“We thought you were human beings,” was the response. “But now we know otherwise.”
He would have cast himself on his face again, but the professor raised him and spoke encouragingly to him.
“Maybe if you’d give him something to eat he’d feel better,” suggested Joe, practically.
“That might be a good idea, and it will show him that we mean him no harm,” said the professor.
The Indian, who said his name was Matco, was taken to the cabin, the sight of which, with its comfortable furnishings and strange scientific instruments, filled him with fresh terror. But little by little he regained his self-possession to a degree, and ate what he was given with zest.
The crew of the Discoverer joined him at the meal, of which they stood in need, Joe relieving Mr. Tubbs at the helm. The stout lad had taken a few lessons in steering before from Mr. Tubbs, and found that it was not as difficult as he had supposed it would be. But then, Joe had had plenty of experience at the wheels of both automobiles and boats.
But after all, the selection of a green hand at the wheel proved somewhat disastrous. The sun arose while they were still talking to the Indian, and Mr. Tubbs was hearing details of the strange manner in which the man had boarded the airship.
In that rarefied air the rays of the luminary of day soon warm the air, and, as a consequence, the gas within the Discoverer’s bag began to expand very rapidly. Those in the cabin, of course, did not notice that the craft was rising rapidly, and Joe did not give a glance at the barograph, it not occurring to him to do so.
All at once he gazed over the front of the pilot-house and looked down below. What he saw almost made him utter a cry. The Discoverer was at a tremendous height, and appeared to be rising more and more rapidly.
Joe, in a sudden panic, twitched a lever, and the next instant the craft shot skyward at breathtaking speed. The boy had set the wrong lever and had adjusted the planes to a rising angle.