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Updated: May 5, 2025
Their wet bedding and garments were soon dried and then the work of unpacking the sections of the Wondership was begun, for they were anxious to have the job completed and be on their way as soon as possible. Old McGee had told the truth when he said they would not be molested. An old Indian jogging by on a spavined horse and wrapped in a dirty blanket was the only person they saw all day.
The boys looked over the side. As they did so they uttered simultaneous gasps of consternation. The trailing grapnel, for Tom had forgotten to tie it back in place in the excitement, had caught the farmer by the waistband of his overalls and he was being carried skyward by the Wondership, dangling at the end of the anchor rope like some sprawling spider.
On land two big aërial propellers, geared to the engine, drove the Wondership swiftly along on four solid-tired wheels. When it was desired to take to the air the balloon bag, which was neatly folded on a framework supported by upright stanchions above the body of the car, was inflated by turning on a valve connecting with the gas tanks in the base of the body.
At top speed the auto struck the wayfarer, and before the boys' horrified eyes he was thrown high in the air, to fall, a confused sprawl of legs and arms, at the wayside. The boys ran forward across the few yards of meadow that intervened between the Wondership and the roadway. The autoists did not, apparently, notice them. They had stopped the car and were looking back.
They dropped in a field by the roadside, landing on the running wheels as lightly as a feather, thanks to the shock absorbers, similar to those of an automobile, with which the Wondership was equipped. "Now for the repair kit," said Jack, rummaging a locker. He soon had balloon silk, big shears, a quick-drying gum solution and a pot of gasproof varnish, ready for the job of patching up the hole.
Jack and Zeb went back to their task of putting the finishing touches on the Wondership, stocking her lockers with provisions for the Rattlesnake Island trip, while old man McGee, accompanied by the two boys, rode out of the camp. The professor was away collecting specimens somewhere and had not been seen since breakfast time.
Jack thought, too, that Ezra Perkins was the kind of man who liked to shine out among his neighbors, and what better opportunity could he have to satisfy this ambition than by blossoming forth as a man who, single handed, had captured a great aircraft? The boys looked down. The farmer was pacing grimly up and down like a sentry, his eyes never leaving the Wondership.
It was not till that moment that the farmer observed him. He leveled his shotgun at the balloon of the Wondership. "Don't yew dare ter move er I'll bust a hole right plumb through that ther airbag of yourn," he said. "Can't you be reasonable?" asked Jack. "Here's my name." He wrote his name and address on a slip of paper and threw it down. But the irate farmer paid no attention to the missive.
The next day Masterson and his companions, very much subdued, boarded the Wondership as passengers. All of them were still suffering painfully from the effects of the burns, their only reward from their ill-advised raid on the black barren. "Boys," asked Masterson, "can't you take our camping equipment along? It's a shame to have it rot here." "All right," said Jack.
Besides, he had the bit of canvas to show, the scrap that he had taken from the thornbush. After dinner Tom and Dick resumed their work of unloading necessaries from the Wondership. Jack and the two elder members of the party discussed plans. "You haven't found any trace of mineral-bearing rock yet, have you, professor?" asked Jack. The professor shook his head.
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