Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-06-02

SFoJeS9ue nickname OF Neck-Or-
: Nothing had been earned by fifty
prisoD=breakings and hair-breadth
evaslons from justice. And here
was |, Edward Holmes, artist, voy-
aging by night in a balloon, in com
pany with q runaway galiey-slave,
well armed with knife and pistol, and
more than a match in strength for
me, even had be been less well pro-
videdl
/ My terrible companion was only
too much disposed to be talkative;
and es we swept onward before the
freshening wind be was kind enough
TO favor me with q few brief anec-
dotes Of his past career, in which the
i jocose and horrible seemed to min
| gle in cynic confusion. The one
point on which he was uncOmmuni--
cative was the manner of his recent
escape from Toulon; or how-prob-
ably owing to the completely of 9TH
ers=-he became possessed of the
weapons. But he told graphically
of the ten days of hardship and hum
ger which be had endured while /
skalking among the rocky hills by /
night, and lying hidden among thor
ny brakes by day, until at last he
broke into paan of triumph in re-
lating how he had encountered and |
robbed the true NJ. de Villeneuve on
his way to the village fete.
Twenty shining maps in his purse,
the idiotl he said exultingly, and |
three thousand francs besides in !
notes. Well, well, / left him gagged |
and bound to a tree, after I had TAX
en- the freedom to change clothes
with him; and there he stands, no
doubt, trembling, but fortunate to |
keep whole skin, And / found ii
his pocket a letter of M. Killick, |
promising to take him as a passen-
ger in the balloon here, and So
And so the idea had presented it.
self to this daring and ready-witted |
rufian to personate the victim of his
recent robbery, and thus to procure
the means OF flight IN what was GER
tainly an unexampIed fashion, while
was the luckless scapegoat Of his
audaciohs enterprise. p a's4 II
Meanwhile the wind, as have
said, was rising, and as we hurried
on | looked doWnwards, and saw by
the shimmerihg Of the moonlight on
the tremulous waves that the sea was
below US. / could not fOrbeaF from
an exclamation of dismay.
The desperado at my side also
looked down. Hg
Baht sea or land-what matters it, /
he said reeklessly. Throw out bal
last; do yOu hear me? and unwilling
" complied. t6h
The balloon instantly rose, and it
presently became perceptibly colder,
80 that I sh;yered and had to ehafe
my hands together to prevent them
from stifening. My eOmpanion's
iron frame showed no signs of suffer
ing from the abrupt lowering of the
temperature; but after time the
Defiance seemed to be near the sea,
for l heard the low roar of the waves;
and then Risque-son-eou impatiently
flung out another bag of ballast, and
we rose. ~ .--l Il
Vague, like the visions of a dream, /
are my recollections of the voyage
of that miserable night, spent thus,
and in such company. Isufered
much from cold and fatigue, and it
was mechanically that I obeyed the |
directions of the escaped gafley-slaye |
who had now assumed command. |
There was no doubt now about the
fxity of his determination TO contin-
ue the desperate fight until we
should be across the French frontier.
How long our aerial journey might
prove, undertaken as it was without
warm clothing, provisions or brandy,
/ could not conjecture, while 1T was
certain that we were burrying along
at swift pace--how swift / had no
means of csleulating-before the
pressure ofthe strong wind.
So far as / could tell, the direction
of the wind was q uniform one-l
steadily from northeast by east. The
sea which / had seen beneath us was,
no doubt, q part of the Gulf, lying /
somewhere between the mouths Of
the River Rhone and the Spanish
border, but the remainder of our
route was, in theory mere guess
work. A slight shift in the wind
might cause US to be carried out in
to the broad Mediterranean-eyen
did we but drift beyond the Straits,
into the broader Atlantic to perish, |
as many balloon voyager has died,
without record of his fate. Where
abouts we were / could not tell. The
dark, blurred outlines of what lay
beneath seemed to indicate hills and
woods, not sea. +
If we come down in France, my
young friend, said the strident voice
Of the escaped convict, as we hoated |
through masses Of misty vapor, the
condensed moisture of which wetted
me to the skin, you may bid adieu to
whatever home ties and British affec-
tions your insular heart may cherish.
It's no fault of yours, you win say, if
the wind carries this fiapping gas
bag to Potion or the NiVernais. No.
but is Risque-sonscoa 20 wait while
the young Englishman crawls to the
nearest brigade of gendarmerie to
give notice that his fellow traveller
was Peter Paul Grincheux, Jorcate en-
rupture de baRH Thank you, ] prefer
to keep my own counsel. So sure as
we drop where Napoleon is Emper-
OF, and the 06iciat Journal posted
on the walls of the Poste de Police,
prove that one can keepa secret
better than two.
There's something wrong with the
valves, said my companion, roughly,
an hour later; the gas, diablel is COM
ing down, and we are sinking. It's
for you, aeronaut, to ascend the net
ting and stop the escape Of the gas.
was very reluctant TO obey. To
climb the netting of a balloon, when
at a great height above the earth, is
never a very pleasant task; but to do
so, leaving behind me a rnffian who
at any moment might pistol or stab
me as descended, thus relieving
himself from an inconvenient wit
rass MA, s,,I,,l s-l-.o..o Hourav- I