“Tom and Ned Bangs are back on the other side of the woods, with the aero-auto,” he explained.
“Ah, then it has proved a success?” eagerly interjected Mr. Chadwick.
“It is even better than we hoped it would be,” rejoined Jack enthusiastically.
“I wouldn’t be scared to trust myself to that aerial wind-jammer for a voyage to China,” stoutly declared Captain Andrews. “I reckon if Wellman had had a craft like that he’d have crossed the Atlantic easy as shooting.”
“I don’t know but what you’re right,” said Jack; “but the thing to discuss now is how to get out of here. Dad, do you know much about this place?”
“Nothing, except that there is a floor above this. We were confined there the first day of our captivity. But the sheet iron roof used for drying hemp made it so insufferably hot that we would have died if they hadn’t moved us down here,” was the reply.
“Then, so far as you know, there is no way of getting out but by the door we entered?”
“That’s the only way, I guess. We had better make good our escape while those rascally hangers-on about the settlement are off hunting for the fellows who rang their alarm bell.”
Professor Chadwick, to whom Jack had given a hasty outline of the events of the night, moved toward the door as he spoke. But he had not taken more than two steps toward the head of the stairs when he stopped abruptly.
“Hark!” he exclaimed, standing stock still in an attitude of close attention.