, 1921-02-10

squealed Thief PickpocketI' so loud
you could have heard him a mile.
Il broke away from him. and slip
pin the leather into my own pocket,
tried to butt through the crowd to the
rope. i s'pose 1t was one of them
times people call psychological mo-
ments. You see, the crowd was sOr
cause the balloon ascension had fiz-
zled, and just the minute it was sorest
l makes u mess of my little dip act,
which gives the push a good excuse
to get rid of their spite ON me.
Say, when they closed on me, yellin'
and %cussin'. with the old buck scream
in Stop thief" just behind me. they
didn't look so dead easy as they had
an hour before when l first contem-
plated workin' the dip on them.
1T was up to me TO do a hurried
fade away. tripped up one man.
and gave w others the straight arm.
Then | jumped the rope and made for
that restless balloon, with the pack
yelpin' close. at my heels. An as /
ran. II crazy scheme flashed into my
mind and | whipped out my knife and
opened the biggest blade.
Honest, to this day | don't know
how ! had the nerve to do It. but when
l reached the balloon ! jumped INTO
the trapeze-bar, which was swingin'
low, n with one slash of the knife
l cut the moorin' rope.
Something gave me a fierce yank up
ward.
Then | looked down.
Holy smokel The fair ground,
the crowd. and the whole earth was
droppin' away from me so fast my
heart stood still. didn't look down
again. but put all my effort in a des-
perate attempt to stick to the bar. II
whipped about, and swayed and twist
ed. while that crazy old balloon laid
over In a fashion that made me shut
my eyes and bite my lips until ] could
taste blood.
Il don't know how long his lasted.
II seemed ages. But by and by we
must have risen higher. for the balloon
righted itself and sailed along easy
n gentle as could b e
After q long time l screwed up my
courage and looked down. Miles and
hifC OCAoM mt was tnt nkkit Oiu
earth. lookin' Ike a kids toy village
laid out on a table. Then the sun
went down and IL grew cold.
"When, I looked down next I could
see the toy village comm up, and ]
knew we was sinkin'. | honestly
b1ieve II I'd "a known how to get that
parachute loose I'd lone II an taken
my chances then an there. As II was.
] could only hold on with shakin' knees
and chntterln' teeth. and hope the
earth wouldn't bin me too hard when
II got up to us.
ut grew dark fast now, and we must
have sunk into a layer OF wind again.
for the balloon began to switch about
in scandaious fashion. Talk about
your buckiD' broncosi felt as II /
could take my chances with any of
EN- after that. We went lower still.
until we was just clearin' the tops OF
the trees. All at once ] noticed on the
~spread-bar above my head a coil OF
rope and q dinky little grapplin' an
Choir. Five times ] tried before ] had
the nerve to reach with one hand and
loosen that coil of rope.
when finally ! did get II loose and
drop the anchor we was tearin' along
above n stretch OF pine woods, and
just as ! let go the anchor we came
upon a clearin' all lighted up with
gasoline torches. All around was
rows of benches with q lot of people
on them. listenin' to a tall man who
was wavin' his arms and bellowfp' o
hymn. Say. I'D never been TO q camp
meetin' In my life. nj ] knew one
soon's ] spotted IL.
81 let out a yell as. the anchor
caught beneath the rea seat. ripped II
up. and spilled three good sisters into
a promiscuous heap. The hymn
stopped sudden. There was yells and
bawls. Then that meetin' scattered's
II a cyclone had struck II.
Everybody seemed to lose his head
'cept the tall man, and he made one
dive for the anchor rope and hung on
for dear life.
keep holdr ] yelled. Keep hold
Don't let me Iooser
"And hat old psalm-singer was
dead-game. He got hoisted up, banged
into trees. dragged through under
brush. but still he hung on. yellin' TO
the others to come and help him, and
calm 'em all sorts of variations on
white-iivered and chicken-hearted.
We'll, after a bit some fifteen or
twenty of 'em got hold OF the rope
with him and managed to pull me
down to earth.
Say, ] couldn't believe II was true
when ! found solid ground beneath
me once more. | was lei crazy with
JOY. ! was laughin' and cussin' alI at
once. and between times ! was slappin'
the tall ove on the back and tellln'
him what a dend-game sport he was,
Then I pulled ouf my roll-every last
dollar OF II.
"'Hns the collection been took p says