We've got to
rise above the storm if possible. Go to the gas machine, Ned, and turn
it on full strength. I'll speed up the motor, and we may be able to cut
up that way. But get the gas on as soon as you can. The bag is only
about half full. Force in all you can!

"Mr. Damon, can you take the wheel? It doesn't make any difference
which way we go as long as you keep her before the wind, and yank back
the elevating rudder as far as she'll go! We must head up."

"All right, Tom," answered the eccentric man, as he fairly jumped to
take the place of the young inventor at the helm.

"Can I do anything?" asked the Russian, as Tom raced for the engine
room, to speed the motor up to the last notch.

"I guess not. Everything is covered, unless you want to help Mr. Damon.
In this blow it will be hard to work the rudder levers."

"All right," replied Ivan Petrofsky, and then there came another
sickening roll of the airship, that threatened to turn her completely
over.

"Lively!" yelled Tom, clinging to various supports as he made his way
to the engine room. "Lively, all hands, or we'll be awash in another
minute!"

And indeed it seemed that this might be so, for with the wind forcing
her down, and the hungry waves leaping up, as if to clutch her to
themselves, the Falcon was having anything but an easy time of it.

It was the work of but an instant however, when Tom reached the engine
room, to jerk the accelerator lever toward him, and the motor responded
at once. With a low, humming whine the wheels and gears redoubled their
speed, and the great propellers beat the air with fiercer strokes.

At the same time Tom heard the hiss of the gas as it rushed into the
envelope from the generating machine, as Ned opened the release valve.

"Now we ought to go up," the young inventor murmured, as he anxiously
watched the barograph, and noted the position of the swinging pendulum
which told of the roll and dip of the air craft.

For a moment she hung in the balance, neither the increased speed of
the propellers, nor the force of the gas having any seeming effect. Mr.
Damon and the Russian, clinging to the rudder levers, to avoid being
dashed against the sides of the pilot house, held them as far back as
they could, to gain the full power of the elevation planes. But even
this seemed to do no good.

The power of the gale was such, that, even with the motor and gas
machine working to their limit, the Falcon only held her own. She s