Chapter 7 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.