“The capacity of the _Vagrant_ is limited, Mr. MacDuffy,” he said, “and we may have to adopt another means of transportation before we get through—I mean the aero-auto.” “Good. The very thing,” was Ned’s enthusiastic comment. “I guess Captain Andrews, Tom, Ned, Jupe and myself will be a big enough force to take along,” went on Jack; “of course, we’ll carry the gas-guns and a supply of ordinary firearms and ammunition.” The boy’s plans were so clear and well-defined that there was no opposition. By this time the sky was streaked with gray and rose color in the east, and a wan light overspread the sea. It showed them the faint and distant outlines of the _Tarantula_, drifting seaward in the clutch of some strong ocean current. Evidently, then, they had nothing to fear from that source. The work of hoisting the aero-auto from its well on the _Sea King_, and transferring the odd land-and-air traveler to the _Vagrant_ was set about at once. Blocks and tackles were reeved on the derrick boom of the after mast of the _Sea King_, and with wondrously little effort, the vehicle the Boy Inventors had evolved was transferred to the flush after deck of the _Vagrant_, where it was lashed in place, the ropes that bound it being affixed to ringbolts on the deck. The Flying Road Racer must be described in some detail here, as it is destined to figure largely in after events of the Boy Inventors’ lives. The auto part of the wonderful machine, then, was a cigar-shaped affair of aluminum, with four wheels of the “disc” type. It was fitted much like an ordinary auto, with padded seats in front and in the tonneau, equipped with shock absorbers, and was twelve feet in length. In the front of the car the engine, a hundred horse-power, eight-cylinder, four-cycle machine, was installed. The controls led to the steering wheel, just as is the case in ordinary cars. The crank shaft, however, projected through the front of the car, and was provided with a slotted terminal, by means of which an eight-foot aerial propeller, carried in sections in the car itself, might be affixed at will. Above the main body of the car was a light, but strong, framework supporting a balloon bag,—also cigar-shaped, and of the finest oiled silk,—of a capacity of about fifty thousand cubic feet of gas, and with a theoretical lifting power of forty-five hundred pounds. The method of inflating this bag at will, and thus converting the auto into a practicable dirigible, was the most startling innovation about the invention.