The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-05-12


Irresistible power upon US. The wrath
of the storm-wipd drove us, like light
ming, into the far, far distance. We
could not lower ourselves, and the bal
loon rose inexorably, always higher, to
the regions in which human life is i'm
possible and where breath fails.
Only too soon we perceived the in
f1uence of the cold and the rarified air.
How high we were | do not know, but
we began to SILVER in the frozen atmos-
phere; our teeth chartered and we
crowded together. DIR. Grassetti soon
grew feeble, began to gasp, staggered,
struggled convulsively, closed his eyes
and moved no more. In the fihe, thin
air one breathes quickly and is soon ex-
hausted. The result is weak ness, pain
in the heart, vertigo, fainting and fin
ally death, If the man does not come
again into air of greater density. A
few minutes after tsrassetti, Zambeccari
also fell and gaze no more signs of life.
Now think of my situation! The wax
light in the lantern was extinguished.
| vainly tried to light it with tapersi it
would not ignite. With much trouble
l obtained light with ordinary matches.
Ithad scarcely succeeded in this when l
was seized with dizziness and faintness.
1t took great force of will to keep on my
legs. Balanced between heaven and
earth, the balloon flew on. swift as an
arrow. At my side lay the two who
had tainted or were dead. was with
out means of delivering myself from so
horrible condition. Yet it became
worse.
Harki What hollow roar was that
below us? 1t was the surging of the
ocean. 1t could be nothing else. We
must have been hurled through the air
distance of over hundred miles, and,
according to the direction of the wind,
had now reached the region of the sea.
What now? 1t would be impossible to
descend until we were again above land.
In vain strove to read the barometer.
My eyes knew nothing more. Faint
ing, stared into the darkness and upon
the moonlight clouds. Not to swoon,
| grasped the side of the basket in which
we sailed.
1t was about quarter after two o'clock;
our fight had lasted an hour and half,
when it seemed to me rs if the clouds
flew upwards. Was it delusion
brought about by my bodily condition?
All at once frightful thought came to
me, the clouds were not floating up,
but we We're falling! | bent over the
side of the basket-yes, yes, l heard
palmer and louder the roar of the ocean
as we rushed downward. How it hap
pened do not know; whether the bal
loon got some opening above, which
let the gas escape, or what else. |
looked over again. Almighty God, be
gracious and merciful to us! We are
about to sink in the sea. gripped the
nearest of my companions, shook him
and called TO him: awake! awake.
We are falling into the ocean, Then
| bent far out again and stared down
ward-yes, there was a gray mass OF
crowding pillows, there it boiled and
seethed and hissed-one moment more
we should be buried in the flood. Fam
beccarir' | shrieked, Selling him in
convulsive grasp, ''we are plunging in
to the seal" and looked over again in
to our watery grave.
The Count lifted his head, and whis-
pered: 'Ballast-out!' slowly raised
himself, mechanically seized the bag of
sand that we had in our basket as
cargo; / laid hold of it, too; Fam
beccari quickly recovered himself, we
worked the bag up, we got it over the
side; the doctor came to himself also,
in a moment understood the situation,
theoretically hurled barometer, COM
pass, the whole collection of instru-
ments and our provisions, all, all over
board. In another moment the basket
touched the water, and we were
drenched by the salt water. But at the
same instant we flew aloft with the
speed of an arrow. We were in the
water only long enough to fill our
basket half fun and wet us to the
skin. The balloon had now nothing to
carry but us three; the water ran out of
the basket, and we flew again into space.
Great Heavens! That was an ascen-
sion! In a thrice we had reached the
clouds-gone through and above them.
Now we poised over the clouds far be-
low; below us the blood red moon shone
on the vaporous masses and on us
poor children of earth, trembling with
cold in our frail basket The cold sud-
denly froze the water; our wet clothes
stabs in every joint; we groaned with
pain; we had no longer any light; we
were so stiff we could scarcely move;
and the wind still drove us continually
northeast. How many hours had
passed. The moon shone clear enough
for us to look, but no one of us could
bend finger to get his watch out of his
pocket. At last Doctor Grassetti sue
ceeded in drawing the Counts watch
out of his vest pocket, and our united
exertions made out that it was ten min
utes past three. When he had achieved
this feat and looked about us, we dis
covered again that we were falling, but
not quickly-not in a way to alarm
only we had now nothing, nothing at
all, to throw out, SO there was no rescue
for us.
The balloon sank more and more
slowly and floated for long time
a few yards above the ocean; but it did
not stay there; we had more danger to
go through, and danger without parallel.
The balloon sank; the basket slid along
the water, drawn with lightning rapid
ity by its globe Of gas. Nearly dead
with anxiety, we chung to the side of the
basket; we shrieked, we trembled, we
crouched, we tried to evade Death,
whose hand was outstretched to seize
us. Suddenly the balloon again flew
twenty or thirty feet high and then
again dragged us close over the water
yet higher, high as a house-now it
sank again and towed us on the waves.
This fearful dance lasted for full five
n kon MI