“Suits me,” replied Mark. “There’s less danger than in the water, I think.”
Bill, Tom and Washington arranged to stand the night watch, and, when the professor had examined the engines and given orders about keeping the ship on her course through the air, he retired to his bunk. Jack and Mark soon followed.
It must have been about midnight when Mark was awakened by a movement that seemed to come from the storeroom next to where his sleeping place was located. At first he thought he had been dreaming, but, as he found he was wide awake, he knew it was no imagination that had affected him.
“I certainly heard something,” he said to himself. “It sounded just as it did the other night. I wonder if I ought to investigate.”
He thought over the matter carefully as he sat upright in his bunk in the darkness. True the noise might be a natural one, due to the vibration of the engine, or to some echo from the machinery. As Mark listened he heard it again.
This time he realized it was the slow movement of some heavy body. He felt a cold shiver run over him and his hair evinced an uncomfortable tendency to stand upright. But he conquered his feelings and resolved to keep cool and see if he could discover what had awakened him.
He got up and moved softly about the little room that contained his bunk. He could hear better now, and knew it was no echo or vibration that had come to his ears.
Once again he heard the strange sound. It was exactly the same as before; as if some big creature was pulling itself over the floor.
“Maybe it’s a snake; a water snake!” thought Mark. “It may have crawled aboard when we did not notice it.”
Then he remembered that the ship had not been open in any way that would enable a serpent to come on it, since it had been started on its ocean trip. Before that, he was sure no snake had entered the Flying Mermaid. Still it sounded more like a snake than anything else.