第 10 页

All these things could be seen plainly, for the balloon was but five hundred feet above the earth.

"We are passing over the province of Kordofan," said Bunbury, examining his map and compass. "Khartoum is nearly two hundred miles away."

His companions could hardly realize that they had come so far. They looked down with renewed interest.

A little later a populous town, built of sun- baked bricks, was skimmed over, and most of its inhabitants seemed to be Arabs.

Ten miles beyond a gang of shackled negroes were seen straggling along a forest path. The poor wretches uttered cries of wonder when they saw the balloon, and the Arab drivers fired muskets at it.

Godfrey and the boys were thrilled with indignation and pity. It was their first realization of the horrors of the human traffic of the Dark Continent.

"We are powerless to aid the poor creatures," said Bunbury. "The region hereabouts is the favorite stamping ground of the slave-raiders."

As the balloon sped on he lit the spirit lamp, and boiled some excellent coffee. With this the hungry aeronauts washed down a hearty meal of biscuits and tinned meat.

"Now you may sleep for three hours," said Bunbury, "while I keep watch. Then I will waken you, and, take a short rest myself."

Godfrey and the boys were not slow to avail them selves of this permission. They coiled up in the bottom of the car, and hardly were their eyes closed when con sciousness left them.

After what seemed but a brief time they were rudely awakened by a jerk at their arms, and Bunbury's commanding voice.

They sat up, rubbing their drowsy eyes, and as soon as they could see clearly they cried out with alarm and wonder.

The balloon was swirling and pitching on its course at a dizzy rate of speed. Above, and below, and on all sides were misty, blackish clouds, that hid both the earth and the sky.

Vivid flashes of lightning were streaking the gloom in every direction, and thunder was pealing angrily amid the heavens.

"I thought it best to rouse you," said Bunbury, whose face was very pale. "This storm came up suddenly, and overtook us before I had time to consider what to do."

"How long have we slept?" asked Godfrey.

"Nearly three hours. It is four o'clock in the afternoon, and we are still headed due southwest."

"And are we in danger?"

"'Yes," admitted Bunbury, "in very grave danger. A flash of lightning may set fire to us, or our balloon, filled with inflammable gas, may burst amid these violent electrical currents."

"Can't we throw out ballast and rise above the storm?" suggested Roden. "I have heard of that being done in similar cases."

"It is possible," answered Bunbury, "and another plan is to descend to the earth and tie up the balloon until the storm is over."

"That seems preferable," said Godfrey.

"Yes, unless the storm is raging as violently below as above," assented Bunbury. "However, we must take the chances and act at once."

He immediately pulled the valve-cord, and as the hiss of escaping gas was heard the balloon began to descend. The boys peeped .timidly over the edge of the car, but they saw only a dusky, impenetrable gloom.

"We are going down rapidly," said Bunbury. "We are now between three and four hundred feet above the earth, as nearly as I can calculate. If we could only see what sort of country lay beneath us——"

The, sentence ended in a sort of gasping cry. The balloon had suddenly encountered a far more terrible and violent storm-belt, that swept it away at frightful speed.

The car pitched and oscillated dizzily, and the great bag of gas overhead threatened to tear loose from the creaking ropes at any instant.

Forked lightning flashed, and thunder growled and rattled, and the surrounding clouds seemed the color of ink. It was a moment of terrible danger, and the aeronauts never expected to pass through the storm alive.

"Hold tight," cried Bunbury hoarsely. "I'll pitch some ballast over. We've got to ascend."

Arthur, who was by the edge of the car, imprudently rose to his feet in order to get near the center.

At that instant a furious gust of wind struck the balloon, and tilted the car at a sharp angle. The lad was pitched overboard like a flash, and vanished in the darkness with a fearful cry on his lips.

THE horror of Arthur's companions when they saw him thus snatched away from them was beyond description.

* * *

Chapter XV

"My brother! my brother!" cried Roden, in heartbreaking tones. "God help him, he is killed."

With tears streaming down his face, the poor fellow clutched the edge of the car, and leaned far over, trying to peer into the gloom.

