said I, after looking all about the grassy patch on which we
stood, "I am afraid you did not entirely unscrew the instrument, and
that when the weight of the bottles was removed the basket gently
rose into the air."

"It may be so," she said, lugubriously. "The basket was behind me as
I drank my wine."

"I believe that is just what has happened," I said. "Look up there!
I vow that is our basket!"

I pulled out my field-glass and directed it at a little speck high
above our heads. It was the basket floating high in the air. I gave
the glass to my wife to look, but she did not want to use it.

"What shall I do?" she cried. "I can't walk home without that
basket. It's perfectly dreadful!" And she looked as if she was going
to cry.

"Do not distress yourself," I said, although I was a good deal
disturbed myself. "We shall get home very well. You shall put your
hand on my shoulder, while I put my arm around you. Then you can
screw up my machine a good deal higher, and it will support us both.
In this way I am sure that we shall get on very well."

We carried out this plan, and managed to walk on with moderate
comfort. To be sure, with the knapsack pulling me upward, and the
weight of my wife pulling me down, the straps hurt me somewhat,
which they had not done before. We did not spring lightly over the
wall into the road, but, still clinging to each other, we clambered
awkwardly over it. The road for the most part declined gently toward
the town, and with moderate ease we made our way along it. But we
walked much more slowly than we had done before, and it was quite
dark when we reached our hotel. If it had not been for the light
inside the court it would have been difficult for us to find it. A
travelling-carriage was standing before the entrance, and against
the light. It was necessary to pass around it, and my wife went
first. I attempted to follow her, but, strange to say, there was
nothing under my feet. I stepped vigorously, but only wagged my legs
in the air. To my horror I found that I was rising in the air! I
soon saw, by the light below me, that I was some fifteen feet from
the ground. The carriage drove away, and in the darkness I was not
noticed. Of course I knew what had happened. The instrument in my
knapsack had been screwed up to such an intensity, in order to
support both myself and my wife, that when her weight was removed
the force of the negative gravity was sufficient to raise me from
the groun