Then we can keep dodging up and down just out of their reach,
and so be out of danger both ways."
No sooner said than done. We ran rapidly on a horizontal course until we
had cleared the air ships below, and then dropped like a shot. Juba came
to his senses in a few moments after we entered the denser air. But now
our pursuers, thinking, no doubt, that we had found it impracticable to
remain where they knew they could not go, began to close in upon us. I
reflected that here was the only mistake that Edmund had made--I mean the
bringing along with us of the natives of the dark hemisphere. It was only
their presence that had prevented us from sailing triumphantly over the
crystal mountains; it was because of them that we had wrecked the car;
and now it was Juba who baffled our best chance of escape. And yet--and I
am glad to be able to say it--I could not regret his presence, for had he
not made himself one of us; had he not proved himself entitled to all the
privileges of comradeship?
But Henry (I am sorry to write it) did not share these feelings.
"Edmund," he said, "why do you insist upon endangering our lives for the
sake of this--this--animal here?"
Never have I beheld such a blaze of anger as that which burst from
Edmund's eyes as he turned upon Henry:
"You cowardly brute!" he shouted.
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