"This is only a start. We haven't used half our speed, and when we
get closer to the finish we can go a hundred and twenty-five miles
an hour if we have to--for a spurt, at any rate. No, I'm not giving
up."
"Neither am I," declared Dick, for he was not of the quitting sort.
Floating on the surface of Lake Michigan was like being on the
ocean, for they were out of sight of land, and there were no water
craft in view. The Abaris seemed to have the lake to herself,
though doubtless beyond the wall of the slight haze that hemmed her
in there were other vessels.
"Well, now to see what the trouble is," suggested Dick. "It must
be somewhere in the connecting joints of the levers, for the rudder
itself seems to be all right."
"But we'd better begin out there and make sure," suggested Mr.
Vardon. He pointed to the rudder, which projected some distance back
of the stern of the aircraft.
"How you going to get at it to inspect it?" asked Paul. "It isn't
as if we were on solid ground."
"And no one has long enough a reach to stretch to it from the deck,"
added Innis.
"You forget our collapsible lifeboat," Dick answered. One of those
useful craft was aboard the airship. It could be inflated with air,
and would sustain a considerable weight.
"I'll go out in that and see what's the trouble," Dick went on.
"It will tell us where we've got to begin."
"Perhaps we had better wait until morning," suggested Lieutenant
McBride.
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