the sky. I
just noted these things, but I could not heed them. I could heed
nothing, till, as I peered into the darkness of the alley, I perceived a
white figure gliding swiftly towards me. I bounded towards it, and ere
thought could either prompt or check, I had caught Arowhena to my heart
and covered her unresisting cheek with kisses.

So overjoyed were we that we knew not how to speak; indeed I do not know
when we should have found words and come to our senses, if the maid had
not gone off into a fit of hysterics, and awakened us to the necessity of
self-control; then, briefly and plainly, I unfolded what I proposed; I
showed her the darkest side, for I felt sure that the darker the prospect
the more likely she was to come. I told her that my plan would probably
end in death for both of us, and that I dared not press it--that at a
word from her it should be abandoned; still that there was just a
possibility of our escaping together to some part of the world where
there would be no bar to our getting married, and that I could see no
other hope.

She made no resistance, not a sign or hint of doubt or hesitation. She
would do all I told her, and come whenever I was ready; so I bade her
send her maid to meet me nightly--told her that she must put a good face
on, look as bright and happy as she could, so as to make her father and
mother and Zulora think that she was forgetting me--and be ready at a
moment's notice to come to the Queen's workshops, and be concealed among
the ballast and under rugs in the car of the balloon; and so we parted.

I hurried my preparations forward, for I feared rain, and also that the
King might change his mind; but the weather continued dry, and in another
week the Queen's workmen had finished the balloon and car, while the gas
was ready to be turned on into the balloon at any moment. All being now
prepared I was to ascend on the following morning. I had stipulated for
being allowed to take abundance of rugs and wrappings as protection from
the cold of the upper atmosphere, and also ten or a dozen good-sized bags
of ballast.

I had nearly a quarter's pension in hand, and with this I fee'd
Arowhena's maid, and bribed the Queen's foreman--who would, I believe,
have given me assistance even without a bribe. He helped me to secrete
food and wine in the bags of ballast, and on the morning of my ascent he
kept the other workmen out of the way while I got Arowhena into the car.
She came w