He might have shared Arthur's fate had not Godfrey pulled him back by main force.

"Bear up, Roden," he entreated huskily. "It is a terrible accident, but there is still room for hope. He may have fallen among high trees, or thick bushes——"

"Better let the lad face the worst," interrupted Bunbury. "His brother can hardly be alive, unless saved by a miracle. We were two or three hundred feet over the ground at least."

Godfrey made no reply. He leaned forward, and buried his face in his hands.

Roden's grief was pitiful to see. He threw himself flat in the bottom of the car, constantly calling his brother's name.

"I can't bear it," he cried. "To think that Arthur is gone forever! I don't care what becomes of me now."

In the meantime the balloon, lightened by so many pounds, had shot rapidly upward, still swaying and plunging in the teeth of the gale.

Bunbury sat like a block of carved stone, gazing ahead with a set and rigid expression.

Suddenly a gleam of light was seen, and an instant later the blue sky appeared above.

The balloon had actually risen to a higher altitude than the storm. Down below the earth was still hidden by dense clouds, through which lightning was flashing incessantly.

Roden crept forward, and clutched Bunbury's arm.

"We are leaving Arthur behind," he cried. "He can't be dead; I won't believe it. - Let us go down and hunt for him. If you don't, I will jump overboard."

Bunbury and Godfrey exchanged rapid glances. "How far have we gone since —since the accident?" asked the latter.

"Two or three miles — possibly more," was the reply.

"And, if we descended to the ground, could we find the way back to the spot?"

"I think so. I know the right direction. But there is no use——"

"But it would be a consolation to — to find the body," whispered Godfrey. "I hate to leave it to the wild beasts."

"As you will," replied Bunbury, shrugging his shoulders. "But I wash my hands of the responsibility. We are about to incur a tremendous risk. Instead of one body for the vultures to feed upon, there will probably be four."

With so pitying glance at Roden that belied his gruff words, he reached up and pulled the valve-cord.

The escaping gas sent the balloon instantly and rapidly downward. A moment later the blue sky had disappeared, and the car was again in the midst of the storm.

Roden seemed oblivious to his surroundings, but Godfrey and Bunbury made no attempt to conceal their fear.

The thunder and lightning were terrific, and for a time the furious wind threatened to tear the balloon into shreds.

Then there came a sudden calm, and almost instantly big drops of rain began to fall.

"I thought that would be the next thing," muttered Bunbury. "The cessation of the wind will make the lightning more severe and dangerous."

Roden crept to the edge of the car, and Godfrey kept a watchful eye upon him.

"Look! look!" the lad cried suddenly. "We are near the ground."

At this his companions peered down, and they were surprised to see beneath them the misty outlines of what seemed to be a surface of waving reeds.

The balloon was still one hundred feet in air, and driving along swiftly.

Again Bunbury pulled the valve-cord, and the car dropped sixty or seventy feet. Then he tossed over one of the grappling lines, with a huge iron hook on the end.

Anxiously the aeronauts awaited the result. For several minutes the line was seen to skim rapidly over the reeds and bushes, stirring up multitudes of birds and small animals.

Then, with a tremendous jerk that nearly upset it, the balloon hung stationary amid the rain and lightning. The grapnel had found tight lodgment.

The rope ladder was quickly dropped over, and several feet of it dangled on the ground.

Roden was the first to climb down the dizzy, swaying structure, and his companions followed as soon as he reached the bottom.

Bunbury's first act was to examine the hook. He found it caught firmly in a stout sapling. The balloon dangled motionless overhead, exposed to the constant and blinding electrical flashes. The rain was falling lightly.

"Come on!" exclaimed Roden eagerly. "Which way do we go?"

He glanced around him at the expanse of dry, parched grass and bushes that extended on all sides as far as the eye could reach.

"I'll take the lead in a moment," replied Bunbury; "but there is no hope of finding the lad alive if he fell two hundred feet into a place like this.

"And I want to warn you now," he went on, "that if the wind rises in our absence the balloon will be carried away. Moreover, it may take fire at any moment from the lightning."

