Chapter 21—J. T. Maston Recalled
“It is ‘they’ come back again!” the young midshipman had said, and every one had understood him. No one doubted but that the meteor was the projectile of the Gun Club. As to the travelers which it enclosed, opinions were divided regarding their fate.
“They are dead!” said one.
“They are alive!” said another; “the crater is deep, and the shock was deadened.”
“But they must have wanted air,” continued a third speaker; “they must have died of suffocation.”
“Burned!” replied a fourth; “the projectile was nothing but an incandescent mass as it crossed the atmosphere.”
“What does it matter!” they exclaimed unanimously; “living or dead, we must pull them out!”
But Captain Blomsberry had assembled his officers, and “with their permission,” was holding a coun
