The attacker seemed to be coming on gaily, or, at least, without any great trouble, when another blast caught him and spun him round like a great top. Then, ere he could reach the gallery, it carried him downwards with a sudden swoop, and left him helpless, but unhurt, at the foot of the building.
He picked himself up, and a crowd of his friends seized upon him and half-carried, half-dragged him back to a distance which they considered necessary for another attempt.
'We had a narrow escape,' Alondra declared. 'He is a plucky fellow; and he was as cool and unflustered just then as if there had been no roaring wind playing around. I saw it in his eye. It was lucky I did see it, and rushed you two into shelter in time.'
'We have to thank you for being so prompt, then,' Jack answered. 'We must be more careful next time. He 'll have another try, I suppose?'
'I don't know. I almost doubt if he will risk it, plucky as he evidently is. You can hear how the wind is increasing.'
He opened the door a little way as he spoke, and such a gust came in as almost forced it out of his hand.
'It's a regular tempest!' cried Gerald. 'The building itself seems to rock about with it and almost feels as if it might blow over.'
'Yes, it will certainly stop any further attempts of that kind,' Alondra decided. 'No man who is not a fool or a madman would trust himself on wings in such a storm. His life would not be worth a minute's purchase. He would be likely to be blown against the first thing that came in his way, and have his brains dashed out. No airship, even—unless it were the great Ivenia—could make headway against such a wind.'
'What you say is true enough, Prince; yet I am afraid we shall have to show ourselves mad enough to risk it,' said Malto, who had re-entered the apartment unperceived. 'If the chance were offered you of trying to escape on wings, now, at this moment, or waiting to be pounced upon by Agrando's people later on, which would you choose?'
'What is the use of asking such a question?' Alondra queried in return, somewhat impatiently. 'Surely we have something more urgent to think of just now than'——