"Luckily not. But what is to be done with this wreckage?" asked Frank.
"Nothing. It will sink presently. We have secured all our valuable instruments and records. I'm only too happy over escaping from a watery grave. Simms and myself were making up our minds that our time had come when you hove in sight."
"We are heading for Cedar Keys, but in no hurry to get there, professor. What would you like us to do for you?" asked Frank presently, after they had given both men blankets to throw about their shoulders, for the air was "nippy."
"There is smoke on the horizon, to the west I believe it must be a steamer bound for Tampa. Do you think it would be possible to intercept her and put us aboard?" asked the scientist eagerly.
Frank took a look at the weather.
"We'll make a try, anyhow. But to do so we must head straight out, for she will go miles to the south of us," he said.
They sped on for an hour. The land was dim in the distance. It thrilled them to know they were like a speck out in the midst of the great Gulf of Mexico. By now the coast steamer was in plain view, and signals were made for her to stop.
When the captain learned who the two men were, and that he could further the work of the government, he gladly took them aboard; and the last the boys saw of the aeronauts was their waving hats as the steamer went on her way.