There was a blast as from a furnace seventy times heated, a choking and gasping for breath on the part of the occupants of the airship, a shriveling, as it seemed, of the naked flesh, and then, when it appeared that all of them must be engulfed in the great heat, the airship passed out of the zone of fire.
A rush of cool air followed, reviving them all, and then, when out of the swirls of smoke, Ned, looking back, cried:
"Good work, Tom! Good work!"
"Did we hit it?" cried the young inventor. "She's half gone!" declared Mr. Baxter. "Can you give her the rest of the load?"
"I'm going to try!" declared Tom.
"Bless my bank balance!" shouted Mr. Damon, "are we going through that awful furnace again?"
"It will not be so bad this time," observed Ned. "The fire is half out now. Tom's stuff did the trick!"
Indeed it was evident, as Tom sent the Lucifer around in a sharp turn, that the fire had been largely smothered by the gas that now lay over it like a wet blanket. But there was still some fire spouting up.
"Give her all we have!" yelled Tom, as, once more, he prepared to cross the zone of fire.
"Right," sang out Ned.