“Who, me? My dear boy, you must be dreaming again. Why should I want to conceal any being in the storeroom? Come, there is something back of this. Tell me all you know of it. I can’t imagine why you think I was hiding something in the apartment.” “I thought so because you were always so anxious not to have me go near it,” answered the boy. “Don’t you remember when you saw me going toward it, several times, you warned me away?” “So I did!” exclaimed Mr. Henderson, a light breaking over his face. “But, Mark, it was not because I had hidden some human being or animal there. I can’t tell you what it is yet, save that I can say it is merely a machine of mine that I have invented. For reasons of my own I don’t want any one to see it yet. Perhaps it may never be seen. I thought, not long ago, that we might have to undertake a terrible risk in escaping from this place. I directed you to go to the storeroom—but there, I can’t say any more, my friends. Sufficient that I had nothing in the animal line concealed there.” “But I am certain there was some beast or human being in there,” insisted Mark. “I heard curious noises in there. Besides, how do you account for the food disappearing and the door being open at times?” “It might have been rats,” said Jack. “I don’t believe there are rats in the ship,” put in the professor. “More likely it was one of us who got up hungry and took the victuals.” “I’m sorry I can’t agree with you,” Mark added respectfully. “I am sure some strange being was on board this ship, and I believe it has now escaped. Who or what it was I can’t say, but you’ll find I’m right, some day.” “All right,” spoke Mr. Henderson with a laugh. “I like to see any one brave enough to stick up for his opinion, but, at the same time, I can’t very well imagine any person or thing being concealed in that storeroom ever since we started. How could it get in?” Mark did not answer, but there came to him the recollection of that night, previous to the sailing of the _Flying Mermaid_, when he had observed some strange shadow that seemed to glide aboard the craft. “Now let’s forget all about such things,” the professor went on. “We are in a strange country, and there are many things to see and do. Let’s explore a little. Then we must see what we can do with the ship. We are dependent on it, and it will not do to allow it to remain in a damaged state. We expect to travel many miles in the interior of the earth if it is possible, and we have only our craft to go in.” “I reckon we’d all better assimilate into our interior progression some molecules and atoms of partly disentegrated matter in order to supply combustion for the carbonaceous elements and assist in the manufacture of red corpuscles,” said Washington, appearing in the door, with a broad grin on his good-natured face. “Which, being interpreted,” the professor said, “means, I suppose, that we had better eat something to keep our digestive apparatus in good working order?”