"A quarter to ten o'clock," said Ned glancing at his watch as he
shut off the concealed flashlight, "and now start her up."
As Alan started the engine and it began to turn the propeller they
could tell by the light breeze that the car was moving again, but
very slowly. The other boys could also hear Ned delicately paying
out the long drag rope. At last it was all out. Then Ned crawled
forward again to the dynamo and up to the partly open floor of the
car and whispered that he was ready. The multiple gear was already
speeding the little generator swiftly.
"Lie down on the floor and watch," murmured Ned softly, "I'm going
to turn her on."
Alan and Bob did so. As their two heads filled the open trap in the
cabin floor there was a click and then, as if some necromancy had
focused the sun on a part of the darkened world, a circle of light
seemed to spring out of the desert beneath. Yellow, with here and
there a ragged rock and a sage brush or two, the shadows of the
rocks and brush black like spilled ink, and the sand glaring back at
them with almost quivering brightness, the circle shot back and
forth as the light followed the swinging rope.
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