too, but I could not stir a muscle to
prevent it. He said something desperately, but the wind blew it away and
covered his face with his beard, so that I could not see the movement of
his lips."

"It may have been some instructions to us about the management of the
balloon."

"I think not--perhaps a good-bye, or a message to his wife and child.
Poor fellow!"

"How long have we been out of our heads?" and Johnston looked over the
side of the car.

"I have not the slightest idea. Days and nights may have passed since he
fell."

"That is true. I remember coming to myself for an instant, and it seemed
that we were being jerked along at the rate of a gunshot. My God, it
was awful! It was as black as condensed midnight. I felt your warm body
against me and was glad I was not alone. Then I went off again, but into
a sort of nightmare. I thought I was in Hell, and that you were with me,
and that Professor Helmholtz was Satan."

"Where can we be?" asked Thorndyke.

"I don't know; I can't tell what is beneath those clouds. It may be
earth, sea or ocean; we were evidently whisked along in a storm while we
were out of our heads. If we are above the ocean we are lost."

Thorndyke looked over the edge of the car long and attentively, then he
exclaimed suddenly:

"I believe it is the ocean."

"What makes you think so?"

"It reflects the sunlight. It is too bright for land. When we got above
the clouds at the start it looked darker below than it does now; we may
be over the middle of the Atlantic."

"We are going down," said Johnston gloomily.

"That we are, and it means something serious."

Johnston made no answer. Half-an-hour went by. Thorndyke looked at the
sun.

"If the professor had not dropped the compass, we could find our
bearings," he sighed.

Johnston pointed upward. Thin clouds were floating above them. "We are
almost down," he said, and as they looked over the sides of the car they
saw the reflection of the sun on the bosom of the ocean, and, a moment
later, they caught sight of the blue billows rising and falling.

"I see something that looks like an island," observed Thorndyke, looking
in the direction toward which the balloon seemed to be drifting. "It is
dark and is surrounded by light. It is far away, but we may reach it if
we do not descend too rapidly."

"Throw out the last bag of sand," suggested the American, "we need it as
little now as we ever shall."

Thorndyke cut the bag with his kn