h. Either I failed, a while
back, in painting the emotions of my descent of the Devil's Elbow, or
the reader knows that I am a chicken-hearted fellow about a height. I
make him a present of the admission. Set me on a plane superficies, and
I will jog with all the _insouciance_ of a rolling stone: toss me in
air, and, with the stone in the child's adage, I am in the hands of the
devil. Even to the qualified instability of a sea-going ship I have ever
committed myself with resignation rather than confidence.

But to my unspeakable relief the _Lunardi_ floated upwards, and
continued to float, almost without a tremor. Only by reading the
barometer, or by casting scraps of paper overboard, could we tell that
the machine moved at all. Now and again we revolved slowly: so Byfield's
compass informed us, but for ourselves we had never guessed it. Of
dizziness I felt no longer a symptom, for the sufficient reason that the
provocatives were nowhere at hand. We were the only point in space,
without possibility of comparison with another. We were made one with
the clean silences receiving us; and speaking only for the Vicomte Anne
de Saint-Yves, I dare assert that for five minutes a newly bathed infant
had not been less conscious of original sin.

"But look here, you know"--it was Byfield at my elbow--"I'm a public
character, by George; and this puts me in a devilish awkward position."

"So it does," I agreed. "You proclaimed yourself a solitary voyager: and
here, to the naked eye, are four of us."

"And pray how can I help that? If, at the last moment, a couple of
lunatics come rushing in----"

"They still leave Sheepshanks to be accounted for." Byfield began to
irritate me. I turned to the stowaway. "Perhaps," said I, "Mr.
Sheepshanks will explain."

"I paid in advance," Mr. Sheepshanks began, eager to seize the opening
presented. "The fact is, I'm a married man."

"Already at two points you have the advantage of us. Proceed, sir."

"You were good enough, just now, to give me your name, Mr.----"

"The Vicomte Anne de Keroual de Saint-Yves."

"It is a somewhat difficult name to remember."

"If that be all, sir, within two minutes you shall have a _memoria
technica_ prepared for use during the voyage."

Mr. Sheepshanks harked back. "I am a married man, and--d'ye see?--Mrs.
Sheepshanks, as you might say, has no sympathy with ballooning. She was
a Guthrie of Dumfries."

"Which accounts for it, to be sure," said I.

"T