Fiction > Serialisations > London, 1896-1897 - St. Ives > Volume 13

THE ADVENTURES OF A FRENCH PRISONER IN ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE INCOMPLETE AERONAUTS.
ALL this I took in at a glance : I dare say in three seconds or less. The
hubbub beneath us dropped to a low, rumbling bass. Suddenly a woman's
scream divided it — one high-pitched, penetrating scream, followed by silence.
And then, as a pack of hounds will start into cry, voice after voice caught up the
scream and reduplicated it, until the whole enclosure rang with alarm.
" Hullo ! " Byfield called to me, " what the deuce is happening now ? " and
ran to his side of the car. " Good Lord, it's Dalmahoy ! "
It was. Beneath us, at the tail of a depending rope, that unhappy lunatic
dangled between earth and sky. He had been the first to cut the tether; and,
having severed it below his grasp, had held on while the others cut loose, taking
even the asinine precaution to loop the end twice round his wrist. Of course
the upward surge of the balloon had heaved him off his feet, and his muddled
instinct did the rest. Clutching now with both hands, he was borne aloft like a
lamb from the flock.
So we reasoned afterwards. " The grapnel ! " gasped Byfield : for Dalmahoy's
rope was fastened beneath the floor of the car, and not to be reached by us. We
fumbled to cast the grapnel loose, and shouted down together, — -
" For God's sake hold on ! Catch the anchor when it comes ! You'll break
your neck if you drop ! "
He swung into sight again beyond the edge of the floor, and uplifted a strained,
white face. We cast loose the grapnel, lowered it and jerked it towards him. He
swung past it like a penduium, caught at it with one hand, and missed : came flying
back on the receding curve, and missed again. At the third attempt he blundered
right against it, and flung an arm over one of the flukes, next a leg, and in a
trice we were hauling up, hand over hand.
Copyright 1897 in the United States of America by A. T. Quiller Couch.
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