“My own efforts, uncle, will not be in the form of flight; but they may tend to expose the extravagances of those who pretend that they can steer and fly.”
“And what then are you going to do with balloons?”
“I hardly know at present, uncle, but I hope to show that balloons and an air-ship can be made to do much more useful work than they are supposed to be capable of performing.”
“Well, Harry, if in that negative style you can do the least good, I wish you success, but I strongly recommend you to let aeronautics alone, and to seek my friend Squire Dove and his daughter. That will be a more profitable pastime, I should say.”
CHAPTER V
SCHEMING!
Harry Goodall returned to his rooms on Sydenham Hill, having travelled with the ship photographer, whose productions had worked such a marvellous change in Uncle Goodall.
A monetary settlement was speedily arrived at the same evening, when a lively chat ensued, in which the aeronaut agreed with the photographer as to the gentleman on the lake being known to Mr Goodall, who advised his nephew, after the dispute at his residence, to pull off his ascents quickly. However, the cheery conclusion of the aeronaut’s interview caused him to sleep soundly and to be up in good time the next morning to meet Tom Trigger, who had taken the opportunity of his master’s absence to go down with his Lucy to her new situation in Sussex, after which outing, Tom brought back such agreeable recollections of his trip, that Harry Goodall had to listen to what he had seen, and how the gamekeeper, Bennet, had given him a turn at rabbit shooting with a wonderful killing gun, which Trigger was supposed to have handled with surprising dexterity. He ended his story by saying that Lucy’s last words to him were that he should be kind to Miss Chain, who had been so cruelly imposed upon by the man whose shadow on the screen she had positively identified, and which Harry Goodall began himself to infer was no other than a correct representation of the mysterious Mr Falcon.
“But hold on, Tom,” cried his master, as his assistant was proceeding with what he had seen and done; “we shall have to finish your trip as we walk through the Palace. I am very glad to hear that Lucy has found such a nice situation, and as to Miss Chain’s tormentor, you and I may settle the reckoning with him some day perhaps, but I must remind you that we have not a moment to spare, for, weather permitting, an ascent must positively take place to-morrow.”
“Very good, sir,” said Trigger; “and may I ask how you got on with your uncle, sir?”
“The finish was better than the start, Tom. I held my ground and stood to my guns during a hotly-contested action on both sides, when a lucky turn was given to the affair by the arrival of a photographer from this establishment.”