m simultaneous, there came such a crash of thunder as to stun
them all. There was a tingling, as of a thousand pins and needles in
the body of each of the captives, and a strong smell of sulphur. Then,
as the echoes of the clap died away, Tom yelled:

"She's been struck! The airship has been struck!"

CHAPTER XXV

FREEDOM

For a moment there was silence, following Tom's wild cry and the noise
of the thunderclap. Then, as other, though less loud reverberations of
the storm continued to sound, the captives awoke to a realization of
what had happened. They had been partially stunned, and were almost as
in a dream.

"Are--are we all right?" stammered Ned.

"Bless my soul! What has happened?" cried Mr. Damon.

"We've been struck by lightning!" Tom repeated. "I don't know whether
we're all right or not."

"We seem to be falling!" exclaimed Lieutenant Marbury.

"If the whole gas bag isn't ripped to pieces we're lucky," commented
Jerry Mound.

Indeed, it was evident that the Mars was sinking rapidly. To all there
came the sensation of riding in an elevator in a skyscraper and being
dropped a score of stories.

Then, as they stood there in the darkness, illuminated only by flashes
from the lightning outside the window, waiting for an unknown fate, Tom
Swift uttered a cry of delight.

"We've stopped falling!" he cried. "The automatic gas machine is
pumping. Part of the gas bag was punctured, but the unbroken
compartments hold!"

"If part of the gas leaked out I don't see why it wasn't all set on
fire and exploded," observed Captain Warner.

"It's a non-burnable gas," Tom quickly explained. "But come on. This
may be our very chance. There seems to be something going on that may
be in our favor."

Indeed the captives could hear confused cries and the running to and
fro of many feet.

He made for the sawed panel, and, in another instant, had burst out and
was through it, out into the passageway between the after and amidship
cabins. His companions followed him.

They looked into the rear cabin, or motor compartment, and a scene of
confusion met their gaze. Two of the foreign men who had seized the
ship lay stretched out on the floor near the humming machinery, which
had been left to run itself. A look in the other direction, toward the
main cabin, showed a group of the foreign spies bending over the inert
body of La Foy, the Frenchman, stretched out on a couch.

"What has happened?" cried Ned. "Wha