and holding fast to whatever they touched, there was no slight
risk of impaling the man, thus giving him the choice of another and
still more painful death.

Then, with a desperate grasp, a death-clutch, he caught one arm of the
grapnel, holding fast as the shock came. He was carried clear of the
tree, and partly submerged in the water as his added weight brought the
flying-machine so much lower.

"Up, up, uncle Phaeton!" fairly howled Waldo, at the same time tugging
at the now taut rope, in which he was ably seconded by his brother. "For
love of--higher, uncle!"

Then the noble machine responded to the touch of its builder, lifting
the dripping stranger clear of the whirling currents, swinging him away
towards yonder higher level, where a fall would not prove so quickly
fatal. And then the eager professor gave a shrill cheer as he saw the
man, by a vigorous effort, draw his body upward sufficiently far to
throw one leg over an arm of the grapnel itself.

Knowing now that the rescued was in no especial peril, uncle Phaeton
left the air-ship to steer itself long enough for his nimble hands to
take several turns of the drag-rope around the cleat provided for
that express purpose, thus relieving both Bruno and Waldo of the heavy
strain, which might soon begin to tell upon them.

"Hurrah for we, us, and company!" cried Waldo, relieving his lungs of
a portion of their pent-up energy, then leaning perilously far over the
edge of the machine to encourage the queer fish he had hooked.

CHAPTER X. RESCUED AND RESCUERS.

Despite their very natural excitement, caused by this peril and its
foiling, Professor Featherwit retained nearly all his customary coolness
and presence of mind.

Readily realising that after such a grim ordeal would almost certainly
come a powerful revulsion, his first aim was to swing the stranger far
enough away from the whirlpool to give him a fair chance for life, in
case he should fall, through dizziness or physical collapse, from the
end of the drag-rope.

This took but a few seconds, comparatively speaking, though, doubtless,
each moment seemed an age to the rescued stranger. Then the professor
slowed his ship, looking around in order to determine upon the wisest
route to take.

For one thing, it would be severe work to draw the stranger bodily
up and into the aerostat. For another, unless he should grow weak, or
suffer from vertigo, both time and labour would be saved by taking him
dir