small pieces of bread they had given him the night before.
He had hoarded it up all night, and instead of eating it he said with
cheery voice, 'Well, boys, all is up. Divide this among you. It may
give you strength enough to swim.' There was not a man among them that
would touch it until the Professor first partook of it. It was only a
small morsel for each. . . . He said that he had but one
life-preserver on board, and suggested we should draw lots for the man
who should leave and lighten the balloon."

While this discussion was on, the boat approached that saved them.

This simple story of Donaldson's true courage, cheerfulness,
self-denial, readiness to sacrifice himself for others, is no less than
an epic of the noblest heroism that stands an irrefutable answer to the
charge later made that Donaldson sacrificed Grimwood.

Three weeks later--to be precise, on the fifteenth of July--Donaldson
and his beloved airship, the _P. T. Barnum_, made their last ascent,
from Chicago. The balloon was already old--more than a year old--the
canvas weakened and in many places rent and patched, the cordage frail.
In short, the balloon was in poor condition to stand any extraordinary
stress of weather.

His companion on this trip was Mr. Newton S. Grimwood, of _The Chicago
Evening Journal_. Donaldson had expected to be able to take two men;
and Mr. Maitland, of the _Post & Mail_, was present with the other two
in the basket immediately before the hour of starting. At the last
moment Donaldson concluded that it was unwise to take more than one,
and required lots to be drawn. Maitland tossed a coin, called "Heads,"
and won; but Mr. Thomas, the press agent, insisted that the usual
method of drawing written slips from a hat be followed, and on this
second lot-casting Maitland lost his place in the car, but won his life.

The ascent was made about 5 p.m., the prevailing wind carrying them out
over Lake Michigan. About 7 p.m., a tug-boat sighted the balloon, then
about thirty miles off shore, trailing its basket along the surface of
the lake. The tug changed her course to intercept the balloon, but
before it was reached, probably through the cutting away of the drag
rope and anchor, the balloon bounded into the air, and soon
disappeared, and never again was aught of Donaldson or the balloon
_Barnum_ seen by human eye. A little later a storm of extraordinary
fury broke over the lake--a violent electric storm accompanied by