or anything like that, uncle Phaeton, but--I want to rack out o'
this just about the quickest the law allows! Yes, I DO, now!"

"Wonderful! Marvellous! Incredible! That rara avis, an exception to all
exceptions!" declared the professor, more deeply stirred than either of
his nephews had ever seen him before. "A genuine tornado which has
no eastern drift; which heads as directly as possible towards the
northwest, and at the same time--incredible!"

Only ears of his own caught these sentences in their entirety, for now
the storm was fairly bellowing in its might, formed of a variety of
sounds which baffles all description, but which, in itself, was more
than sufficient to chill the blood of even a brave man. Yet, almost as
though magnetised by that frightful force, the professor was holding his
air-ship steady, loitering there in its direct path, rather than fleeing
from what surely would prove utter destruction to man and machine alike.

For a few moments Bruno withstood the temptation, but then leaned far
enough to grasp both hand and tiller, forcing them in the requisite
direction, causing the aeromotor to swing easily around and dart away
almost at right angles to the track of the tornado.

That roar was now as of a thousand heavily laden trains rumbling over
hollow bridges, and the professor could only nod his approval when thus
aroused from the dangerous fascination. Another minute, and the air-ship
was floating towards the rear of the balloon-shaped cloud itself, each
second granting the passengers a varying view of the wonder.

True to the firm hand which set its machinery in motion, the
flying-machine maintained that gentle curve until it swung around well
to the rear of the cloud, where again Professor Featherwit broke out in
ecstatic praises of their marvellous good fortune.

"'Tis worth a life's ransom, for never until now hath mortal being been
blessed with such a magnificent opportunity for taking notes and drawing
deductions which--"

The professor nimbly ducked his head to dodge a ragged splinter of
freshly torn wood which came whistling past, cast far away from the
tornado proper by those erratic winds. And at the same instant the
machine itself recoiled, shivering and creaking in all its cunning
joints under a gust of wind which seemed composed of both ice and fire.

"Oh, I say!" gasped Waldo, when he could rally from the sudden blow.
"Turn the old thing the other way, uncle Phaeton, and let's go