Like a hawk swooping down on its prey, and with the same graceful curve, the "Rolla" clears, with ten feet to spare, the crest of the last trees.
We hear the guide-rope dragging in the branches.
As quick as a flash the captain has the anchor overboard.
But the gale is driving us on, and the iron teeth fail to bite the sod.
We clutch at the hoop and the rigging above, and with a crash, the basket strikes the earth.
The balloon bounds on several hundred feet, rolling like a huge football. We are dragged, tossed, bumped, and bruised. Everything in the basket is smashed, and the claret on the captain's face looks like blood.
I barely have time to disengage my neck from a couple of slender and wiry net ropes that are doing their best to strangle me.
A peasant, mowing near by, hears our cries; he drops his scythe, and kicking off his wooden shoes, tugs at the guide-rope lustily.
The anchor has found a soft spot, suddenly the cable tightens, and our aerial trip is ended.
By this time a few excited villagers have come to the rescue from the neighboring fields.
As we crawl from under the tangled mass of net-work and rigging, a terrorized child falls in a fit at the sight of this unusual performance, rolling in the grass and screaming with fright.
We are both rather pale and a bit weak in the knees; but, oh! the exquisite sensation to feel the good old Earth under our feet again!
A few steps away, "Rolla" lies panting in the sunshine.
With every gust of wind he seems to exhale his life.
His quivering form is sinking rapidly; we hear his heavy sighs and watch his quivering skin.
The plucky little fellow makes another desperate effort to rise up to the spheres he has conquered; but his strength at last betrays him, and he falls back on the green, empty, motionless, dead.
"In the pilgrimage many things happen that are not to the taste of the pilgrim."
Sheik Ali Mohammed: _The Rose of Bagdad._
ELEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE COPIES OF THIS BOOK ON OLD STRATFORD DECKLE-EDGE PAPER AND THIRTY COPIES ON IMPERIAL JAPAN VELLUM HAVE BEEN PRINTED FOR ELDER AND SHEPARD BY THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PRESS IN THE YEAR MCMII, AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED.
Illustration captions in { braces} have been added by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader.