"But we need not cross them to reach Aleukan?" suggested Jack, speaking with some difficulty himself. There was a pain in the region of his lungs and he saw that Professor Henderson was very pale.
"That is a fact," panted the professor. "Descend, Jack. Make it two hundred feet. Be careful!"
For as the youth depressed the planes again the ground beneath seemed to fairly leap up to meet them.
"What do you know about that?" gasped the young aviator. "She—she doesn't work at all like she used to."
"Less attraction," declared the scientist.
"What do you mean, sir?" cried Jack. "Has the law of gravitation lost its power over us—and over the flying machine?"
"There is a difference—a great difference," proclaimed Professor
Henderson. "The power of attraction is lessened mightily."
"What does it mean? What can it mean?" murmured the disturbed youth.
"I suspect—I fear—"
What the professor would have said was not spoken then. Mark interrupted by shouting: