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"By George, I'm itching to let them have it!" exclaimed Kennedy.
"No, Dick; not now! Don't exasperate them needlessly. That would only be
exciting them to attack us!"
"But I could soon settle those fellows!"
"You may think so, Dick. But you are wrong!"
"Why, we have a bullet for each of them!"
"And suppose that they were to attack the upper part of the balloon, what
would you do? How would you get at them? Just imagine yourself in the
presence of a troop of lions on the plain, or a school of sharks in the open
ocean! For travellers in the air, this situation is just as dangerous."
"Are you speaking seriously, doctor?"
"Very seriously, Dick."
"Let us wait, then!"
"Wait! Hold yourself in readiness in case of an attack, but do not fire
without my orders."
The birds then collected at a short distance, yet to near that their naked
necks, entirely bare of feathers, could be plainly seen, as they stretched
them out with the effort of their cries, while their gristly crests,
garnished with a comb and gills of deep violet, stood erect with rage. They
were of the very largest size, their bodies being more than three feet in
length, and the lower surface of their white wings glittering in the
sunlight.
They might well have been considered winged sharks, so striking was their
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resemblance to those ferocious rangers of the deep.
"They are following us!" said the doctor, as he saw them ascending with him,
"and, mount as we may, they can fly still higher!"
"Well, what are we to do?" asked Kennedy.
The doctor made no answer.
"Listen, Samuel!" said the sportsman. "There are fourteen of those birds; we
have seventeen shots at our disposal if we discharge all our weapons. Have we
not the means, then, to destroy them or disperse them? I
will give a good account of some of them!"
"I have no doubt of your skill, Dick; I look upon all as dead that may come
within range of your rifle, but I
repeat that, if they attack the upper part of the balloon, you could not get
a sight at them. They would tear the silk covering that sustains us, and we
are three thousand feet up in the air!"
At this moment, one of the ferocious birds darted right at the balloon, with
outstretched beak and claws, ready to rend it with either or both.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
CHAPTER THIRTYSECOND.
131
"Fire! fire at once!" cried the doctor.
He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken dead, dropped
headlong, turning over and over in space as he fell.
Kennedy had already grasped one of the twobarrelled fowlingpieces and Joe was
taking aim with another.
Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a moment, but they
almost instantly returned to the charge with extreme fury. Kennedy severed
the head of one from its body with his first shot, and Joe broke the wing
of another.
"Only eleven left," said he.
Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common consent soared
above the balloon. Kennedy glanced at Ferguson. The latter, in spite of his
imperturbability, grew pale. Then ensued a moment of terrifying silence. In
the next they heard a harsh tearing noise, as of something rending the silk,
and the car seemed to sink from beneath the feet of our three aeronauts.
"We are lost!" exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the barometer, which was now
swiftly rising.
"Over with the ballast!" he shouted, "over with it!"
And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared.
"We are still falling! Empty the watertanks! Do you hear me, Joe? We are
pitching into the lake!"
Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out. The lake seemed to come
up toward him like a rising tide. Every object around grew rapidly in size
while they were looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the
surface of Lake Tchad.
"The provisions! the provisions!" cried the doctor.
And the box containing them was launched into space.
Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aeronauts were still
falling, and into the lake.
"Throw out somethingsomething more!" cried the doctor.
"There is nothing more to throw!" was Kennedy's despairing response.
"Yes, there is!" called Joe, and with a wave of the hand he disappeared like
a flash, over the edge of the car.
"Joe! Joe!" exclaimed the doctor, horrorstricken.
The Victoria thus relieved resumed her ascending motion, mounted a thousand
feet into the air, and the wind, burying itself in the disinflated covering,
bore them away toward the northern part of the lake.
"Lost!" exclaimed the sportsman, with a gesture of despair. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]