made no answer. Indeed they did not understand, though the question
repeated itself.

And at last the monster drove away northward over a crest of pine woods
and was no more seen. They fell into a hot and long disputation....

The hymn ended. The Prince's legs dangled up the passage again, and
every one was briskly prepared for heroic exertion and triumphant acts.
"Smallways!" cried Kurt, "come here!"

5

Then Bert, under Kurt's direction, had his first experience of the work
of an air-sailor.

The immediate task before the captain of the Vaterland was a very simple
one. He had to keep afloat. The wind, though it had fallen from its
earlier violence, was still blowing strongly enough to render the
grounding of so clumsy a mass extremely dangerous, even if it had been
desirable for the Prince to land in inhabited country, and so risk
capture. It was necessary to keep the airship up until the wind fell and
then, if possible, to descend in some lonely district of the Territory
where there would be a chance of repair or rescue by some searching
consort. In order to do this weight had to be dropped, and Kurt was
detailed with a dozen men to climb down among the wreckage of the
deflated air-chambers and cut the stuff clear, portion by portion, as
the airship sank. So Bert, armed with a sharp cutlass, found himself
clambering about upon netting four thousand feet up in the air, trying
to understand Kurt when he spoke in English and to divine him when he
used German.

It was giddy work, but not nearly so giddy as a rather overnourished
reader sitting in a warm room might imagine. Bert found it quite
possible to look down and contemplate the wild sub-arctic landscape
below, now devoid of any sign of habitation, a land of rocky cliffs and
cascades and broad swirling desolate rivers, and of trees and thickets
that grew more stunted and scrubby as the day wore on. Here and there on
the hills were patches and pockets of snow. And over all this he worked,
hacking away at the tough and slippery oiled silk and clinging stoutly
to the netting. Presently they cleared and dropped a tangle of bent
steel rods and wires from the frame, and a big chunk of silk bladder.
That was trying. The airship flew up at once as this loose hamper
parted. It seemed almost as though they were dropping all Canada. The
stuff spread out in the air and floated down and hit and twisted up in a
nasty fashion on the lip of a gorge. Bert clung like a frozen