"'Pon my word," he spluttered time and again. "'Pon my word, that experience was really terrifying. I felt positively scared, frightened, almost paralysed by the enormity of the danger."
Once more he mopped his forehead, while the genial Andrew regarded him with friendly interest.
"Quite so, quite so, Colonel," he ventured. "Narrow shave; very. I'd have been scared, too, dreadfully, I do assure you. How many of the rascals were there?"
"Rascals! What! You don't think?" began the gallant officer, still mopping his forehead, and regarding Andrew with every sign of indignation. And then he smiled, the first time since he had set foot on the airship. "Really, Mr. Provost, I think? Yes, Mr. Provost, you do not think that I was referring to those rascals from whom we so recently escaped? I, er—don't you know—I am not in the habit of being scared when in the execution of my duty, and escape from those Turkish ruffians was distinctly a duty. I was referring to the manner in which I was plucked from the terrace of that minaret and whisked upward. 'Pon my word, my scalp feels sore after such an experience. Forgive me if I say it, but wonderful though that experience was, it was also terrifying."
It well might be, and indeed Dick and those fine tars, Hawkins and Hurst, and the others had felt the same sort of terror. For think of the nerve-racking journey which the Colonel had taken. Alec's frantic waving, and Mr. Midshipman Hamshaw's equally mad behaviour had heralded the advent of Joe Gresson's marvellous airship. As that forlorn little party stood upon the gallery of the minaret attached to that great mosque in Adrianople, with those fanatical Turks howling within but a few feet of them, and kept at bay merely by the thickness of a door, a huge, transparent shape had dropped towards them. At one moment, when Alec first sighted it, it presented but a speck in the sky. And then it had positively fallen towards the minaret till one could see the figures on her main gallery. Instantly that familiar lift had swung downward, turning and twisting giddily upon its single strand of steel wire, till the dangling platform was actually resting on the gallery which supported Dick and his friends.
"All aboard!" that worthy called out cheerfully.
"First lift the Commander in. Now, Colonel."
"Get on that frail craft! Be whisked aloft!"
Who can wonder if the gallant Colonel did demur for the moment? For a fresh breeze caught that thin steel rope and swayed it from side to side, causing it to drag and pluck at the platform.