Then they extended their right hands towards the zenith, to signify that the greatest of known balloons was about to take possession of the supra-terrestrial domain.
A hundred thousand hands were placed in answer on a hundred thousand hearts, and a hundred thousand other hands were lifted to the sky.
The third gun was fired at half-past eleven.
"Let go!" shouted Uncle Prudent; and the "Go-Ahead" rose "majestically"--an adverb consecrated by custom to all aerostatic ascents.
It really was a superb spectacle.
It seemed as if a vessel were just launched from the stocks.
And was she not a vessel launched into the aerial sea?
The "Go-Ahead" went up in a perfectly vertical line--a proof of the calmness of the atmosphere--and stopped at an altitude of eight hundred feet.
Then she began her horizontal maneuvering.
With her screws going she moved to the east at a speed of twelve yards a second.
That is the speed of the whale--not an inappropriate comparison, for the balloon was somewhat of the shape of the giant of the northern seas.
A salvo of cheers mounted towards the skillful aeronauts.
Then under the influence of her rudder, the "Go-Ahead" went through all the evolutions that her steersman could give her.
She turned in a small circle; she moved forwards and backwards in a way to convince the most refractory disbeliever in the guiding of balloons.
And if there had been any disbeliever there he would have been simply annihilated.
But why was there no wind to assist at this magnificent experiment?
It was regrettable.
Doubtless the spectators would have seen the "Go-Ahead" unhesitatingly execute all the movements of a sailing-vessel in beating to windward, or of a steamer driving in the wind's eye.
At this moment the aerostat rose a few hundred yards.
The maneuver was understood below.
Uncle Prudent and his companions were going in search of a breeze in the higher zones, so as to complete the experiment.
The system of cellular balloons--analogous to the swimming bladder in fishes--into which could be introduced a certain amount of air by pumping, had provided for this vertical motion.
Without throwing out ballast or losing gas the aeronaut was able to rise or sink at his will.
Of course there was a valve in the upper hemisphere which would permit of a rapid descent if found necessary.
All these contrivances are well known, but they were here fitted in perfection.
The
"Go-Ahead" then rose vertically.
Her enormous dimensions gradually grew smaller to the eye, and the necks of the crowd were almost cricked as they gazed into the air.
Gradually the whale became a porpoise, and the porpoise became a gudgeon.
The ascensional movement did not cease until the
"Go-Ahead" had reached a height of fourteen thousand feet.
But the air was so free from mist that she remained clearly visible.
However, she remained over the clearing as if she were a fixture.
An immense bell had imprisoned the atmosphere and deprived it of movement; not a breath of wind was there, high or low.
The aerostat maneuvered without encountering any resistance, seeming very small owing to the distance, much as if she were being looked at through the wrong end of a telescope.
Suddenly there was a shout among the crowd, a shout followed by a hundred thousand more.
All hands were stretched towards a point on the horizon.
That point was the northwest.
There in the deep azure appeared a moving body, which was approaching and growing larger.
Was it a bird beating with its wings the higher zones of space?
Was it an aerolite shooting obliquely through the atmosphere?
In any case, its speed was terrific, and it would soon be above the crowd.
A suspicion communicated itself electrically to the brains of all on the clearing.
But it seemed as though the "Go-Ahead" had sighted this strange object.
Assuredly it seemed as though she feared some danger, for her speed was increased, and she was going east as fast as she could.
Yes, the crowd saw what it meant!
A name uttered by one of the members of the Weldon Institute was repeated by a hundred thousand mouths:
"The "Albatross!"
The "Albatross!"" Chapter XXIII THE GRAND COLLAPSE _____
It was indeed the