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When Professor Pludder, the President, and their companions on the aero-raft, saw the three men on the bluff motioning and shouting to them, they immediately sought the means of bringing their craft to land. This did not prove to be exceedingly difficult, for there was a convenient rock with deep water around it on which they could disembark.
Professor Pludder, suspecting that they might now be getting into a mountainous district, made every effort to keep the craft at a high elevation, and this, notwithstanding the depressing force of the rain, they succeeded in doing.
"What has happened?" he asked. Professor Pludder, with the new light that had come to him, was as ready with an explanation as Cosmo Versal himself had been under similar circumstances. "We must have run out of the nebula." "The nebula!" returned Mr. Samson in surprise. "Has there been a nebula, then?" "Without question," was the professor's answer.
It's only last night that it stopped." "Well, it's evident that we cannot stay here," said Professor Pludder. "We must go with these men toward the mountains. Let us take what's left of the compressed provisions out of the raft, and then we'll eat a good meal and be off."
"You'd better hurry up and secure a place in the ark," said Professor Pludder sarcastically. "I don't know but I shall, if I can get one," returned Professor Moses. "You may not think this is such a laughing matter a few months hence." "I'm surprised," pursued the president, "that a man of your scientific standing should stultify himself by taking seriously such balderdash as this.
"Then," said the President, putting his face between his hands and gazing sadly into the fire, "here is all that remains of the mightiest nation of the world, the richest, the most populous and we are to build up out of this remnant a new fatherland." "This is not the only remnant," said Professor Pludder. "One-quarter, at least, of the area of the United States is still above sea-level.
"All the same, I am going to save Pludder," said Cosmo Versal. Joseph Smith fairly jumped with astonishment. "You are going to save Pludder," he faltered. "But he is the worst of all." "Not from my present view-point. Pludder has a good brain; he can handle the tools; he is intellectually honest; he has done great things for science in the past.
Pludder sprang to his feet, and, slipping and plunging amid the downpour, managed to get back to the wreck and aid the President and the others to get upon their feet. "We're lodged on a mountain!" he yelled. "Stay inside, under the shelter of the roof!"
The President mused for a time, and gradually a frown came upon his brow. He glanced at Professor Pludder with a singular look. Then his cheek reddened, and an angry expression came into his eyes. Suddenly he turned to the professor and said sternly: "You said you did not wish to discuss Cosmo Versal. I should not think you would! Who predicted this deluge? Did you?"
They had their electric lamps inside, and their searchlights, but it was impossible to tell where they were. Pludder turned the searchlight downward, but he could not make out the features of the ground beneath them. It is likely that they were driven at least as far as Chesapeake Bay, and they may have passed directly over Washington.
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