orner showed where it had started.

"That's the trouble--insulation burned off!" cried Mr. Vardon, as he
made a quick inspection. "I think I can fix it, Dick, if you can keep
her up long enough. Take long glides. We're up a good height, and
that will help solve."

Then began a curious battle against fate, and, not only a struggle
against adverse circumstances, but against gravitation. For, now that
there was no forward impulse in the airship, she could not overcome the
law that Sir Isaac Newton discovered, which law is as immutable as
death. Nothing can remain aloft unless it is either lighter than the
air itself, or unless it keeps in motion with enough force to overcome
the pull of the magnet earth, which draws all things to itself.

I have told you how it is possible for a body heavier than air to
remain above the earth, as long as it is in motion. It is this which
keeps cannon balls and airships up--motion. Though, of course,
airships, with their big spread of surface, need less force to keep
them from falling than do projectiles.

And when the motor of an airship stops it is only by volplaning down,
or descending in a series of slanting shifts, that accidents are
avoided.

This, then, is what Dick did. He would let the airship shoot downward
on a long slant, so as to gain as much as possible. Then, by throwing
up the head-rudder, he would cause his craft to take an upward turn,
thus delaying the inevitable descent.

All the while this was going on Mr. Vardon, aided by Lieutenant
McBride, was laboring hard to replace the burned-out wires. He worked
frantically, for he knew he had but a few minutes at the best. From
the height at which they were when the motor stopped it would take them
about ten minutes to reach the earth, holding back as Dick might. And
there was work which, in the ordinary course of events, would take
twice as long as this.

"I'm only going to make a shift at it," explained the aviator. "If I
can only get in temporary wires I can replace them later."

"That's right," agreed the army man.

"How you making it, Dick?" asked Larry, as he came to the door of the
pilot-house.

"Well, I've got five hundred feet left. If he can't get the motor
going before we go down that far--"

Dick did not finish, but they all knew what he meant.

"Another second and I'll have the last wire in!" cried Mr. Vardon. "Do
your best, Dick."

"I'm doing it. But she's dipping down fast."

"Oh,