The Motor Rangers' Cloud Cruiser. Goldfrap John Henry
Mr. Tubbs – even the professor – concurred.
“And now,” said the man of science suddenly, “I don’t wish to alarm you, young men, but it is possible that there may be some reflex action exerted by this storm. In other words, there may be a mild recurrence of it. In my opinion we had better get as far away from this spot as possible.”
The others agreed with him. Ding-dong dived below to his engines. Nat took his station on the bridge.
“By the way, what about the boat?” asked Nat suddenly, referring to the craft from which they had rescued the scientist and his assistant.
“Unless you want it, we will let it drift,” said the professor. “It is too large for you to hoist conveniently, and it would impede your speed if you towed it.”
And so it was arranged to leave the boat behind, but Mr. Tubbs took a series of pictures of it as the Nomad sped away. The professor also waved the craft, in which they had weathered so much, a farewell. But, when doing so, in some manner the peak of his borrowed cap slipped from between his fingers. The headpiece went whirling overboard, and fell into the sea with a splash.
“God bless my soul, I’ve lost my hat!” he exclaimed for the second time that day, as the catastrophe happened.
“He’ll use up every hat on board. You see if he don’t,” confided Mr. Tubbs to Nat, while the professor gazed fondly at the spot where the cap had vanished.
CHAPTER VI.
“WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A VOYAGE IN THE AIR?”
After breakfast the next morning, the professor appeared on the bridge with Nat when the latter took his daily observation, a practice which was, of course, in addition to the regular “shooting the sun,” which took place at noon. The man of science had already made a deep impression on the lad. He was eccentric to a degree; but in common with many men of ability, this was a characteristic that in no way appeared to affect his scientific ability. The evening before he had entertained all hands with fascinating tales of his experiences in various parts of the world. Already everybody felt the same respect for Professor Grigg as was manifest in the manner of the irrepressible Tubbs.
Nat operated his instruments and then noted the result on a pad, to be entered later in the log book. The professor peered over his shoulder as he jotted down his figures.
“Pardon me,” he observed, “but you are a hundredth part of a degree out of the way on that last observation.”
For an instant Nat felt nettled. He colored up and faced round on the scientist. But Professor Grigg’s bland look disarmed him.
“Is that so, professor?” he asked. “How is that?”
“Let me test your instruments,” was the reply. “It is impossible to tell without that.”
Nat handed the various instruments over to his learned companion. The professor scrutinized them narrowly.
“I think,” he said finally, “that the magnetic influences of yesterday’s storm have deflected all of them.”
“Of course,” agreed Nat. “How stupid of me not to have thought of that! Is it possible to adjust them?”
“I will try to do so,” said Professor Grigg, and, placing a sextant to his eye, he began twisting and adjusting a small set screw.
Several times he lowered the instrument, and, taking out a fountain pen and a loose-leaf notebook, wrote down his readings. Nat watched him with some fascination. There is always a pleasure to a clever lad in watching a man doing something which he is perfectly competent to do. The professor, the instant he laid his hands on the instruments, impressed Nat as possessing the latter quality to a degree.
“Just as I thought,” said the professor finally, “your instruments have been deflected. But we will set them right at noon. A few simple adjustments, that is all. But I find that you have kept them in wonderful shape, considering your rough and trying experiences.”
“We have always tried to,” said Nat. “We knew how much depended on them.”
“And yet,” mused the professor, with his eyes fixed intently on Nat, as the lad stood at the wheel, “without the ability to understand them, those instruments would be worthless. Conradini, the Italian explorer, learned that.”
“At the expense of his life,” put in Nat. “The lesson was lost.”
“Ah, you have heard of Conradini?” asked the professor, in seeming surprise.
“I have read of him in that pamphlet on aerial exploration issued by the Italian Royal Society,” was the reply.
The professor readjusted his glasses. In his astonishment, he almost lost his latest piece of headgear – loaned him by Ding-dong. It was a not too reputable-looking Scotch tam o’shanter.
“You have a knowledge that surprises me in one so young,” he declared at last. “You take an interest in exploration, then?”
“That was the object of the Motor Rangers, when first we founded them,” declared Nat. “I think,” he added, with a twinkle in his eye, “that we’ve had our fair share of adventure.”
“From what you have told me of your enterprises, I agree with you,” assented the professor warmly. “But you have not told me yet of the future.”
“How do you mean?” asked Nat.
“I mean, what plans have you ahead of you? What do you intend to do next?”
The question came bluntly. Nat answered it with equal frankness.
“I really don’t know,” he said. “As you are aware, though, our course is now laid for Santa Barbara.”
“So you said last night, when you kindly offered us a passage home,” said the professor.
He paused for an instant, and Nat swung the Nomad’s bow around a trifle more to the south.
“Have you no plans for further adventurous cruises or auto trips?” pursued the man of science.
Nat laughed.
“I guess we’ve had our fill of adventure for a time,” he said; “that cleft between the volcanic islands nearly proved our Waterloo.”
“Nonsense; such lads as you could not live without adventure,” admonished the professor, making a frantic grab at his hat, as a vagrant wind gave it a puff that set it rakishly sidewise above one ear. “Do you mean to say that you feel like settling down to humdrum life now, after all you have seen and endured?”
“I guess we all feel like taking a rest,” said Nat. “We have had a fairly strenuous time of it lately.”
“Granted. But it has put you into condition to weather further times of stress and trial. Ever since we had that talk last night about the Motor Rangers, and what they have accomplished, it has been in my mind to broach a proposition to you.”
“To us?” temporized Nat. “I don’t see where we could be of any use to Professor Thaddeus Grigg, the most noted scientist of investigation of this age.”
The professor raised a deprecatory hand.
“As if you had not been of the highest service to me and to my companion already,” he exclaimed. “Had it not been for you, we might have – oh, well, let us not talk about it. That coward of a captain – ”
He broke off abruptly. Nat waited for him to resume speaking.
“What I wanted to approach you about was this,” resumed the professor, after a minute. “From the moment I met you, you appeared to me to be self-reliant, enterprising boys, who mixed coolness and common sense with courage. Such being the case, you are just the combination I have been seeking for, to carry out a project which awaits me on my return to America. It is a scheme involving danger, excitement and rich rewards.”
He paused impressively. In spite of himself, Nat’s eyes began to dance, his pulse to beat a bit faster. Adventure was as the breath of life to the