"Dinner am served in de dining car!" interrupted Washington White, his black face grinning cheerfully. He used to be a waiter in a Pullman, and he was proud of it. "First call fo' dinner!" he went on. "Part ob it am boiled, part am roasted, laik I done heah yo' talkin' 'bout jest now, an' part am frozed--dat's de ice cream," he added hastily, lest there be a mistake about it. "Well, that sounds good," observed Mark. "Come on, everybody," and he led the way to the dining cabin. They had not been at the table more than a few minutes, and had begun on the "boiled" part of the meal, which was the soup, when from the engine room there came a curious, whining noise, as when an electric motor slows up. "What's that?" cried Professor Henderson, jumping up from his seat in alarm. "Something wrong in the engine room," cried Mr. Roumann. The two scientists, followed by the boys, hurried to where the various pieces of apparatus were sending the projectile forward through space. Already there was an appreciable slackening of speed. "The Cardite motor has stopped!" cried Mr. Roumann. "Something has happened to it!" "Can it be the result of the damage which that lunatic did?" asked Mr. Henderson. "Perhaps," spoke Jack. "If I had him here----" "We are falling!" shouted Mark, looking at an indicator which marked their speed and motion. "Can't we start some other motor?" asked Jack. At that instant from beneath the now silent Cardite machine there came a prolonged crow. "My Shanghai rooster!" shouted Washington. "He am in dar!" A second later the rooster scrambled out, scratching vigorously. Grains of corn were scattered about. The motor started up again, and the projectile resumed its onward way. "The rooster stopped it!" cried Jack. "He went under it to get some corn, and he must have deranged one of the levers. Oh, you old Shanghai, you nearly gave us all heart disease!" And the rooster crowed louder than before, while his colored owner "shooed" him out of the engine room. The trouble was over speedily, and the _Annihilator_ was once more speeding toward the moon. CHAPTER XVI "WILL IT HIT US?" "Well, for a trouble-maker, give me a rooster every time," spoke Jack, as, after an examination of the machinery, it was found that nothing was out of order. "How do you think it happened, Professor Henderson?" "It never could have happened except in just that way," was the reply of Mr. Roumann. "Underneath the motor, where they are supposed to be out of all reach, are several self-adjusting levers. They control the speed, and also, by being moved in a certain direction, they will shut down the apparatus. The rooster crawled beneath the machine, an act that I never figured on, for I knew it was too small for any of us to reach with our hands or arms, even had we so desired. But the Shanghai's feathers must have brushed against the levers, and that stopped the action of the Cardite motor. However, I'm glad it was no worse."