Then he looked ahead and saw he was rushing rapidly toward a dense mass of clouds to the southeast.
The boy had noticed the clouds while running toward Lendham.
They betokened a thunderstorm, and already the mutterings of thunder came to his ears.
“A storm would be more than I bargained for,” he thought. “I wonder if I can’t get away from it?”
Leo had heard tell of going up above a storm when the latter hung low.
He did not know if he could make a hot-air balloon go up, but he resolved to try.
With great rapidity he threw out one sandbag after another.
Lightened of a great part of its load, the balloon shot up a hundred feet or more.
Then the boy noticed a large sponge tied to the side of the basket and beside a can labeled alcohol.
At once he saturated the sponge and placed it on the stick for that purpose.