"Dat's what I done said," was the answer, with a cheerful grin, "an' I might also remark dat dinner am serbed in de dinin' car."
"Hurrah!" cried Jack. "That's the best news I've heard in a week. No more blasted beef for mine! Give me ham and eggs!"
"But what happened to you? Where have you been? We have searched all over for you, and were just giving you up for dead, and going back to the earth," said Professor Henderson. "We caught sight of you at the last minute."
"Oh, you mustn't go back until you go to the field of diamonds!" cried Jack, and then by turns he and Mark and Andy told of their terrible adventures while they were lost on the moon.
On their part Professors Roumann and Henderson stated how they had waited in vain for the return of the wanderers, and had then, by strenuous work, managed to make the necessary repairs without the missing tool. Then they set out to discover the lost ones, but succeeded only just in time, for it was now quite dusk.
"An' did yo' all really discober dem sparklers?" asked Washington, as he served what the boys thought was the finest dinner they had ever tasted.
"We sure did," replied Jack. "Here are a couple for that red necktie of yours," and he passed over two big diamonds.
It did not take long to move the projectile to the field of the sparkling gems, and by means of a powerful search-light enough were soon gathered up to satisfy even Washington White, who declared that he would be the best decorated colored man in Bayside when they got back. The two professors made what observations they could in the petrified city in the fast-gathering darkness, and then, having taken a petrified man into the projectile with them to deposit in a scientific museum in which Professor Roumann was interested, the Annihilator was sealed shut.
And it was only just in time, for with the suddenness of an eclipse intense darkness settled down, and the temperature, as indicated by a thermometer thrust outside, showed a drop of a hundred degrees.
"We never could have lived out there," said Jack.