“You can feel her advance against the wind,” said Frank, “but when we are going with it at the rate of one hundred miles an hour you would scarcely think we were moving.”
“How can you go with the wind?”
“Why, the atmospheric envelope of the earth consists of numerous stratas, or air currents that blow in all directions,” replied Frank. “If I were in a balloon and had no means of guidance but plenty ballast and lots of gas I could steer it as well as if I had a rudder. This could be done by alternately raising or lowering the balloon into currents of air blowing in the directions I wished to pursue.”
“Ain’t that queer!”
“It is perfectly natural. Now there is a strata called the Solar Current, which blows constantly from the west to the east at a very high altitude. I could send a balloon completely around the world by remaining poised in that current. As it is so high up, however, we cannot make use of it, for we would be at such a great elevation we could not see the steamer Red Star if we met it.”
Just then Barney came in.
“How is the machinery?” Frank asked him.
“Faix, it do be wurkin’ as shlick as a phwistle!” replied the Celt. “An’ I suspishey that she’ll be afther gallopin’ troo ther clouds beyant wid the agility av a kangaroo.”
“Take charge of the wheel and hold her due east. I’ll run down below and observe the actions of her dynamo and machinery myself.”
He beckoned the detective to follow him.