He gave a low whistle, half of alarm.
"Fifty miles an hour she"s blowing now," he said. "It came on suddenly, too, for a little while ago it was only ten."
"Is there any danger?" asked Mr. Nestor, for he was not very familiar with airship perils.
"Well, we"ve been in big blows before, and we generally came out all right," returned Tom. "Still, I don"t like this. Why she went up five points since I"ve been looking at it!" and he pointed to the needle of the gage, which now registered fifty-five miles an hour.
"Bless my appendix!" gasped Mr. Damon. "It"s a hurricane Tom!"
"Something like that," put in Ned, in a low voice.
With a suddenness that was startling, the wind increased in violence still more. Tom ran to the pilot house.
"What are you going to do?" Ned called.
"See if we can"t go down a bit," was Tom"s answer. "I don"t like this.
It may be calmer below. We"re up too high as it is."
He tried to throw over the lever controlling the deflecting rudder, which would send the Flyer down, but he could not move it.
"Give me a hand!" he called to Ned, but even the strength of the two lads was not sufficient to shift it.
"Call Koku!" gasped Tom. "If anybody can budge it the giant can!"
Meanwhile the airship was being carried onward in the grip of a mighty wind, so strong that its pressure on the surface of the deflecting rudder prevented it from being shifted.
CHAPTER XV
SNAPPING AN AVALANCHE
"Bless my thermometer!" gasped Mr. Damon. "This is terrible!" The airship was plunging and swaying about in the awful gale. "Can"t something be done, Tom?"
"What has happened?" cried Mr. Nestor. "We were on a level keel before.
What is it?"
"It"s the automatic balancing rudder!" answered Tom. "Something has happened to it. The wind may have broken it! Come on, Ned!" and he led the way to the engine room.
"What are you going to do? Don"t you want Koku to shift the deflecting rudder? Here he is," Ned added, as the giant came forward, in response to a signal bell that Tom"s chum had rung.
"It"s too late to try the deflecting rudder!" tried Tom. "I must see what is the matter with our balancer." As he spoke the ship gave a terrific plunge, and the occupants were thrown sideways. The next moment it was on a level keel again, scudding along with the gale, but there was no telling when the craft would again nearly capsize.
Tom looked at the mechanism controlling the equalizing and equilibrium rudder. It was out of order, and he guessed that the terrific wind was responsible for it.
"What can we do?" cried Ned, as the airship nearly rolled over. "Can"t we do anything, Tom?"
"Yes. I"m going to try. Keep calm now. We may come out all right. This is the worst blow we"ve been in since we were in Russia. Start the gas machine full blast. I want all the vapor I can get."
As I have explained the Flyer was a combined dirigible balloon and aeroplane. It could be used as either, or both, in combination. At present the gas bag was not fully inflated, and Tom had been sending his craft along as an aeroplane.
"What are you going to do?" cried Ned, as he pulled over the lever that set the gas generating machine in operation.
"I"m going up as high as I can go!" cried Tom. "If we can"t go down we must go up. I"ll get above the hurricane instead of below it. Give me all the gas you can, Ned!"
The vapor hissed as it rushed into the big bag overhead. Tom carried aboard his craft the chemicals needed to generate the powerful lifting gas, of which he alone had the secret. It was more powerful than hydrogen, and simple to make. The balloon of the Flyer was now being distended.
Meanwhile Tom, with Koku, Mr. Damon and Mr. Nestor to help him, worked over the deflecting rudder, and also on the equilibrium mechanism. But they could not get either to operate.
Ned stood by the gas machine, and worked it to the limit. But even with all that energy, so powerful was the wind, that the Flyer rose slowly, the gale actually holding her down as a water-logged craft is held below the waves. Ordinarily, with the gas machine set at its limit the craft would have shot up rapidly.
At times the airship would skim along on the level, and again it would be pitched and tossed about, until it was all the occupants could do to keep their feet. Mr. Damon was continually blessing everything he could remember.
"Now she"s going!" suddenly cried Ned, as he looked at the dials registering the pressure of the gas, and showing the height of the airship above the earth.
"Going how?" gasped Tom, as he looked over from where he was working at the equilibrium apparatus. "Going down?"
"Going up!" shouted Ned. "I guess we"ll be all right soon!"
It was true. Now that the bag was filled with the powerful lifting gas, under pressure, the Flyer was beginning to get out of the dangerous predicament into which the gale had blown her, Up and up she went, and every foot she climbed the power of the wind became less.
"Maybe it all happened for the best," said Tom, as he noted the height gage. "If we had gone down, the wind might have been worse nearer the earth."
Later they learned that this was so. The most destructive wind storm ever known swept across the southern part of Europe, over which they were flying that night, and, had the airship gone down, she would probably have been destroyed. But, going up, she got above the wind-strata. Up and up she climbed, until, when three miles above the earth, she was in a calm zone. It was rather hard to breathe at this height, and Tom set the oxygen apparatus at work.
This created in the interior of the craft an atmosphere almost like that on the earth, and the travelers were made more at their ease.
Getting out of the terrible wind pressure made it possible to work the deflecting rudder, though Tom had no idea of going down, as long as the blow lasted.
"We"ll just sail along at this height until morning," he said, "and by then the gale may be over, or we may be beyond the zone of it. Start the propellers, Ned. I think I can manage to repair the equilibrium rudder now."
The propellers, which gave the forward motion to the airship, had been stopped when it was found that the wind was carrying her along, but they were now put in motion again, sending the Flyer forward. In a short time Tom had the equilibrium machine in order, and matters were now normal again.
"But that was a strenuous time while it lasted," remarked the young inventor, as he sat down.
"It sure was," agreed Ned.
"Bless my pen wiper!" cried Mr. Damon. "That was one of the few times when I wish I"d never come with you, Tom Swift," and everyone laughed at that.
The Flyer was now out of danger, going along high in the air through the night, while the gale raged below her. At Tom"s suggestion, Koku got a lunch ready, for they were all tired with their labors, and somewhat nervous from the danger and excitement.
"And now for sleep!" exclaimed Tom, as he pushed back his plate. "Ned, set the automatic steering gear, and we"ll see where we bring up by morning."
An examination, through a powerful telescope in the bright light of morning, showed the travelers that they were over the outskirts of a large city, which, later, they learned was Rome, Italy.
"We"ve made a good trip," said Tom. "The gale had us worried, but it sent us along at a lively clip. Now for Switzerland, and the avalanches!"
They made a landing at a village just outside the "Holy City," as Rome is often called, and renewed their supply of gasolene. Naturally they attracted a crowd of curious persons, many of whom had never seen an airship before. Certainly few of them had ever seen one like Tom Swift"s.