If that happened she was apt to fall to the ground and kill her crew, and Frank realized it.
It made him desperate.
“We will have to abandon her!” he cried at last.
“Can’ yo’ sen’ her down?” asked Pomp.
“Not till the gyroscope lever is repaired. It would occupy an hour or two to do that. In the meantime we may get killed.”
“What shall we be afther doin, sor?” questioned Barney.
“Slide down the anchor rope to the steeple.”
There was no alternative.
They thought they could get the air ship when the storm blew over, so Barney and Pomp tied their fiddle and banjo to their backs and all hands hastened out on deck.
Grasping the grapnel rope they slid down one after another to the steeple and safely reached a platform there.