six o'clock in the
morning
repeated Lyman . `` Sure , '' answered Ned . `` The atmosphere surrounding the earth is just like the water in the large reservoirs -- there are deep places and shallow places , holes you can drop in , and currents like the Gulf Stream current , the Japanese current , which warms the northern states and British Columbia , and the Arctic Humboldt current , which sends a cold stream down the Pacific coast of South America . If we have no difficulties with these rivers of the air , and the wind does not come up too strong , we can make Asuncion by six o'clock in the morning . It is about ten now . '' `` What sort of an airship have you here ? '' demanded Lyman , amazed at the thought of running at the rate of two hundred miles an hour or a hundred and fifty , at least .