“I’m sorry I can’t agree with you,” Mark added respectfully.  “I am sure some strange being was on board this ship, and I believe it has now escaped.  Who or what it was I can’t say, but you’ll find I’m right, some day.”

“All right,” spoke Mr. Henderson with a laugh.  “I like to see any one brave enough to stick up for his opinion, but, at the same time, I can’t very well imagine any person or thing being concealed in that storeroom ever since we started.  How could it get in?”

Mark did not; answer, but there came to him the recollection of that night, previous to the sailing of the Flying Mermaid, when he had observed some strange shadow that seemed to glide aboard the craft.

“Now let’s forget all about such things,” the professor went on.  “We are in a strange country, and there are many things to see and do.  Let’s explore a little.  Then we must see what we can do with the ship.  We are dependent on it, and it will not do to allow it to remain in a damaged state.  We expect to travel many miles in the interior of the earth if it is possible, and we have only our craft to go in.”

“I reckon we’d all better assimilate into our interior progression some molecules and atoms of partly disentegrated matter in order to supply combustion for the carbonaceous elements and assist in the manufacture of red corpuscles,” said Washington, appearing in the door, with a broad grin on his good-natured face.

“Which, being interpreted,” the professor said, “means, I suppose, that we had better eat something to keep our digestive apparatus in good working order?”

“Yo’ done guessed it!” exclaimed the colored man, relapsing into his ordinary speech.  “I’se got a meal all ready.”

They agreed that they might not have another opportunity soon to partake of food, so they all gathered about the table, on which Washington had spread a good meal.

“Come on, let’s go outside and view this new and strange land at closer quarters,” the professor said, when they had satisfied their appetites.  “We can’t see much from inside the ship.”

Accordingly the heavy door in the side of the Mermaid was slid back, and, for the first time the travelers stepped out on the surface of the land in the interior of the earth.

At first it seemed no different than the ordinary land to which they were accustomed.  But they soon found it had many strange attributes.  The queer shifting and changing light, with the myriad of hues was one of them, but to this the adventurers had, by this time, become accustomed, though it was, none the less, a marvel to them.  It was odd enough to see the landscape blood red one instant, and a pale green the next, as it does when you look through differently colored glasses.

Then, too, they noticed that the grass and flowers grew much more abundantly than in the outer part of the world.  They saw clover six feet high, and blades of grass even taller.  In some places the growth of grass was so big that they were in danger of getting lost in it.