“Isn’t she rising again?” shrilled the excited Bud anxiously.
“Course not, Bud,” Billy told him; “you’re just imagining things again! Hugh, give us a tip if there’s any chance of the old balloon slipping past to one side!”
“Spread out a little, fellows, like a fan; that’s all we need do,” the patrol leader directed. “It looks to me as if we were in the direct line of her flight, and if the wind doesn’t change or a sudden flaw strike in, why, inside of two minutes we’ll either have grabbed that rope or missed connections.”
“Oh! don’t let us make a foozle of it like that!” exclaimed Arthur, who sometimes played golf with an uncle who was very fond of the sport.
He had not dropped his camera, for he meant to take another snapshot when the oncoming balloon had reached a certain large tree that he had selected and for which he had set his focus.
It was this same tree that Hugh was observing with more or less concern. He feared that should there prove to be only a little slant of wind that way, it might catch the drifting balloon and bring about a terrible catastrophe.
As it was, the escape must be a narrow one, for the balloon was heading so as barely to pass the obstruction. And just then, to Hugh’s dismay, he actually felt a puff of air on his right cheek! Up to that moment, the breeze had been coming directly from a quarter in front; but this variation would seem to indicate that a “flaw” could be expected. In mountainous regions there is never any reliance to be placed on the wind, which may seem to blow from half a dozen points of the compass in as many minutes, owing, of course, to the gullies and defiles and cliffs that obstruct a free passage.
“Hugh, she’s veering!” shouted Bud.
“And starting to head straight for that other big tree there, too!” yelped Billy, in turn.
If any one could have seen those boys at that moment, he would surely have realized what an intense interest they were taking in the advance of the drifting balloon and its ill-fated aeronaut. Every face had lost its color, and every eye was bright with excitement.