There had come a sudden shock. It resembled a wrench, a shiver; as if some vital part of the giant mechanism had met with disaster.
“Something wrong!” cried Dave, springing to his feet.
At that moment a blood-curdling yell echoed through the airship.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FORLORN HOPE
Hiram and Brackett joined the young aviator in a rush for the passageway leading to the pilot room. It was from that direction that the cry had echoed.
A sharp, double danger signal rang out from the engine room. There were sounds of distant shouts. The yell was repeated. Some keen intuition drove Dave to the stateroom which had served as invalid ward for the man rescued from the raft.
“Hiram,” cried the young aviator, “Davidson is gone!”
“Why, it can’t be! Say—whew! suppose he’s gone wild, and is rambling all over the ship among that machinery!”
Snap—crack! Following upon the echoes of that second terrific cry, a disturbing thing had happened—every electric light in the Albatross went out!
To add to the confusion and terror of the moment, in the direction of the engine room there rang out a thumping, crashing sound, as if some disjointed part of the machinery was beating things to pieces like a steel flail.