"They must be trying some violent stunts," replied the young inventor, "or else we have run into a storm."
"I think the latter is the case," observed Lieutenant Marbury.
And, as the motion of the craft kept up, though less violently, this was accepted as the explanation. Through the night the Mars flew, but whither the captives knew not.
The first gray streaks of dawn finally shone through the only window of their prison. Sore, lame and stiff, wearied in body and disturbed in mind, the captives awoke. Tom's first move was toward the window. It was high up, but, by standing on a box, he could look through it. He uttered an exclamation.
"What is it?" asked Ned, swaying to and fro from the violent motion of the aerial warship.
"We are away out over the sea," spoke Tom, "and in the midst of a bad storm."
CHAPTER XXIV
THE LIGHTNING BOLT
Tom turned away from the window, to find his companions regarding him anxiously.