“Holy smoke! What a daisy run!” groaned Reynard.
“It’s back home Murdock bes goin’,” said Barney.
“How yo’ ‘spects ter cotch dat yere steamah?” Pomp asked.
“Why, by ascending into the Solar Current!” said Frank. “Crippled as we are we could not overhaul her. But that air current will add ten miles an hour to our speed.”
“Go up, by all means, then!” exclaimed the detective.
Frank nodded, and sent the machine up several miles, when they entered the great current and sped along faster.
From their great elevation the voyagers could see the ships they encountered by means of their telescopes, but failed to observe any until they neared the American shores, that tallied with the appearance of the Pacific mail steamers.
Frank made a computation of the time made, and was delighted to find that they had gained considerably on the Confucius Kao.
“Allowing eighteen knots an hour for her speed,” said he to his friends, “we ought to reach the Golden Gate almost as soon as she does.”
San Francisco came in view.