“Whoop!  It’s great!” cried Tom, throwing his hat in the air; and as he saw Dick coming toward them, he fairly pounced on the astonished reporter with the news.

“Flamjam flapcakes of Florida!” gasped Dick.

And so it was arranged.  A few days later our party boarded a train for the East.  Jack, Tom, Dick and Professor Jenks arrived at New York.

(They had left Zeb behind to attend to the work in the barren fields.)

The Wondership, as on the previous occasion, was quietly but quickly assembled, and made ready to take its homeward flight.  They had chosen a spot on Manhattan island still very meagerly developed, and so were not at all troubled by curious onlookers.  Jack, to whom his father had explained in detail the use of Z.2.X.—­or Coloradite, as they had decided to call it—­busied himself almost exclusively with the radio telephone apparatus.  When all was ready, he sent his father the following telegram: 

“Expect message, using Coloradite from New York.”

The next morning they ascended.  Round and round the Wondership circled, a golden speck against the blue sky.  In a quarter of an hour the great metropolis seemed nothing but a giant beehive, with millions of busy workers ever hurrying in hundreds of different directions.  The cars and automobiles were only like giant bees, moving somewhat swifter than those on what looked like fine threads of cotton or wool.

“What a small place New York is after all,” observed the professor.

“It is larger than Boston,” said Tom slyly,

“Perhaps,” admitted the man of science haughtily, “but not as learned or stately—­no city can take its culture away from Boston.”

Jack smiled, and in order to change the conversation, asked Tom, “How high now?”

“About fifteen hundred feet,” guessed Tom.

“Wrong,” said Jack, glancing at the barograph on the dashboard in front of him.  “We have reached two thousand eight hundred feet.”

“I must be asleep,” said Tom, frowning.  “Shall I connect the alternator?”

Jack nodded and prepared to send greetings to his father, hundreds of miles away.  They were out in the country now.  As the Wondership glided through the air, the professor, in viewing the villages, farms, green pastures, and stretches of woodland, regretfully shook his head as the thought occurred to him that he was missing many a precious stone.  He looked over to Jack with the idea of suggesting a descent, but he saw the boy inventor patiently adjusting the tuning knob, and waited, realizing how anxious Jack was to test the Coloradite.

The little professor, extremely interested, saw Jack place his lips to the receiver, and for the second time in his life, send out the distinct call: 

“Hullo, High Towers!”

Many minutes passed without an answer.  Jack’s face became grave.  Was part of the machinery not properly adjusted?  He went over the instrument very carefully.  In so far as he could see, everything was just as it should be.  Then a thought came that made him dizzy—­was it possible that the Coloradite was not suited for the work, that Mr. Chadwick had been misinformed?