“Balloon ‘Monarch.’
“DeGraw, Pilot.
“Launched at St. Louis July 4. Sixty-seven hours up. Last bag ballast but two. Please notify committee through New York newspapers.”
“Butt in; I’m listening, Frank!”
Then the two boys stood there and stared at each other, as though hardly able to grasp what the whole thing meant, but the one positive fact that stood out was that this sandbag must have come down from a passing balloon!
CHAPTER VI.
BLOOMSBURY IS BOOKED FOR FAME.
“Please pinch me, Frank!” said Andy, weakly.
“What for? Do you think you’re asleep?” asked the other, himself hardly able to believe what his eyes had read.
“It seems like a dream. I just can’t understand it all. Yet there’s the message all right that dropped down from the clouds. And we sure heard voices. Tell me I’m not seeing things that don’t exist, Frank. Say something, for goodness sake!”
Frank did manage to arouse himself at last.
“Well,” said he, slowly and seriously; “let’s look at this thing a bit closer. We were waked up by a big bang. Then we thought we heard voices that gradually grew fainter. You got the notion in your head you glimpsed some sort of flying thing that disappeared over the tree tops to the east. Finally, we picked up this sandbag, made just like those we saw with that balloon that was down at the aviation meet on Long Island. That about covers the business, I reckon.”