were in constant demand. The professor announced that he would donate a handsome rifle to the first lad to spy a sign of the mystery of which they were in search.
If the boys had been eager before, this offer doubled their alertness. Ding-dong even climbed into the rigging till he was sternly ordered down by the professor.
“I thought if I got higher that I c-c-c-c-could see it s-s-s-sooner,” he explained.
“As we are now at a height of two thousand feet,” observed the professor, “I don’t think that a foot or two more of elevation would give you a very much extended view.”
It was about one-thirty when Mr. Tubbs, who was at the wheel, called the professor’s attention to something odd on the horizon. “It’s glittering,” he said, “and may be a ledge of quartz or something.”
“Can you still see it?” asked the professor.