“If there was an undertaker handy, I would,” said the captain. And with a cheerful wave of his hand, the stout old seaman stepped into a boat and was rowed back to the steamer.
As the vessel got under way again the Electric Monarch took to the air, rising as easily from the water as she had from the land. With parting cheers and mutual salutes the two craft parted, the steamer to resume her northward voyage, the Electric Monarch to turn homeward after an eventful trial trip which, so far as the boys could see, had been a success in every particular.
On the homeward voyage some brisk breezes were encountered, but the Electric Monarch behaved splendidly. A short distance outside the village of Enderby, Jack, who had surrendered the wheel to Ned, in order to initiate him into handling the craft that bore his name, spied a black dot in the distance.
It was high in the air and traveling rapidly toward them. It was some minutes before they made out what it was.
“A balloon!” They all made the discovery simultaneously. The big gas bag was traveling fast and on a course which would bring it across the Electric Monarch’s bows. As it came closer they saw that it was colored a brilliant red and bore on the sides of its gas bag in huge letters, “New Yorker.”
“Why, that’s one of the balloons that went up in that contest at New York,” cried Jack. “They started from Brooklyn last night. My! they’ve made good time.”
On came the balloon, driving fast. In it were two men clad in khaki and wearing close-fitting caps. They waved frantically to the lads in the Electric Monarch and the hydroaeroplane was brought close alongside the balloon, keeping up with it easily.
One of the men in the balloon basket snatched up a megaphone. Placing it to his lips, he shouted:
“Ahoy! what craft is that?”
“The Electric Monarch of Nestorville, Mass.,” rejoined Jack, in true air-sailor fashion. “What craft is that?”