monkey to
his ropes and did not move a muscle for five minutes.

But there was something very exhilarating, he found, in this dangerous
work, and above every thing else, there was the sense of fellowship. He
was no longer an isolated and distrustful stranger among these others,
he had now a common object with them, he worked with a friendly rivalry
to get through with his share before them. And he developed a great
respect and affection for Kurt, which had hitherto been only latent
in him. Kurt with a job to direct was altogether admirable; he was
resourceful, helpful, considerate, swift. He seemed to be everywhere.
One forgot his pinkness, his light cheerfulness of manner. Directly one
had trouble he was at hand with sound and confident advice. He was like
an elder brother to his men.

All together they cleared three considerable chunks of wreckage, and
then Bert was glad to clamber up into the cabins again and give place to
a second squad. He and his companions were given hot coffee, and indeed,
even gloved as they were, the job had been a cold one. They sat drinking
it and regarding each other with satisfaction. One man spoke to Bert
amiably in German, and Bert nodded and smiled. Through Kurt, Bert, whose
ankles were almost frozen, succeeded in getting a pair of top-boots from
one of the disabled men.

In the afternoon the wind abated greatly, and small, infrequent
snowflakes came drifting by. Snow also spread more abundantly below, and
the only trees were clumps of pine and spruce in the lower valleys.
Kurt went with three men into the still intact gas-chambers, let out
a certain quantity of gas from them, and prepared a series of ripping
panels for the descent. Also the residue of the bombs and explosives in
the magazine were thrown overboard and fell, detonating loudly, in the
wilderness below. And about four o'clock in the afternoon upon a wide
and rocky plain within sight of snow-crested cliffs, the Vaterland
ripped and grounded.

It was necessarily a difficult and violent affair, for the Vaterland had
not been planned for the necessities of a balloon. The captain got
one panel ripped too soon and the others not soon enough. She dropped
heavily, bounced clumsily, and smashed the hanging gallery into the
fore-part, mortally injuring Von Winterfeld, and then came down in a
collapsing heap after dragging for some moments. The forward shield
and its machine gun tumbled in upon the things below. Two men were hur