“A comet, eh? Well, that wouldn’t be such a bad name for the new Flying Road Racer,” mused Jack reflectively.
“Never heard of a comet that would swim,” retorted Tom.
“Well, we don’t know yet that the new Road Racer _will_ perform the stunts we expect her to.”
“In which case, we are in for a cold, cold bath.”
“Cheer up, Tom,” laughed Jack. “Get busy now and finish up the pontoons with that aluminum paint. If the trial is set for this evening, we haven’t any too much time.”
Both boys fell to work again with feverish energy. The work of many weeks, carried on sometimes in high hope, sometimes in deep despondency, was before them in complete form, except for the final touches. Only the important experiment remained. Would the re-modelled _Flying Road Racer_ do what the boys expected of her? If the answer to that question was in the affirmative, they knew that they had invented and carried to perfection the greatest craft of its kind hitherto known. The new craft would indeed merit her name of _Wondership_ if she did what the boys confidently expected of her.
And what was this _Wondership_ that had for weeks occupied every minute of the Boy Inventors’ time, exclusive of their studies in the Technical College that both attended in Boston? Readers of former volumes of this series will recall the _Flying Road Racer_, the air and land ship that had carried the boys and their friends faithfully so many miles, and in which they had encountered many stirring adventures. Well, the _Wondership_, as Jack in his enthusiasm had termed the craft, was nothing more nor less than the _Flying Road Racer_, altered almost beyond recognition.
The shed in which the changes had been carried out was located on a lonesome part of the seacoast not far from Nestorville, where the boys lived. But, remote as the spot was, it still was not far enough removed from human haunts to escape much speculation over what was going forward in the great, gaunt, unpainted shed among the sand-hills.
Inquisitive folks had watched wagons, laden with big crates and seemingly heavy boxes, making their way to the place at intervals; but so carefully had the shed been guarded and locked that nobody had as yet discovered the boys’ secret. Had anyone done so, it is certain that the two lads would have been besieged by curiosity seekers, for the craft on which they were working was the most ambitious thing that they had undertaken. The _Wondership_ was nothing more nor less than an invention capable of travel by land, air and water. On land it rolled along on wheels, above the earth it depended on a large, gas-filled bag for buoyancy, while on the water (and this was the feature still untested), the boys hoped to make it float like a boat by means of pontoons.