"Mr. Rutley has told me you are already his wife, Minnie. Is that true?"
I confirmed it, and asked him to pardon my choosing where my heart
inclined me.
"If that is so," he said, "I have little to forgive and much to be
forgiven. Had I known how things stood, I loved you too well to imperil
your happiness and your life, and the life of the man you prefer to me."
"But the danger is all over now," said I; "let us be good friends for
the future."
"We may at least be friends," replied Kenneth; and I caught a glance of
some mysterious import that passed between the men. The question it
would have led me to ask was postponed by the account Phillip gave of
his presence in the balloon-car--how by springing into the air as the
grapnel swung past him, dragged clear by the rising balloon, he had
caught the irons and then the rope, climbing up foot by foot, swinging
to and fro in the darkness, up, up, until the whole length of the rope
was accomplished and he reached my side. Brave, strong, dear Phillip!
And, now, once more he would have it that I must wear his coat.
"The sun's up, Minnie, and he'll soon put warmth into our bones. I'm
going to have some exercise. My coat will be best over you."
Had it not been so excruciatingly cold we might have enjoyed the
grandeur of our sail through the bright, clear heavens, the big brown
balloon swelling broadly above us. Phillip tried to keep up our spirits
by calling attention to these things, but Kenneth said little or
nothing, and looked so despondent that, wishing to divert his thoughts
from his disappointment concerning myself, which I supposed was his
trouble, I heedlessly blurted out that I was starving, and asked him to
give me some breakfast.
Then it transpired that he had thrown out of the car all the provisions
with which we had been supplied for our journey.
The discovery took the smiles out of Phillip's merry face.
"You'll have to hold on a bit, little woman," said he. "When we get to a
way-station or an hotel, we'll show the refreshment contractors what
sort of appetites are to be found up above."
Then I asked them where we were going; whereabouts we had got to; and
why we did not descend. Which elicited the fact that Kenneth had thrown
away the instruments by which the aeronaut informs himself of his
location and the direction of his course. For a long time Phillip
playfully put me off in my petition to be restored to _terra firma_, but
at last it came out that the valve-line being cut we could not descend,
and that the balloon must speed on, mounting higher and higher, until it
would probably burst in the extreme tension of the air.
"Soon after that," said Phillip, with a grim, hard laugh, "we shall be
back on the earth again."
We found it difficult to enjoy the trip after this prospect was made
clear. Nor did conversation flow very freely. The hours dragged slowly
on, and our sufferings increased.
At last Phillip made up his mind to attempt a desperate remedy. What it
was he would not tell me, but, kissing me tenderly, he made me lie down
and covered my head with his coat.
Then he took off his boots, and then the car creaked and swayed, and
suddenly I felt he was gone out of it. He had told me not to look out
from under his coat; but how could I obey him? I did look, and I saw him
climbing like a cat up the round, hard side of the balloon, clinging
with hands and feet to the netting that covered it.
As he mounted, the balloon swayed over with his weight until it was
right above him and he could hardly hold on to the cords with his toes
and his fingers. Still he crept on, and still the great silken fabric
heeled over, as if it resented his boldness and would crush him.
Once his foothold gave way, and he dropped to his full length, retaining
only his hand-grip of the thin cords, which nearly cut his fingers in
two under the strain of his whole weight. I thought he was gone; I
thought I had lost him for ever. It seemed impossible he could keep his
hold, and even if he did the weak netting must give way. It stretched
down where he grasped it into a bag form and increased his distance
from the balloon, so that he could not reach with his feet, although he
drew his body up and made many a desperate effort to do so.
[Illustration: "CLINGING WITH HANDS AND FEET TO THE NETTING."]
But while I watched him in an agony of powerlessness to help, the
balloon slowly regained the perpendicular, and just as Phillip seemed at
the point of exhaustion his feet caught once more in the netting, and,
with his arms thrust through the meshes and twisted in and out for
security, while his strong teeth also gripped the cord, I saw my husband
in comparative safety once more. I turned to relieve my pent-up feelings
to Kenneth, but he was not in the car--only his boots. He had seen
Phillip's peril, and climbed up on the other side of the balloon to
restore the balance.
But now the wicked thing served them another trick; it slowly lay over
on its side under the weight of the two men, who were now poised like
panniers upon the extreme convexity of the silk. This was very perilous
for both, but the change of position gave them a little rest, and
Phillip shouted instructions round to Kenneth to slowly work his way
back to the car, while he (Phillip) would mount to the top of the
balloon, the surface of which would be brought under him by Kenneth's
weight. It was my part to make them balance each other. This I did by
watching the tendency of the balloon, and telling Kenneth to move to
right or left as I saw it become necessary. It was very difficult for us
all. The great fabric wobbled about most capriciously, sometimes with a
sudden turn that took us all by surprise, and would have jerked every
one of us into space, had we not all been clinging fast to the cordage.