n
opportunity to win satisfaction greater even than that of keeping on
with us. So he, too, left us here, with the result that the _Graphic_
published a full story of the voyage up to this point, Saturday
afternoon, the twenty-fifth, the _Herald_ and the _World_ trailed along
for second place in their Sunday editions, while _Sun_ and _Tribune_
readers had to wait till Monday morning for such "News from the Clouds"
as Lyons and I had to give them, for wires were not used as freely then
as now.

Our departing mates brought us a rare good breakfast from Mr. Coons'
generous kitchen--a fourteen-quart tin pail well-nigh filled with good
things, among them two currant pies on yellow earthen plates, gigantic
in size, pale of crust, though anything but anaemic of contents. Lyons
finished nearly the half of one before our reascent, to his sorrow, for
scarcely were we off the earth before he developed a colic that seemed
to interest him more, right up to the finish of the trip, than the
scenery.

Bidding our mates good-bye, we prepared to reascend. Many farmers had
been about us holding to our ropes and leaning on the basket, and later
we realized we had not taken in sufficient ballast to offset the weight
of the three men who had left us.

Released, the balloon sprang upward at a pace that all but took our
breath away. Instantly the earth disappeared beneath us. We saw
Donaldson pull the safety valve wide open, draw his sheath knife ready
to cut the drag rope, standing rigid, with his eyes riveted upon the
aneroid barometer. The hand of the barometer was sweeping across the
dial at a terrific rate. I glanced at Donaldson and saw him smile.
Then I looked back the barometer and saw the hand had stopped--at
10,200 feet! How long we were ascending we did not know. Certain it
is that the impressions described were all there was time for, and that
when Donaldson turned and spoke we saw his lips move but could hear no
sound. Our speed had been such that the pressure of the air upon the
tympanum of the ear left us deaf for some minutes. We had made a dash
of two miles into cloudland and had accomplished it, we three firmly
believed, in little more than a minute.

Presently Donaldson observed the anchor and grapnel had come up badly
clogged with sod, and a good heavy tug he and I had of it to pull them
in, for Lyons was still much too busy with his currant pie to help us.
Nor indeed were the currant pies yet done with us,