They decided to cut down the
speed a little.
"Not that there's much danger of hitting anything," Dick explained,
"though possibly Uncle Ezra and Larson might come up behind and
crash into us. But at slower speed the machinery is not so
strained, and there is less likelihood of an accident."
"That's right," agreed Mr. Vardon. "And an accident at night,
especially when most of us are asleep, is not so easily handled as
when it occurs in daylight. So slow her down, Dick."
The motor was set to take them along at thirty miles an hour, and
they descended until they were fifteen hundred feet above the earth,
so in case of the Abaris becoming crippled, she would not have to
spend much time in making a landing.
Everything was well looked to, and then, with Dick and Mr. Vardon
taking the first watch, the others turned in. And they were so
tired from the rather nervous excitement of the day of the start,
that they were soon asleep. Dick and the aviator took turns at the
wheel, and attended to the necessary adjustments of the various
machines.
It might seem strange for anyone to sleep aboard a moving airship,
but, the truth of the matter was, that our friends were realty worn
out with nervous exhaustion. They had tired themselves out, not
only physically, but mentally, and sleep was really forced on them.
Otherwise they might not have slumbered at all.
It was shortly past midnight when Dick, who, in spite of his
attempts to keep awake, had partly dozed off, was suddenly aroused
by a howl from Grit.
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