Part 15 (1/2)

”I wonder what or who that was,” reasoned Mark. ”There is some mystery in this. Can the professor have concealed some one on this s.h.i.+p whose presence he does not want to admit? It certainly looks so.”

Not wanting to awaken the s.h.i.+p's crew, and remembering what Mr.

Henderson had said about any one entering the storeroom, Mark went back to bed, to fall into an uneasy slumber.

”Breakfast!” called Was.h.i.+ngton breaking in on a fine dream Jack was having about being captain of a company of automobile soldiers. ”Last call for breakfast!”

”h.e.l.lo! Is it morning?” asked Jack.

”Not so's you could notice it,” Was.h.i.+ngton went on. ”It's as dark as a stack of black cats and another one throwed in. But breakfast is ready jest the same.”

The boys were soon at the table, and learned that nothing of importance had occurred during the night. The Mermaid had been kept going slowly down, and about seven o'clock registered more than fifty miles below the earth's surface.

Still there was no change in the outward surroundings. It remained as black as the interior of Egypt when that country was at its darkest.

The powerful electrics could not pierce the gloom. The s.h.i.+p was working well, and the travelers were very comfortable.

Down, down, down, went the Mermaid. The temperature, which had risen to about ninety went back to sixty-nine, and there seemed to be no more danger from the inner fires.

They were now a hundred miles under the surface. But still the professor kept the Mermaid sinking. Every now and again he would take an observation, but only found the impenetrable darkness surrounded them.

”We must arrive somewhere, soon,” he muttered.

It was about six o'clock that night that the alarm bell set up a sudden ringing. The professor who was making some calculations on a piece of paper jumped to his feet, and so did a number of the others.

”We are nearing the bottom!” he cried. ”The bell has given us warning!”

CHAPTER XV

IN THE STRANGE DRAUGHT

THE boys ran to attend to the engines and apparatus to which they had been a.s.signed in view of this emergency. The professor, Was.h.i.+ngton, Bill, Tom and Andy, who had kept to themselves since the descent, came running out of the small cabin where they usually sat, and wanted to know what it was all about.

”We may hit something, in spite of all precautions,” Mr. Henderson remarked. ”Slow down the s.h.i.+p.”

The Mermaid was, accordingly checked in her downward flight, by a liberal use of the gas and the negative gravity machine.

The bell continued to ring, and the dials pointed to the mark that indicated the s.h.i.+p was more than one hundred and fifty miles down.

Mark, who had run to the engine room to check the descent, came back.

”Why didn't you slow her down?” asked the professor.

”I did,” replied the boy. ”The negative gravity and the gas machines are working at full speed.”

”Then why are we still descending?” asked the scientist. ”For a while our speed was checked, but now we are falling faster than before.”

”I attended to the apparatus,” Mark insisted.

Just then, from without the s.h.i.+p, came a terrible roaring sound, as though there was a great cyclone in progress. At the same time, those aboard the craft could feel themselves being pulled downward with terrific force.