"Rub your hands well," cautioned Fuller. "You'll have to be slippy getting that buckle unfastened. Directly we touch we must cast off simultaneously, or one of us will have another voyage through the air. We are now less than a thousand feet up, I think."
The balloon was again falling, although its descent was by no means rapid. The chums could now hear sounds coming from the country beneath them; even a horse trotting and a man whistling. Yet, with the exception of the lights, nothing was visible. Even the nature of the country, whether flat or hilly, open or wooded, was veiled by the darkness.
"What's that?" asked Tressidar, as a number of dark conical projections seemed to flit past only a few feet beneath them.
"Tree tops," replied Fuller. "We've just missed being left on the top branches of some pines. By Jove, there's quite a steady breeze. If we crash into anything there'll be trouble."
Almost as he spoke Tressidar's feet came in contact with the ground. Then like an indiarubber ball the balloon shot ten feet in the air and again dropped, until the sub. found his boots trailing over a field of grass.
"Stand by!" shouted Fuller warningly. "Mind you don't get entangled in the netting."
Both men unbuckled their straps. They were now clinging with both hands to the network. The bumps became more and more violent, as the balloon lost buoyancy, but at the same time their rate of progress over the ground was too quick to enable them to find a footing.
Suddenly their boots caught in the top rail of a fence.
"Let go!" shouted Fuller.
Tressidar obeyed promptly, to find himself sprawling head downwards in a ditch. Regaining his feet, he found his chum kneeling a few feet from him. There was no sign of the balloon. Relieved of the twenty-four stone weight of the two passengers, it had soared upwards once more and had vanished from their sight.