Below them stretched a great irregular patch of trees, through which alleys had been torn by our own guns, although much of the wood was still standing, and already a hoarse roar of voices came up to their ears as the enemy lining a trench cheered their misfortune.
"We're dropping right into the trees," said Dennis. "Can't we do anything? Are there no means of guiding this brute?"
"None at all," was the reply. "We're entirely at the mercy of the wind; and look out if our cable catches, that's all—unless you want to be jerked into eternity."
They were both peering down over the edge of the basket as he spoke, and the shouting Germans underneath loosed a volley at the derelict.
Dennis heard the envelope tear in fifty places, and their pace lessened perceptibly; and then it seemed to him that his companion threw himself on to the floor of the basket, and he looked at him.
A little red rivulet was flowing from a round hole in the centre of his forehead, and he realised that the lieutenant had been killed instantaneously!
It was a moment or two before he ventured to look down again, and, peeping cautiously over the edge of the car as the cheering became very distinct, he saw the enemy trench pass out of sight beneath him, and felt the basket tearing its way among the topmost branches of the wood.
Something had got to be done, he knew; and as the top of a tall tree rose above the level of his eyes, and the doomed balloon paused with a sickening jerk, he grasped at a branch, flung himself out, and dangled there.
Relieved of his weight, the balloon, almost on the point of collapsing, dragged itself free of the twigs that held it with a last effort, and floated away to drop on the other side of the wood.
He could hear the excited clamour as men left the trench and ran towards it; and even in the midst of his extraordinary peril he was fired with a wild desire to escape.