“Get that end between your legs—that’s right,” bade the aeronaut. “Can you hold on?”
“Hang Tight! Grab the Rope!”
“Y-y-yes,” quavered Ned, for he was badly frightened, and between the queer sensation of the bottom dropping out of everything, and the pressure of the rope about him, he was nearly breathless.
“You’re all hunky, then,” said the aeronaut, cheerily. “In a jiffy we’ll be back. You can’t fall; just hang on and wait.”
“Y-y-yes,” quavered Ned, feeling like a spider on a thread.
It was very still where they were. He heard a faint hissing, and he wondered what it was. The aeronaut had opened the escape valve in the balloon. Ned did not know it, but they were descending.
“How do you like your free ride?” queried the aeronaut, noting Ned’s drawn face, and trying to divert him from thinking on the peril of the situation.
“P-pretty w-well,” replied Ned.