um varnish. A day sufficed
for "paying;" and nothing more remained but to attach the "boat," or
"car," that was to carry them aloft in their daring flight into the
"azure fields of air."

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE.

MAKING READY FOR THE ASCENT.

Karl was the only one of the three who knew anything about a balloon, or
the mode of inflating it. Had it been their intention of navigating the
air, an apparatus would have been required to carry up a fire. This
Karl could easily have contrived. A basket of wicker-work, as he had
said, well lined with clay, would have answered the purpose after a
fashion; but as they did not intend to use the balloon for any purpose
beyond making the single ascent to lift them over the cliffs, a
continuous fire would not be required. The first inflation would answer
that end well enough; and therefore a grate or fire-basket was not
thought of.

The car to carry the passengers--or boat, as it is sometimes styled:
since, for reasons easily understood, it is usually a boat--was quite
another affair; and had it been designed for more than a mere temporary
use, would have taken a considerable time in the making; but for what
they wanted almost anything would serve; and all that they intended
employing was a sort of wicker basket, or deep hamper, suspended by
stout ropes. This had been already prepared; and only needed to be
attached to the bottom of the air-bag.

In the present case, the "bottom of the bag" is quite a figure of
speech--_lucus a non lucendo_. Strictly speaking, it had no bottom;
but, where this should have been, there was a round aperture, formed by
a stout hoop of ringall bamboo, to which the skin covering was lashed,
and to which, also, the cords intended to sustain the afore-mentioned
basket, as also the stay-ropes, were to be attached.

The object of this aperture will be easily understood. It was by it
that the hot air was to be admitted inside the balloon, for the purpose
of inflating it.

And how was this hot air to be obtained? That was a question which Karl
alone could answer. Of course, fire was to be the agent for producing
it: but how was it to be got into the bag? Karl could tell that, and
Karl only; and, now that the time had arrived for trying the experiment,
he condescended to explain to his coadjutors how he meant to proceed.

The bag was to be propped up between tall stakes set in the ground; its
bottomless bottom turned towards the earth, so that t