to overtake. These directions he received
with a scornful half smile; obviously he never expected to see the
chute open.

We got all set, the blimp circling overhead, Tristan upside down in
his seat suspended skyward, a desperately grim look on his face; and
Alice almost in collapse. We were all spared the agony of several
hundred feet of unbroken fall; the parachute was open on the ground,
and rose at a leisurely speed, but too fast at that for the comfort of
any of us. I don't think the wondering crowd and the dumbfounded
circus people ever saw a stranger sight than that chute drifting
upward into the blue. We heard nothing of "hidden wires," then or ever
after! The white circle grew pitifully small and forlorn against the
fathomless azure; and suddenly we noticed that the blimp seemed to be
merely drifting with the wind, making no attempt to get under--or
over--Tristan. Our hearts labored painfully. Had the engines broken
down? Alice buried her face against my sleeve with a moan.

"I can't look ... tell me!"

I tried to--in a voice which I vainly tried to make steady.

All at once the blimp went into frenzied activity--we learned
afterwards that its crew of three, captain included, had been so
completely paralyzed by the reality of the event that they had
forgotten what they were there for until almost too late. Now we heard
the high note of its overdriven engines as it rolled and rocked toward
the rising chute. For a moment the white spot showed against its gray
side, then tossed and pitched wildly in the wake of the propellers as,
driven too hastily and frenziedly, the ship overshot its mark and the
captain missed his grab.

* * * * *

I could only squeeze Alice tightly and choke as the aerial objects
parted company and the blue gap between them widened. Instantly, avid
to retrieve his mistake, the captain swung his craft in a wild careen
around and a spiral upward. But he tried to do too many things at a
time--make too much altitude and headway both at once. The blimp
pitched steeply upward to a standstill, barely moving toward the
parachute. Quickly it sloped downward again and gathered speed,
nearing the chute, and then making a desperate zoom upward on its
momentum. Mistake number three! He had waited too long before using
his elevator; and the chute fled hopelessly away just ahead of the
uptilted nose of the blimp. I could only moan, and Alice made no sound
or movement.