DROPPED FROM THE SKY
A thick mantle of fog masked the heavens; but beneath this the
wind--traveling at great velocity--drove the ragged clouds like
frightened sheep across the pastures of the firmament.
The moon and stars gave so little light that the earth seemed but a
vague and shadowy mass--nothing more. The wind shrieked in many voices,
as though a troop of goblins raced through the air, or rode the
strangely formed and hurrying clouds.
Driven on with the tumbling banks of vapor, as vaguely outlined in the
gloom as the clouds themselves, was the great flying machine, which
the wind buffeted and harried about as though against it Old Boreas
had some special spite.
Jack was in the operator's seat; but there was little to do but hang
on to the steering wheel. The wind blew them as it listed.
"I don't well see how anybody can sleep in this horrid storm,"
complained Mark Sampson. "And the machine rocks so--ugh! I'm as sick
as though we were at sea." "And we are pretty completely 'at sea,'"
chuckled the more volatile Jack. "I hope the professor knows where we
are. _I_ don't!"
"And I don't see how he can tell," grumbled his chum.
"Pluck up your spirits, old man!" returned the older lad, but Mark
interrupted him, still crossly:
"I hope I am as courageous as the next. We've done some funny stunts
together, Jack Darrow--you and I and the old professor. But this caps
them all, I declare. It's a mystery to me how Mr. Henderson and Andy
Sudds can remain asleep."
"Well, they are both tired out, I reckon. They had a long watch--and
_we_ slept, you know."
"That was a long time ago," grunted Mark,
"It's pretty tough, I admit," said Jack, when Washington White broke
in with:
"Hi, yi! Whuffo' you boys be sech cowards? Is _I_ skeert? Huh!"
"You bet you're scared," returned Jack, emphatically. "When we got
caught in that flaw yesterday afternoon he wanted to jump out; didn't
he, Mark?"
"Wash certainly tried to climb out," rejoined Mark.
"Well, den! dat showed I warn't no coward," crowed the black man,
though in a very shaky voice. "If I'd been scart', would I really have
wanted ter jump? It was a might long way to de groun' right den, I
guess."
Suddenly the Shanghai crowed loudly.
"Tell yo' what!" cried the black man, scratching his head. "Dat rooster
done crow fo' company."
"Company!" gasped Mark. "What does he think he hears up here--angels'
wings? We're about as near being in the company of the celestial hosts
as we'll ever be and remain alive, I reckon."
"No, sah!" retorted Washington. "Dat Shanghai done know dat we is near
some oder fow-el----"
"Up here in the air, Wash?" cried Jack.
"Dunno whar dey is," said the darkey, doggedly. "Dar he crows ergin!
Dar is suttenly critters ob his kind nearby--yes--sah!"
It may have been the Shanghai's raucous tone that aroused Andy. The
old hunter suddenly appeared on the platform behind the operator's
seat, where the boys and Wash were clinging, and Andy brought his rifle
with him.
"Hullo!" he said. "Is the watch called?"
"I'm sorry if we awoke you, Andy," Jack said. "There is nothing for you
to do."
"Nothing to shoot at; eh?" said the old hunter. "I reckon I ain't of
much use in a flying machine, anyway. Sort of 'up in the air'; ain't
I?"
"That's where we all are," complained Mark. "And I, for one, wish we
were down again."
"Guess we're all with you in that wish, old man," agreed Jack.
As he spoke, the wind-blown figure of the professor hove into view
from the small, sheltered cabin. He glanced at the various indicators
and the compass in front of Jack.
"We are all in safety yet; are we, boys?" he queried.
"If you can call being driven helplessly before such a gale and about
a mile above the earth _safe_," retorted Mark.
"Surely not as high as that," exclaimed Professor Henderson. He examined
the instruments again, and said, quickly: "We are descending! How is
that, Jack?"
"Not with my knowledge, sir," returned the boy aviator. "I think we
have remained on the thousand-foot level since crossing the Rocky
Mountains."
"I believe you have been faithful, my boy," returned the professor,
quickly. "But the earth is certainly less than three hundred feet below
us--ah! see that? The indicator registers 250 feet. Now 240!" "We are
falling!" cried Mark.
"No!" said the professor. "The earth is rising. We are being blown
against the mountainside. We must be within a few hundred miles, at
least, of our destination. Those are the Endicott Mountains yonder,"
and he waved a hand at the darkness to the south of them.
"Hark!" cried Andy Sudds, suddenly.
There was a momentary lull in the wind. From below came the broken
crowing of a cock in answer to the Shanghai's challenge. Then a dog
barked.
"There's a farmhouse down there," said the hunter.
"What did I tell yo'?" cried Washington White. "Dat Buttsy knows his
business, all right!"
"We must descend," commanded the professor. "Deflect the planes, Jack.
Watch the indicator. Reduce the speed. Let us float down as easily as
possible."
But, wrestling as the flying machine was with the wind, she could not
descend easily. She scaled earthward with fearful velocity. The
irrepressible Jack yelled:
"Go-ing down! We're going to bump hard in a minute!"
The aged professor and Andy Sudds showed no perturbation. Jack and
Mark had been through so many wonderful experiences with the professor,
Andy, and the negro, that they were not likely to be panic-stricken. Yet
all realized that death was imminent.
The finger on the dial showed a hundred feet from earth, and still
they descended. Fifty feet!
"Hold hard!" commanded the professor. "We'll be down in a minute."
There seemed to be a break in the hurrying clouds. There was light in
the sky--the twilight of the Long Day, for they were far beyond the
Arctic Circle.
Looking down they could dimly see objects on the earth--trees, a house
of some kind--several houses, in fact.
And then suddenly there was added to their perils an unlooked-for
danger. Out of the murk which covered the earth below the flying machine
sprang a point of light and the explosion of a gun echoed in the
aviators' ears.
A rifle bullet tore right through to the inside and passed between the
professor and Andy Sudds. There were men with firearms below, and they
were firing point blank at the flying machine.