opefully.

"Hardly," replied Captain Warner. "The United States possesses no craft
able to cope with this one in aerial warfare, and they are hardly
engaging in part of the European war yet. I think they are just trying
Tom's new guns."

Later our friends learned that such was the case.

The storm had either passed, or the Mars had run out of the path of it,
for, after the first few hours of pitching and tossing, the atmosphere
seemed reduced to a state of calm.

All the while they were secretly working to gain their freedom so they
might attack and overpower their enemies, they took occasional
observations from the small window. But they could learn nothing of
their whereabouts. They could only view the heaving ocean, far below
them, or see a mass of cloud-mist, which hid the earth, if so be that
the Mars was sailing over land.

"But how much longer can they keep it up?" asked Ned.

"Well, we have fuel and supplies aboard for nearly two weeks," Tom
answered.

"And by the end of that time we may all be dead," spoke the young bank
clerk despondently.

"No, we'll be out of here before then!" declared Lieutenant Marbury.

Indeed the hole was now almost large enough to enable them to crawl out
one at a time. They could not, of course, see how it looked from the
outside, but Tom had selected a place for its cutting so that the
sawdust and the mark of the panel that was being removed, would not
ordinarily be noticeable.

Their set night as the time for making the attempt--late at night, when
it was hoped that most of their captors would be asleep.

Finally the last cut was made, and a piece of wood hung over the
opening only by a shred, all ready to knock out.

"We'll do it at midnight," announced Tom.

Anxious, indeed, were those last hours of waiting. The time had almost
arrived for the attempt, when Tom, who had been nervously pacing to and
fro, remarked:

"We must be running into another storm. Feel how she heaves and rolls!"

Indeed the Mars was most unsteady.

"It sure is a storm!" cried Ned, "and a heavy one, too," for there came
a burst of thunder, that seemed like a report of Tom's giant cannon.

In another instant they were in the midst of a violent thunderstorm,
the airship pitching and tossing in a manner to almost throw them from
their feet.

As Tom reached up to switch on the electric light again, there came a
flash of lightning that well nigh blinded them. And so close after it
as to see