Without comment or inquiry Ned plunged into the store room and almost instantly reappeared with the light but strong rope landing ladder. The end loops of this he snapped into two rings on the engine room floor and while the passengers on the now fast receding tug on the river beneath could yet make out the details of the rapidly ascending airship, they saw what seemed to be a rope drop suddenly through the bottom of the aeroplane. Then they saw a figure crawling down the rope. It was Ned on the swaying rope ladder. When this nervy young man crawled through the door and risked his life on a few slender strands, it was to make fast a line on the wedged bundle. He could only work with one hand but he had done the same thing on a dirigible balloon and there was no nervousness to delay him.
“All fast,” he shouted after a few moments and Bob and Buck hauled away on the line. And they were just in time. Roy was nearly exhausted. As the new line took the strain off him and Roy straightened up to rest, the deep impress of the crane cord on his hand showed the weight he had been sustaining. But Ned’s work was not done. Still hanging to the fragile, swaying ladder, he tugged at the caught package until at last it began to move toward him.
“Stand by up there,” Ned yelled again. “All take a turn on the rope—she’s comin’.”
With another violent jerk the package came loose, slid forward on the crane and struck Ned’s legs. The hanging ladder flew forward while Ned caught himself with hands and legs and the bundle dropped free, swinging wildly back and forth. Twice, the human, swaying target was struck by the plunging package while Ned hooked his legs and arms desperately around the ladder, and then those in the engine room managed to draw the whirling parcel up to the trap door. Quick hands grasped and dragged it into the car.
The precious packet safe, Roy turned to assist Ned in mounting the ladder and re-entering the cabin. One glance and a frightened cry came from him. There was no one on the rope ladder. Ned had disappeared.
While Roy’s wild cry of alarm yet filled the engine room, other words broke on the ears of the dazed boys.
“What’s the matter with Ned!” came in a shriek through the pilot room tube.