The Argosy, March 1907 — page 186: what you’re looking at

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

758 was suggestive of an inebriated serpent trying to walk on its tail. It was very indistinct in the gloom, and his first impulse was to dodge, but at almost ‘the same instant he heard a voice from aloft. “Grab it, will you? We've lost our anchor.” ; Looking upward, Fuller saw a huge round shadow against the black back- ~ ground of sky and knew that a balloon “was passing over him. _The discovery of the dangling rope skipping across the ground and the reali- zation of what the phenomenon implied covered little more than a second, and. Fuller willingly laid hold of the rope. He dug his heels into the ground as the gas-bag tugged in resistance, and was dragged into the thicket of undergrowth between the lone tree and the forest. As he went plowing along he got his mads.up, so to speak, encouraged thereto by voices from aloft. “Run to your left!” one voice bawled. ‘‘ You'll have us in that tree if you don’t take care!” As if the accidental rustic on terra firma was responsible for the actions of ~a balloon! ‘Don’t let go!” cried the other voice. “Hold hard! We want to get out!” Just then the balloon hit the tree. The bag was not punctured, else this account of a disappearance could not be told, but what with the blow and the consid- erable force exerted by Fuller at the ground end of the rope, the basket canted so far to one side that both its occu- pants and all their loose trappings fell out. In obedience to the frantic commands from above to hold hard, Fuller had al- ready managed to give the rope a twist about his body, and he was hanging on like grim death, rather enjoying the ex- citement and novelty of the struggle. When the momentary pause due to the collision with the tree occurred he took advantage of it to twist the rope about his leg. Then of a sudden there was an up- ward tug that brought his feet clear of the ground. The balloon, having lost much more than half its weight of pas- sengers and ballast, began promptly to rise again. THE -ARGOSY. Fuller knew nothing of what had hap-. pened. He heard startled cries, but sup- posed they came from the men in the basket, which was true enough, but they were at the instant leaving the basket in unpremeditated hurry. He knew that his feet were off the ground, but it did not occur to him that he would not plant them on solid land again the next second. And when the foliage of. the tree brushed his face he was too high aloft to drop with safety, to say nothing of the fact that he could not release himself instantly from the coils he had laid about his body and limbs. The wind, fortunately, blew the bag away from the heavier branches of the tree, and in less time than it has taken to set down the facts Tom Fuller was flying over the landscape in tow of a runaway balloon. The fall of the original aeronauts was considerably broken by the branches of the tree, but neither stirred for some minutes after they landed. Presently one groaned and sat up. He stared about him, probably with a wonder-how-I-came-here look—though one cannot be positive as to that, be- cause it was so dark—but presently he felt along the ground until he came to his companion. In the course of some minutes the first to recover consciousness brought the other to, and then they compared bruises. ~ Neither had a broken bone that could be located, though there were sore spots © enough for the entire anatomical outfit. They struck matches and_ looked around for the wreck of their balloon, finding nothing but. the various small | articles that had fallen from the basket with them. 3 7 “It’s gone!” said one in an awestruck tone, as if announcing a grand discovery. ‘And the chap that tried to stop it must have gone with it,” said the other. It was not thinkable that the fellow could have gone-far, and after they had limbered themselves up a bit they hobbled over the ground near the tree hunting for the rustic’s remains. When ‘they had spent some time and what seemed superhuman effort in their vain search they returned to the tree and held a solemn council. ‘There was not =comicboo | Ny m > ‘S.CO ~ a oi >