"
He threw himself flat on the floor, and stared out of the peephole. Then
he jumped to his feet and gave us another tumble.
"They're all about us," he faltered, breathless with exertion; then,
having drawn a deep inspiration, he continued: "We're like a boat in a
raging freshet, with rocks, tree trunks, and cakes of ice threatening it
on all sides. But we'll get out of it. The car obeys its helm as if it
appreciated the danger. Why, I got away from that last fellow by setting
up atomic reaction against it, as a boatman pushes with his pole."
Even in the midst of our terror we could not but admire our leader. His
resources seemed boundless, and our confidence in him grew with every
escape. While he kept guard at the peepholes we watched for meteors from
the windows. We must have come almost within striking distance of a
thousand in the course of an hour, but Edmund decided not to diminish
our speed, for he said that he could control the car quicker when it was
under full headway.
So on we rushed, dodging the things like a crow in a flock of pestering
jays, and we really enjoyed the excitement. It was more fascinating sport
than shooting rapids in a careening skiff, and at last we grew so
confident in the powers of our car and its commander that we were rather
sorry when the last meteor passed, and we found ourselves once more in
open, unimpeded space.
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