carefully.

"Give me the dog."

Lady Caroline hurriedly slipped a note under the dog's collar, and
passed over her pet.

Little tied the dog to the handle of the parasol and launched them both
into space. The next moment they were slowly, but tranquilly, sailing
to the earth.

"A parasol and a parachute are distinct, but not different. Be not
alarmed, he will get his dinner at some farm-house."

"Where are we now?"

"That opaque spot you see is London fog. Those twin clouds are North
and South America. Jerusalem and Madagascar are those specks to the
right."

Lady Caroline moved nearer; she was becoming interested. Then she
recalled herself and said freezingly, "How are we going to descend?"

"By opening the valve."

"Why don't you open it then?"

"BECAUSE THE VALVE-STRING IS BROKEN!"

CHAPTER IX.

Lady Caroline fainted. When she revived it was dark. They were
apparently cleaving their way through a solid block of black marble.
She moaned and shuddered.

"I wish we had a light."

"I have no lucifers," said Little. "I observe, however, that you wear
a necklace of amber. Amber under certain conditions becomes highly
electrical. Permit me."

He took the amber necklace and rubbed it briskly. Then he asked her to
present her knuckle to the gem. A bright spark was the result. This
was repeated for some hours. The light was not brilliant, but it was
enough for the purposes of propriety, and satisfied the delicately
minded girl.

Suddenly there was a tearing, hissing noise and a smell of gas. Little
looked up and turned pale. The balloon, at what I shall call the
pointed end of the Bologna sausage, was evidently bursting from
increased pressure. The gas was escaping, and already they were
beginning to descend. Little was resigned but firm.

"If the silk gives way, then we are lost. Unfortunately I have no rope
nor material for binding it."

The woman's instinct had arrived at the same conclusion sooner than the
man's reason. But she was hesitating over a detail.

"Will you go down the rope for a moment?" she said, with a sweet smile.

Little went down. Presently she called to him. She held something in
her hand,--a wonderful invention of the seventeenth century, improved
and perfected in this: a pyramid of sixteen circular hoops of light yet
strong steel, attached to each other by cloth bands.

With a cry of joy Little seized them, climbed to the balloon, and
fitted the el