red way.

"Phwat howtil is this, Oi dunno?" he cried. "Have Oi been slapin', or
have Oi been in a thrance?"

"We came here in a flying-machine, you will remember."

"In a floying-machine? Oi thought Oi dramed it."

"It was no dream."

"Well, may Oi nivver live to see th' back av me neck!"

It took some time for the Irish boy to recover from his amazement.

"Where is thot floying-machine, Frankie?"

"It is just beyond this line of bushes, where we left it last night.
Professor Scudmore is tied up in the car, and I fancy he must be a bit
uncomfortable by this time. I did not mean to leave him that way so
long. It was rather heartless."

"Ye can't be aisy wid his koind, me b'y. There's no tellin' phwat
they'll do."

"That is true; but it is our duty to handle him as gently as possible.
He is a most unfortunate man. His air ship seems an assured success, and
yet he has lost his reason working over it."

The boys arose and passed round the bushes, Frank being in advance. A
cry of wonder and amazement broke from Merriwell's lips.

"The air ship!" he gasped.

"Phwat's th' matter?" asked Barney, quickly.

"It's gone!"

CHAPTER XVIII.

MISKEL.

"Gone!"

"That's what!"

"Where?"

"Sailed away."

It was true that the _Eagle_ was not where they had left it the night
before, and, looking all around, they could find no trace of it.

"Thot bates me!"

The knees of the Irish boy seemed to weaken beneath him, and he sank in
a limp heap on the ground.

"It beats the band!"

Frank was scarcely less broken up than his companion.

"How did it happen, Frankie? Th' ould thing didn't go off av itsilf, did
it?"

"Not much!"

"Phwat thin?"

"Professor Scudmore must have succeeded in releasing himself."

"Roight, lad; an' thin he skipped."

"As soon as he was free, he sailed away in the _Eagle_, and we are left
here in the heart of this mountainous region."

"Oi'm homesick! Oi wish Oi hadn't come!"

Frank laughed.

"This is not the worst scrape we have been in, by any means. We'll pull
out of this, with our usual good luck."

But a feeling of loneliness and desolation did settle heavily upon them,
for all that Frank made an effort to throw it off. The mountains lifted
their heads on every hand like mighty sentries that hemmed them in, and
they felt shut off from all the rest of the world.

When they fully realized that Professor Scudmore had released himself
and escaped in the air ship,