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"Twelve thousand dollars!" almost screamed old Luther Barr, "why you mean to ruin me." "What, you grudge twelve thousand dollars when there are millions, perhaps, at stake?" demanded Malvoise's calm tones. "No, no," old Barr corrected himself, "it's not that, but twelve thousand dollars is a lot of money.
They could now hear Malvoise's voice, directing the crew to strengthen this stay or lend a hand on that rudder brace. The ship was evidently passing through a crisis. It was hard for the boys to remain cooped up in their pen, but deliverance was near at hand. The door was suddenly flung open, and Malvoise himself stood framed in the square of light from the illuminated saloon behind him.
He heard the trampling of feet as the crew ran to and fro, and the shouting of orders in Malvoise's voice. The cabin port was closed and locked on the outside, although the cabin seemed perfectly ventilated by some other aperture; so it was impossible for Frank to distinguish what was said, but the tones of the Frenchman's voice conveyed intense excitement.
Suddenly, as a sharper puff than usual came, the Buzzard gave a lurch that Malvoise in vain tried to counteract by using his ailerons. These balancing devices are almost automatic in their control, and usually can be depended on to control an airship to keep an even keel, but this time not even Malvoise's skill could save the Buzzard. Down she sped, straight as a plummet, for fully fifty feet.
As for Constantio and a red-headed bushy-whiskered man, whom the boys learned later on was Sam Wells, one of the three men who helped in working the dirigible, they seemed completely unnerved by the sight they had witnessed. Malvoise's sharp voice recalled them to themselves. "Come now, collect your wits," he shouted; "poor Sanborn's gone, and we can't save him.
"When he is mad he is like one volcano," he declared volubly. Breakfast over, they skimmed along through the air till noon, when Frank took an observation with the ill-fated Malvoise's instruments. "We ought to be falling in soon with one of the Bahama group of islands," he announced.
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