Page:Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.djvu/213

Rh "You don't mean that the red pygmies will come back; do you?" asked Ned.

"There's no telling," replied Mr. Durban with a shrug of his shoulders. "Only, as long as we've got what we're after, I'd start off as soon as possible."

"Yes, don't run any chances with those little red men," begged Andy Foger, who had given himself up for lost when he and his companion fell into their hands.

"Radder vould I be mit cannibals dan dose little imps!" spoke the German fervently.

"We'll start at once," declared Tom. "Are you all aboard, and is everything loaded into the airship?"

"Everything, I guess," answered Mr. Anderson.

Tom looked to the motor, saw that it was in working order, and shoved over the lever of the gas machine to begin the generating of the lifting vapor. To his surprise there was no corresponding hiss that told of the gas rushing into the bag.

"That's odd," he remarked. "Ned, see if anything is wrong with that machine. I'll pull the lever again."

The bank clerk stood beside the apparatus, while Tom worked the handle, but whatever was