"I just saw it peeking over the eastern cliffs while Andy was patching me up." He carried one arm in a sling, and his other hand was bandaged.
"Then I must take an observation," ejaculated the professor, and seizing some instruments he had arranged on the table he went out to where the powerful telescope was adjusted.
"He's forgotten all about gittin' out of this hole in the ice," said Andy. "I, for one, think we'd ought to take axes and begin to cut steps up the wall. How else will we escape from the place?"
"The poor old Snowbird cannot be repaired in a hurry, that is sure," muttered Mark.
"And this is no place to remain for fun," agreed Jack. "Suppose the walls of the crack should shut together—where would we be?"
"Just about here, for fair!" said Phineas Roebach, grimly, while
Washington uttered a most mournful wail.
"Gollyation! Is we gotter be squeeged ter deaf in disher awful cavernarious hole? Dis is suah a time ob trouble an' tribbilation."
They heard an exclamation from the professor and Jack led the way to the open deck of the crippled flying machine. By chance the Snowbird in landing had remained upright, her decks on a level. They found the professor bending over some further calculations on a great sheet of paper. Here, two hundred feet below the surface of the ice, the heavenly bodies all looked brighter and more distinct than they had while the aeroplane was in flight above the ground.
The strange new planet had not yet gone out of sight. From the east the old moon was soaring steadily. There could be no mistaking the two orbs, now that both were visible in the sky at once. The new planet or moon was much larger than the real moon.
"What do you suppose that great planet is?" queried Jack.