p of the Gull lantern for
real sport!"

"I say, Jack," cried Mr Welton, who, with Stanley and the others, had
crowded round the successful sportsman, "there are some strange birds on
the ball. Gulls or crows, or owls. If you look sharp and get inside,
you may perhaps catch them by the legs."

Billy Towler heard this remark, and, looking up, saw the two birds
referred to, one seated on the ball at the mast-head, the other at that
moment sailing round it. Now it must be told, and the reader will
easily believe it, that during all this scene Billy had looked on not
only with intense interest, but with a wildness of excitement peculiar
to himself, while his eyes flashed, and his small hands tingled with a
desire to have, not merely a finger, but, all his ten fingers, in the
pie. Being only a visitor, however, and ignorant of everybody and
everything connected with a floating light, he had modestly held his
tongue and kept in the background. But he could no longer withstand the
temptation to act. Without uttering a word, he leaped upon the
rope-ladder of the lantern, and was half way up it before any one
observed him, determined to forestall Jack Shales. Then there was a
shouting of "Hallo! what is that scamp up to?" "Come down, you monkey!"
"He'll break his neck!" "Serve him right!" "Hi! come down, will 'ee?"
and similar urgent as well as complimentary expressions, to all of which
Billy turned a deaf ear. Another minute and he stood on the roof of the
lantern, looking up at the ball and grasping the mast, which rose--a
bare pole--twelve or fifteen feet above him.

"Och! av the spalpeen tries that," exclaimed Jerry MacGowl, "it'll be
the ind of 'im intirely."

Billy Towler did try it. Many a London lamp-post had he shinned up in
his day. The difference did not seem to him very great. The ball, he
observed, was made of light bands or lathes arranged somewhat in the
form of lattice-work. It was full six feet in diameter, and had an
opening in the under part by which a man could enter it. Through the
lozenge-shaped openings he could see two enormous ravens perched on the
top. Pausing merely for a second or two to note these facts and recover
breath, he shinned up the bare pole like a monkey, and got inside the
ball.

The spectators on deck stood in breathless suspense and anxiety, unable
apparently to move; but when they saw Billy clamber up the side of the
ball like a mouse in a wire cage, put forth his