"I only hope we don't get into it, as well as up to it,"

commented Jack.

"We all do," observed Mr. Henderson. "But now, boys, we are going to do our best to escape. Mr. Roumann will remain in the pilot house to steer the projectile, while you and I will attend to the Etherium, motor."

"Try and see if you can get any more speed out of it," advised the German. "Use the accelerator plates, as I instructed you.

Perhaps we can pa.s.s so quickly through the gaseous tail, or a portion of it, that we shall not be harmed."

"Even if it blazes?" asked Jack.

"Even if it blazes. The gas between the two sh.e.l.ls of our projectile will absorb an enormous quant.i.ty of heat. It is our only hope."

Their hearts filled with apprehension, the two boys accompanied Professor Henderson back to the engine-room. There the scientist changed the plates on the motor, and made some adjustments, as suggested by Mr. Roumann, so that more speed would develop.

Anxiously they watched the gages, to see if the motor did work any faster.

"It's increasing!" cried Jack, as he watched the needle swing, until it indicated a rate of one hundred and thirty miles a second. "We are going faster than we ever went before."

"And we need to," observed Mr. Henderson. "A comet is a terrible ma.s.s to escape from."

In spite of the increased speed of the projectile, it could not be noticed by those within it. For all they could tell they were stationary, but they were really flying through the ether at enormous velocity. For over an hour the motor was worked at the increased rate. Then, leaving the boys in charge for a few minutes, Mr. Henderson went to the pilot house to ask Mr. Roumann if there was any chance of escape. He met the German coming toward the engine-room.

"Well?" inquired the professor.

"No, not well--bad," was the gloomy answer.

"Why so?"

"I can't force the Annihilator to one side or the other. I have tried, time and again, to steer it away from the comet's head and into the less dense part of the tail, but, so far, without success. The rudder arrangement appears to be affected by the comet and will not work."

"What can we do?"

"Nothing, unless, perhaps, we can get a little more speed out of the motor. The rudder might work then."

They tried, but without success. Not a bit more speed could the Etherium machine be induced to give out. Indeed, Mr. Roumann admitted that it was working faster than he had ever expected it would.

"I'll go back and make one more attempt to steer out of the way,"

he said.

He was gone for perhaps ten minutes. In that time Mr. Henderson, aided by Jack and Mark, tried to adjust the motor differently, but unavailingly. Mr. Roumann came hurrying back from the pilot house.

"It's of no use!" he exclaimed. "We are heading right toward the point of the comet. We must prepare for the worst!"

There was silence for a moment. It was an awful fate to meet, and they realized it. Then Washington White, looking into the engine-room from his kitchen, exclaimed:

"Now, don't yo' all go t' worryin' 'bout dat ole comet. It can't hurt us, an' we'll knock it into smithereens!"

"You talk that way because you know nothing of comets," said Mr.

Roumann solemnly.

"I don't know nuffin' 'bout 'em?" demanded the colored man. "I knows too much ob 'em, dat's what I does. Didn't I lose mah ten dollars?"

He stopped suddenly. From without there came a terrible roaring sound, that grew louder and louder.

"The comet!" cried Mr. Roumann. "We are almost upon it. That roaring is caused by the flaming gases!"

There was nothing that could be done. There was no place to go--no place to run to--no place in which to hide. They could only stand there and wait for total annihilation, which they expected every moment.

The roaring grew louder. It was like the howling of a mighty mind. The projectile seemed to tremble.

Then there came a brilliant light, rivaling even that of the sun, in the rays of which they constantly were. The light streamed in through the plate-gla.s.s ports in the engine-room. It showed violet rays, purple, orange, green, yellow--all the colors of the rainbow.

"We'll be consumed in a moment!" murmured Mr. Roumann. "We are in the midst of the comet!"

Several seconds pa.s.sed. There was no increase in temperature.

After all, would the wonderful gas in the s.p.a.ce between the two sh.e.l.ls of the projectile absorb the terrific heat?

The light faded away. Only the glow of the sun remained. The Annihilator shot onward.

Mr. Roumann rushed to the pilot house. He uttered a cry.

"We have escaped the comet!" he called to the boys and Professor Henderson, who followed him. "We went right through a small section of the tail. And I was mistaken in thinking it was composed of flaming gases. It is only nebulous light. There is no harm in a comet, after all!"

"Dat's what I said all along," remarked Washington White, as he went back to his kitchen. "All a comet is good fer is t' bring bad luck. Look at mah ten dollars. I wish we'd batted dis one inter pieces!"

CHAPTER XX

THE MOTOR STOPS

They were hardly able to realize their escape. That is, all but Washington. He took it as a matter of course.

"How did it come about?" asked Jack.

"It's hard to say," replied Mr. Roumann. "I couldn't steer away from the comet, but it's probably just as well that I could not.

It seems that the ma.s.s of queer light attracted us to it, but to a certain section where we came to no harm. And we must have gone through it at an angle, or we would have been much longer within its influence."

"Can we see the comet?" asked Mark.

"There it is," replied the German. "Only it doesn't look as a comet does when you view it from the earth. We are too close to it."

They looked from the side window of the projectile. Far off appeared to be a great ma.s.s of clouds, except that instead of being white, the ma.s.s was colored with many hues, It was so vast in extent that they could see neither the beginning nor the ending of it.

"Our first comet," remarked Jack.

"And I hope our last," added Mark.