Roden looked supremely indifferent to these dangers.

"We must find Arthur," he said hoarsely. "We must!"

"Well, we'll try it, lad," replied Bun bury, "though it's like hunting a needle in a haystack. But we've forgotten the rifles. We can't start without them."

"I'll get them I" exclaimed Godfrey. "It won't take a minute."

He seized the rope ladder, and had just planted his feet on the first rung when there came a frightful flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder.

"That surely hit somewhere near," muttered Bunbury.

"It did," cried Roden. "Look there!"

He pointed to the southeast, and his companions were horrified to see a streak of red flames and smoke curling upward about twenty yards distant.

The lightning had evidently caused the conflagra tion, and to make matters worse, a strong breeze suddenly rose from the same quarter.

In less time than it takes to tell, the angry flames had spread right and left, and were sweeping with a dull roar straight toward the balloon.

"We must leave at once," cried Bunbury. "Quick! or we are lost."

"My poor brother," exclaimed Roden. "Can we get back to him again?"

"I am afraid not," said Godfrey. "He is beyond the fire, and the wind will blow us farther away. You must face the worst. There is still your father to live for."

"I forgot that," said Roden, bursting into tears. "Oh, poor Arthur!"

He reluctantly climbed the ladder, followed by Godfrey and Bunbury.

As they entered the car and looked down they saw a monstrous giraffe, which had evidently been lying in concealment near by, rise up in front of the leaping flames, and plunge madly forward.

Bunbury drew a knife, and severed the grappling line with one stroke. At that identical instant the long- necked animal butted against the rope ladder, and ran his head through the rungs.

The balloon, which had begun to rise, was checked with a jerk that fairly stood the car on its side. Godfrey lost his balance, and pitched out head first. His horrified companions saw him grab at the ladder as he fell.

He caught one of the rungs about ten feet from the ground, but it broke in his hand, and he dropped, straddle-wise upon the giraffe's back.

Then the frightened animal gave a plunge that freed it from the meshes, and instantly the balloon shot up like a rocket, and was whirled off to the northwest almost in an opposite direction to its former course.

As Bunbury and Roden leaned over the car they saw the giraffe, with Godfrey clinging tightly to its neck, galloping madly away from the hissing flames.

Then the balloon mounted into the storm-clouds, and the earth was swiftly blotted out.

And now we must return to Arthur, and see how he was faring while his companions were having such an adventurous time.

When the lad pitched out of the car and plunged downward through empty space, it seemed but a brief time until he struck something soft with tremendous force. Then he dropped still farther, and felt a dizzy stunning pain.

After that there was a blank, and when consciousness returned he found himself wedged in the fork of a tall, bushy tree.

He remembered what had happened, and his heart sank to realize how little chance he had of finding or being found by his companions.

But his born pluck kept him from utter despair. He first satisfied himself that no bones were broken. Then he pulled himself free from the fork of the limb, and climbed a little higher into the tree, whose slender crest rose twenty feet overhead.

The storm was raging around him, and the misty air contracted his view. But he could see, in a short radius, the top of what appeared to be a dense and lofty forest.

"The first thing," he decided, "is to reach the ground."

So he worked his way down the trunk from limb to limb, and, after what seemed a painfully long time, he found the bushy tops of other and smaller trees within reach.

Trusting to these, he made more rapid progress, and finally encountered a stout, swinging vine, down which he slid to the ground.

He now, stood in deep gloom, surrounded by dense jungle and timber. No rain reached him, though he heard it pattering far overhead; nor could he see but a faint reflection of the lightning flashes.

"That tree I fell into must have been more than two hundred feet high," he, muttered, glancing up, "and I don't believe the balloon was very far above it. I've had a mighty narrow escape, and I ought to be thankful I live. But what to do next — that's the question."

As he stood in puzzled hesitation, a loud, angry roar rang in his ears, and a monstrous lion, with sweeping, tawny mane, started out of the grass only a few feet in front of him!

The appearance of the beast was so unexpected that Arthur's limbs trembled under him, and he felt giddy with fear. For a few seconds he gave himself up for lost.