These words had barely left his lips when a score or more of the natives rushed up to the bomb to seize it.
At the same juncture Barney obeyed Frank’s orders.
“Wait!” shrieked the young inventor.
His warning came too late, however, for the electric current flashed into the wire.
There sounded an explosion that roared like a battery of artillery, the burst shell blew every man to pieces who surrounded it, and encompassed in a cloud of dirt, they rose in the air, torn to fragments.
It was an awful warning to the rest, for they fled, yelling, in all directions, and Frank took advantage of their panic to rush up to the turret.
Shutting himself in he started the helices whirling.
The Pegasus straightened up and rose.
She forced her way skyward, through the opening she had first made among the trees, and quickly mounted to the clouds.
Here she sped away to sea.