The next moment he reported:
"It's fairly calm. Just a little swell on."
"Then we'd better get ready to lower the hydroplanes," went on Dick,
with a look at the aviator.
"That's the best thing to do," decided Mr. Vardon. "We'll see how
they'll work in big water."
The hydroplanes, which were attached to the airship near the points
where the starting wheels were made fast, could be lowered into
place by means of levers in the cabin. The hydroplanes were really
water-tight hollow boxes, large and buoyant enough to sustain the
airship on the surface of the water. They could be lowered to a
point where they were beneath the bicycle wheels, and were fitted
with toggle-jointed springs to take up the shock.
Lieutenant McBride took out his watch, and with pad and pencil
prepared to note the exact moment when the airship should reach the
surface of the lake.
"I shall have to take official notice of this," he said. "It
constitutes your first landing, though perhaps it would be more
correct to call it a watering. As soon as you are afloat, your
elapsed time will begin, and it will count until you are in the air
again. You will probably be some time making repairs."
"No longer than we can help," said Dick. "I don't want Uncle Ezra,
or anybody else, to get ahead of me."
Down and down sank the Abaris, on her first descent from the
cloud-land since her auspicious start. But, as Dick admitted, it
might be worse. The accident itself was a comparatively slight one.
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