eers to direct the repair
of the Old Bridge and the proposed escape thereby! Meantime Hide and
himself would bring up the fleet to convey the garrison across the lake.

Lycosa and his chief assistant Gossamer lost no time in beginning work.
Their balloons were anchored by strong cords to grass stalks, and hung
in the air swaying backward and forward ready for the embarkation. They
were hammock shaped silken structures, quite wide at the middle, and
gathered into a point at each end. From the bow and stern floated
filaments of silk, which served the purpose of gas in human inventions
for air locomotion, that is to say, they buoyed up the balloon so that
it floated aloft.

The Pixie aeronaut was seated in or beneath his hammock. Gossamer's
hammock or "car," was a rather broad, close ribbon of silk but Lycosa's
was a light meshwork affair, just enough for his body to rest upon, and
which he aptly called his basket.[AH] When the time came to ascend, the
stay lines would be cut, the balloons rise up and be carried along by
the breeze. If he wished to go higher, the balloonist opened his
spinnerets, set his tiny silk factory agoing, and thus by adding to the
number and length of the filaments increased the buoyancy of the
machine. If he wished to descend he gathered up the floating lines into
a little ball underneath his jaws, something like a seaman reefing
sails, and as the surface exposed to the air was diminished, the balloon
descended.

[Illustration: FIGS. 61 and 62.--Madame Lycosa and American Dolomede
Carrying Their Cocoons.]

"Let go the ropes!" shouted Lycosa, as he climbed by a thread into his
car, which swung beneath the netted hammock. The ropes were cut, and
away the voyager went to the Old Bridge, followed by his brother
balloonists. Assisted by the fort engineers, they stretched new cables
across the broken spans, and strengthened the old ones. An hour's steady
service finished all needful repairs. Then Lycosa ascended from one of
the piers, made a survey of the Brownie camp, returned and reported that
the camp had settled into its usual quiet. Rodney and his sailors were
off to the inlet. Being certain that the lost Nurses were not in the
fort, the Brownies had recalled the extra pickets. There was little
more risk in crossing the bridge than had attended the venture of Spite
and Hide, especially as a fog now hung over the shore. Lookouts were
placed upon the shore pier to watch for the fleet. All baggage