“Just missed the freighter,” gasped Robert. “We didn’t have a chance to see her until we had checked our drop and drifted off astern. Phew!”
“Never mind,” soothed the professor. “Can’t be helped now. Anyway, they will probably conclude that we were merely playing with them.”
His mood would not be denied. He seemed more like a boy at that moment than a dignified professor of fifty-seven.
“You folks seem to have had a dull trip,” remarked Henry, ironically. “Where were you last night?”
“Must we tell you? Had you accepted our invitation, you’d know,” retorted the professor. “Man, don’t ask us so many questions. We’re as hungry as wolves.”
They sat down before the appetizing, crisply fried bacon, and eggs that Jarvis, the peerless, smiling butler had brought in.
“It was this way, Henry,” resumed the professor, after he had partly satisfied the inner man: “Robert and I didn’t expect to be gone long, and unfortunately failed to take any provisions along. Had it not been for a cake of chocolate in Robert’s pocket, which we shared, we should have had nothing to eat since we left.”
“But you haven’t told me where you were last night,” persisted Henry.
“Tell him, Robert.”
“Well, after we ran out of power because the storage batteries had not been fully charged, and narrowly missed sinking that freighter, we had just enough current left to suspend the Sphere in midair. Then we started the engines driving the dynamos, and soon had sufficient power to start back. But boy! It was a close shave.” Robert paused reminiscently.