A Silver Brand — page 173: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_ a ~ ON, ee oe i ; bs ee Soe 2 BILVER. BRAND; °° SS 68 ‘little car, the eronaut clutched also a loose rope, hoping | vaguely that~it might serve someway in the exigency. Just, however, as the collapsing globe arrived within a few feet of the surface of the water, a strong current, that was blowing close to the earth, swept it along, tilting it to and-fro so that it was with the utmost difficulty they could save themselves from being thrown out. Then they were whirled along over the bank, dragging against the tops of the tall trees that grew there, and shot blindly along just above the shrubbery. The ceronaut uttered an exclamation of thanksgiving, and the lady opening her eyes, and look- ing down, made a movement as if to leap downward, but her companion clutched her desperately. ; “It would be the height of madness to leap out. I hope we shall catch in the boughs of atree. We are going. lower and lower. Keep a.brave heart; the worst, I am sure, 18 over.” , And his prophecy proved a true one. | Swept along to the rude jolting course, but nearer and nearer the ground, the outreaching bough of a huge wal- nut tree entangled itself in the torn silk of the balloon, and arrested its course momentarily, but long enough to give the eronaut an opportunity to fling his rope over the bough, and secure it before the ballodn could make its escape. bs eemie | “Now, may Heaven be praised for its mercy!” he ex- claimed. vw sya ee Ce ign Ae The white lips beside him shaped a voiceless thanks- giving as she stood up and took hold of the bough to steady herself, since, of course, the car was left without support. . “Wait amoment, and I will manage a safe descent for you,” he said, springing nimbly himself to catch a limb, and swinging over it into the fork of the trunk. The next moment he added, hastily, ‘‘We are close to a road of some sort, and there is a grand carriage with liveried ser- vants waiting. there. I think they have been watching our fall, and the gentleman in the coach seems to be _ directing some investigation. What will you do? Iam sure they will be down upon us ina moment. If you had only a vail.” “T must get into the tree,” she answered, promptly. “Reach me that bough, and your hand.” _- And the next moment she was crouching among the foliage, with her arms clasped tightly about the trunk. “Qan you remain comfortably?” he asked, while he cut - Ss) (eco) Eomicboo