quite like drifting through the night in

we may plunge without a moment's notice into those cold, black

orst and they were able to tell the moment of great danger, they might

," Felix moaned, "c

ound himself wondering about that equip

lake for hours. If the wind rises, if a strong gust drags us down, or if the gas bag leaks and we are plunged into the lake

l alert. "But it hangs from

go over the side. You

slowly, "will be ta

a foot in this loop, hold to the rope with one hand and work with the other

or all that, he made the other end of the rop

g out into space. All was dark below. Was the water a hundred or a thousand feet down? He

he murmured, "some

h, was making strenuous efforts to bring that very thing to pass, to get one of t

ried her away to the spot from which the balloon had risen. Arrived there a

In vain her eyes searched the sky for the balloon. Sh

would y

y!

untary scream. She had seen that man before. He car

. A huge bulk of a youth with tangl

he growled,

he small dark man spr

irl screamed. "He

rsing through the air. Next instant the little man followed

iant turned to Beth, "wher

Skidmore

kidmor

xi that was waiting for her, then climbed in b

, a searchlight. This was not always in operation, but was held in readiness for any emergency either on the water or in the a

to a sudden

you

me instant something was pressed into the palm of her left hand. She l

rd the stars in an elevator she

" it read. And in the lower right

murmured, "Gunderson Shotts, Everybo

* *

this adventure. "Must be careful," he told himself. And indeed he must. Dark wat

ce," he

e had seen much of that bright and terrible city; had me

st forget it,

the basket. The tiny finger of light from h

toward the end of the cable, he b

He will never know. Nor will he forget that instant when his flashlight, slipping from

much he knew: he hung there in all that blackness su

low were black waters waiting. And through his mind there flashed a thousand pictu

other hand. After that began the heart-breaking task of groping in the dark with his foo

" he whisper

son!" came from above

dangling. Dra-dra

that all but tore the rope f

ought that noos

* *

oting up in that express elev

he car, then raced for a cubby-hole i

aptive balloon! It's loose, drifting

sharply. "Impossible! There's no

cut the cable, someone cut it. My brother and ano

e other. "All right,

feeling its way through the blackness that

his strength unequal to a climb hand over hand, felt

ad reached him only for a second, but that was enough. His keen eye had caught the loop

w!" he called. "T

earchlight returned to rest on the spot

eat steel tower said to the other as Beth, at sight of the balloon still dri

Johnny tumbled over the sid

with steel rin

is?" Feli

nny laughed in spite of himself. "Th

sn't it wonderful when you think of it?" he marveled. "So many good people in the world! So many willing to give

with his own thoughts, the

owned by an advertising firm. Soon they were alongside. Instruments were taken aboard, the

ge in the beginning," Felix gru

ed to participate in that next endea

good solid earth. But the day,