Scarcely was this done when the wind caused the Ranger to give a sudden plunge, and the grapnel tore itself free.
The next moment the flying air ship shot up in the air and disappeared in the dark storm cloud.
A week afterward, when her batteries gave out, she fell into the ocean thousands of miles away and was swallowed up.
Our friends were sorry enough to lose her, but glad to save their lives, and finally descended the interior stairs of the spire and reached the ground in safety.
They returned to Frank’s house, where they were warmly greeted by the inventor’s family.
On the following day Frank went with Vaneyke to the police station, so the doctor could surrender himself.
Here, to their joy, they found that the real murderer had been exposed, and was then in prison awaiting trial.
He was the man who had accused the doctor of the crime, two men going to the scene of the crime had witnessed his villainy.
That cleared Dr. Vaneyke, and the detective who had made such a desperate effort to capture him was very profuse in his apologies for what he had done to annoy him.
The professor then left Readestown and went to Washington to attend to the articulation of the mammoth’s skeleton.