CHAPTER XX.

Through the air.

For the fraction of a second the faculties of both boys were paralyzed.  A tingling sensation was in their limbs.  Jack was the first to recover his wits.  He snatched his hands from his eyes and seized the wheel.  In a jiffy the Wondership’s earthward plunge was checked.  Once more she regained an even keel.

“Wh-what happened?” stuttered Tom anxiously.

“We were hit by lightning,” replied Jack.

“Goodness!  I thought we were goners, for a minute.”

“I confess that I did, too.  But I guess the ‘electric cage’ worked.  Everything seems to be shipshape.”

Jack was right.  Thanks to his ingenious invention, the lightning, which had struck the aircraft, had been diffused through the safety “cage” and safely convoyed to the earth by the ground chain made of light manganese bronze, which had been lowered when the storm broke.

“Just the same I don’t want to get hit again,” said Tom.  “I thought for a minute the world had come to an end.”

“My fingers are tingling yet,” said Jack, “and I can see stars, but I think if it hadn’t been for the cage we would have likely been blown to smithereens.”

By this time they were almost over the doctor’s house and extensive grounds.  Jack manipulated the Wondership against the storm, flying in a circle, and snapped on the powerful searchlight.  With the help of its rays he picked out a good landing place, and having set the pumps at work abstracting gas from the bag, they soon made a good landing.

Doctor Mays stood on his porch as they left the ship and ran through the downpour for the house.

“Gracious, boys!” he exclaimed, “but you certainly gave me a fright.  I thought when that bolt hit you that you were going to be annihilated.”

“How did it look from below?” asked Jack.

“As if you were enveloped in blue flame.  Then suddenly a ball of red fire slid from the ship to the ground——­”

“Down the conducting rope,” put in Jack.

“And exploded with a loud bang when it struck the ground,” continued the doctor.  “But all’s well that ends well, and now tell me what brings you here, for I know it must be urgent business or you’d never have ventured through such a storm.”

Jack hastily told the doctor of his father’s stroke.  The medical man looked grave.

“I’ll go with you just as soon as I can pack my bag,” he said.  “Your father had been overworking.  I warned him of what would happen if he did not rest up, some time ago, but he has, seemingly, disregarded my advice.”

In a few minutes the doctor, muffled up in a raincoat, was ready to start.  But he stipulated that the run to High Towers should be made by the road.

“I like excitement as well as anybody,” he said, “and I’ve been up in your Wondership before——­”