nst a bar and rested. Only now was it brought home
to him that it would be impossible for him to find his way back to the
plank.

A long time must have passed, for, looking out to sea, he could see
the squadron now, minute points on the horizon, exuding smudges of
smoke. The dirigible was still invisible. The airplanes had either
left the tarmac or had been wrapped in the gas-impregnated cloth, for
both they and the aviators had vanished.

Suddenly Dick had an odd sensation that the iron was growing warm.

In another moment or two he had no doubt of it. The iron bar he
clutched was distinctly warm; it was growing hot. He shifted his grasp
to the adjacent bar and even in that moment the heat had increased
perceptibly.

Suddenly there came a vibration, a sense of movement. Dick was being
swung outward. The whole dome seemed to be dropping into space. He dug
his feet and fingers under the hot rods, and felt himself sliding over
on his back.

Back--back, till he was lying horizontally in space, and clutching
desperately at the iron bar, which was growing hotter every moment.

The sliding movement ceased. It was as if the whole upper section of
the glass dome had opened outward. But the heat of the bars was
becoming unbearable, and gusts of hot air seemed to be proceeding from
within.

Hot or not, Dick's only alternative was to work his way back to the
stable portion of the dome, or to frizzle until he dropped through
space.

Clinging desperately to the bars, he began working back, reaching from
bar to bar with his right hand and dragging his feet, with the
clanking chain attached, from bar to bar also.

* * * * *

How he gained the base of the dome he was never able afterward to
understand. The heat had grown intolerable; his hands were blistering.
Somehow he reached it. He rested a moment despite the heat. But to
find the plank walk was clearly impossible. In another minute he must
drop. Better that than to fry there like St. Lawrence on his griddle.

And then, just when he had resigned himself to that last drop, there
came an unexpected diversion. Almost beside him a window was hung
back. A man looked out. Dick saw one of the workmen in the blue
blouses, and, behind him, within the dome, what seemed like an empty
room.

Dick was slightly above the man. As his head and shoulders appeared,
he let himself go, landing squarely across his back. He slid down his
shoulders through