As he turned to leave the motor room, he noted that the height gauge indicated less than a quarter of a mile.
“It’s pretty low,” mused the youth, “but I guess we won’t hit anything. To get higher I’ve got to increase the speed, and I don’t want to do that and strain the machinery. I guess this will do. In the morning----”
Jerry paused in the midst of his sentence. From somewhere outside there came a rushing, roaring sound, followed by a loud explosion.
“The gas bag!” was the first thought of the tall lad. “It’s burst!”
“What’s the matter?” he heard Ned and Bob crying from the cabin.
Jerry rushed out on deck, and, as he emerged a glare of light caught his eye. A fear of fire entered his mind, but, as he watched it, the glow seemed to die away. Not before, however, Jerry had noted that the gas bag, which was partly inflated, was intact. Nothing had happened to it.
“What was that?” demanded Ned, emerging from the main cabin, followed by Bob and the professor.
“Just what I’m trying to discover,” replied the widow’s son. “It sounded like----”
“There it goes again!” yelled Bob, as, with a whizz and a roar, a streak of fire passed by the airship, and burst into balls of vari-colored light just beyond the craft.
“Falling stars, perhaps,” agreed the professor.
Jerry looked down, over the edge of the rail. Below him there was a great illumination.
“Look!” he cried to his companions. “We’re over some city.”
“And they’re having a celebration,” added Ned.
“And bombarding us with rockets,” came from Bob. “Look out, here comes a sheaf of them,” and, as he spoke, from somewhere down below on the earth there shot upward a fiery volcano of pyrotechnics, that seemed to be aimed directly at the motor-ship.
“They _are_ shooting at us!” cried Jerry. “Quick! Out with the lights, or they’ll set us on fire! Douse every glim!”
He rushed for the electric switches, followed by his companions, while the _Comet_ forged slowly ahead through the rain of fire, the sparks from the rockets shooting all about her.
With a suddenness that was almost startling the incandescent lights on the _Comet_ went out. The airship shot forward through the darkness shrouded in gloom--no, not completely, for the great search light still glowed, and that offered a mark for the hissing rockets and aerial bombs.