were eager to be astir. Their blood was throbbing hotly in
their veins, and they felt capable of any deed of daring.

They looked to their weapons, making sure everything was ready for
business, and then they followed Old Solitary from the cave.

The descent was slow and tedious, fraught with much peril, and long in
the accomplishment. To the eager boys, it seemed that they would never
get down.

The task was finally accomplished, and then they moved onward, with Old
Solitary in the lead.

They had not gone far when a gasp of astonishment came from Frank's
lips, and he clutched Barney, softly crying:

"Look up there! What do you make of that?"

Barney looked upward, as directed, and, high in the air, he saw a bright
light that was swiftly settling toward the earth.

"It's a shooting shtar, begobs!" exclaimed the Irish lad.

"Not much!" broke from Frank. "That is no star. It looks like a light,
with a reflector behind it."

"Well, who knows but thot's th' woay a shtar looks?"

"It is not a star," said Old Solitary; "but what it is I cannot say."

"I know!" cried Frank.

"What is it, then?"

"The _Eagle_."

"What is the _Eagle_?"

"An air ship."

Old Solitary gave a muttered exclamation of incredulity.

"Impossible!"

"It is not impossible," asserted Frank. "It was in the _Eagle_ that we
came here from Blake."

"Thot's roight," agreed Barney.

Then in a few words Frank told the man of their trip from Blake, how
Professor Scudmore had gone mad, and how they had captured the ship from
the professor, who afterward escaped and got away with the _Eagle_ in
the night.

The boy's apparent sincerity convinced Old Solitary that he spoke the
truth, and by the time Frank had finished, the air ship had settled
close to the earth. They could see its outlines through the darkness,
and could see a man in the car.

The _Eagle_ came down gently, and the man stepped out.

"It was somewhere amid these mountains that I left those poor boys," he
murmured. "There is not one chance in ten thousand that I shall ever
find them again."

"You have stumbled on that one chance," said Frank, speaking distinctly,
and advancing fearlessly toward the man.

"Eh!"

Professor Scudmore seemed on the point of leaping into the air ship and
taking to flight, but he suddenly changed his mind.

"Can't get away quick enough to escape," he said. "Have let off enough
gas so the ballast brought her down, and I could not throw out