Page:Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle.djvu/214

204 the matter with it was too intricate or complicated for Ned to solve.

"I can't see what ails it," he called to his chum. "You better have a peep."

"All right, I'll look if you'll work the handle."

The passengers on the airship, which now rested in a little clearing in the dense jungle, gathered at the engine room door, looking at Tom and Ned as they worked over the machine.

"Bless my pulley wheel!" exclaimed Mr. Dsr mon, "I hope nothing has gone wrong."

"Well something has!" declared the young inventor in a muffled voice, for he was down on his hands and knees peering under the gas apparatus. "One of the compression cylinders has cracked," he added dubiously. "It must have snapped when we landed this last time. I came down too heavily."

"What does that mean?" asked Mr. Durban, who did not know much about machinery.

"It means that I've got to put a new cylinder in," went on Tom. "It's quite a job, too, but we can't make gas without it!"

"Well, can't you do it just as well up in the air as down here?" asked Mr. Durban. "Make an ascension, Tom, and do the repairs up above, where we've got good air, and where"

He paused suddenly, and seemed to be listening.