AN INVOLUNTARY AËRONAUT.
"Steady, Tom, steady," warned Jack, as he set the pumps to work
drawing gas from the bag into the reservoir.
The Wondership, her buoyancy thus diminished, began to descend.
"What are you going to do?" asked Tom.
"Drop our passenger," said Jack, with a grin he could not suppress,
for the struggling farmer was within a few feet of the ground now and
even if he did kick himself loose, for his struggles had begun again,
he could not have hurt himself much.
"Back up till we get over that haystack," said Jack, "and then play
out rope till we lower him. It'll make a nice soft jumping-off place."
Tom obeyed, pulling a reverse lever. The Wondership, steered with
skill by Jack's practiced hand, backed slowly up. At length they hung
directly over the haystack. Jack turned and nodded. Tom sprang to the
rope and lowered the indignant farmer into the soft hay. The man lost
no time in disentangling himself. Then he sprang to his feet and began
hurling vituperation at them at the top of his lungs.
"I'll have ther law on yer fer this," he yelled. "Tryin' ter kidnap me
and bustin' down my barn. I'll see whether such goin's on is allowed
in ther sufferin' state uv Massachusetts, yew see if I don't, consarn
yer. I'll----"
But the Wondership, bearing the two boys who could not help laughing
heartily, although they feared serious consequences might come of the
accident, was winging its way onward out of earshot of the not
unnaturally indignant Ezra Perkins.
They passed Rayburn before Jack noticed a peculiar smell in the
atmosphere.
It was leaking gas. Then, for the first time, he recollected that the
farmer might have hit the gas bag above them with his double shots,
although, till then, there had been no indication that such was the
case.
He called Tom to the wheel, explaining his suspicions and clambered
out on the rigging to see if he could find any holes in the balloon.
It would have made a less steady boy dizzy and sick to stand on the
edge of the Wondership, clinging to one of the supports that held the
body of the craft to the gas-bag, while the whole affair plunged and
swayed five hundred feet above the earth. But Jack, used as he was to
navigating the air, felt none of these qualms.
His suspicions were speedily confirmed. There was a jagged hole in the
underbody of the balloon, from which gas was rushing. Jack's face grew
grave. The situation was dangerous.
He knew, as does every balloonist, that out-rushing gas can make an
electric spark in the atmosphere which, in turn, ignites the gas
itself, sometimes with fatal results. Experts in aëronautics attribute
the disasters befalling the long series of Zeppelins, the giant
German dirigibles, to this cause.
"Tom, we must go down. Drop at once," he said. "That old fellow
succeeded in blowing a hole in us all right."
The pumps were set to work and the Wondership fell rapidly. They
dropped in a field by the roadside, landing on the running wheels as
lightly as a feather, thanks to the shock absorbers, similar to those
of an automobile, with which the Wondership was equipped.
"Now for the repair kit," said Jack, rummaging a locker.
He soon had balloon silk, big shears, a quick-drying gum solution and
a pot of gasproof varnish, ready for the job of patching up the hole.
But first they had to empty the big bag of gas. This was speedily
done, for already enough had escaped to wrinkle the bag like a walnut,
with hollows and creases.
Jack cut out a patch of balloon silk large enough to fit the hole and
spread it with the adhesive gum solution. This he placed inside the
hole, spreading it out so that when pressure was applied it would be
pressed firmly against the aperture. Then he coated the patch with the
gasproof varnish, and both boys sat down to give the job time to
"set."
Their eyes turned idly to the high-road. It was about noon and there
was a heavy sort of silence in the air. Far on the horizon they could
make out great billowy masses of white cloud. Piled and castellated
against the sky they assumed all kinds of odd shapes.
"Thunder heads," said Jack. "We shall have a storm before to-night."
"It's sultry enough for anything," said Tom, taking off his cap and
mopping his forehead. "I'd hate to be walking in this weather like
that fellow yonder."
A man had come into sight, plodding along with bent head and eyes on
the ground as if he was very tired. The gray dust of the road coated
him from head to foot. He walked with a kind of dragging gait.
Over his shoulder he carried some sort of a bundle on a stick. His hat
was a broad sombrero, like a cowboy's. It was a kind of headgear
seldom seen in the east and attracted the boys' attention. Round the
man's neck was a red handkerchief, the only spot of color on his
dust-covered person. He had a great yellow beard and rather long,
unkempt hair.
"Tramp," hazarded Tom.
Jack shook his head.
"Doesn't look like that to me somehow," he said. "I rather think----"
Round the corner whizzed a big red automobile. It was coming fast. The
driver, a young man, had his head turned and was talking to three
companions who sat in the tonneau. He did not see the dusty traveler
in the road ahead.
The boys set up a shout.
"Look out! you'll run him down. Look out----"
But their caution came too late. At top speed the auto struck the
wayfarer, and before the boys' horrified eyes he was thrown high in
the air, to fall, a confused sprawl of legs and arms, at the wayside.