“What about them, Mr Goodall?”
“Oh, a great deal. That canvas bag, or cone, can be lowered so as to check our speed, or bring us to on the water, and the other device is to deflect our course, either one way or the other, if we have to drop upon them when the wind is not altogether fair; and then the two combined will furnish us with a fair amount of steering power, if once we lower near the sea, but without dipping into it, Simon.”
“That may be another vital point, sir,” said the detective.
“Yes, and I will tell you of a third. In the event of a scrimmage, we can hoist that lee-board to afford us protection.”
“That may be one more vital consideration, sir. But dare we use firearms under a balloon? Would not the gas become ignited?”
“If we were to blaze away up here it might, but not if we board the lugger under fire, Simon. Do you follow me?”
“I do, sir, without turning a hair, and only wish we had the chance of doing so.”
“You will clearly understand, my plucky friend, that should we swoop down a few thousand feet and come to close quarters, the gas in the lower part of the balloon would shrink, because the atmosphere is heavier on the surface of our planet, and there, if no gas was in the lower portion of our balloon none could pass out to risk an explosion, so that down below arms of precision could be discharged in safety.”
“There’s more to learn in ballooning, Mr Goodall, than a lot of people think of, and I can see now that your plans for guiding might prove, in actual conflict, more reliable than one-half of these pretended inventions for flying and dodging about an enemy and destroying London by dynamite.”
“Yes, it won’t do in aeronautics, Warner, to have much to do with flight, unless you can do it quickly and safely, if I may pun a bit among ourselves up here, for unless you can make a masterly retreat, or an unseen approach in a balloon, it becomes, as you said just now, a sightly target, and is more likely to be brought down by marksmen from below, than for roving riflemen to hit while aloft, or to do harm when they are flicking about hither and thither, and having it sharp themselves, perhaps, between wind and gas.”