tomach high altitudes, you might
recall, and the sight of ten feet of emptiness beneath me was
disquieting.

"Professor," I asked hesitantly, "how do I turn off the belt?"

Burdinghaugh's glass stopped an inch from his lips. "Turn it off?" he
countered thickly.

"_Yes!_" I shouted, now fifteen feet in the air. "How do I turn it off?
How do I get down?"

The Professor gazed up at me thoughtfully. "My boy," he said at last, "I
never thought about getting down--been much too concerned with getting
jolly well _up_."

[Illustration]

"_Burdinghaugh!_" I screamed. "Get me _down_!" I was now twenty feet
above the ground.

"I'm sorry, old boy, dreadfully sorry," he called to me. "I can't. But
don't think your life will have been spent in vain. Indeed not! I'll see
to it that you get proper credit as my assistant when the anti-gravity
belt is perfected. You've been invaluable, dear boy, invaluable!" His
voice faded.

"_Professor!_" I screamed futilely, but by then we were too far apart to
make ourselves heard and, even as I wasted my breath, a gust of wind
caught me and sent me soaring into the air, spinning like a top. But,
just before I entered a cloud, I saw the Professor standing far below,
his feet planted wide apart, his head thrown back while he watched my
progress. I fancied that, as I disappeared into the mist, he waved a
solemn good-by and drank my health.

You can't imagine the torture I went through as I sailed through the
air. During those first few moments, I had felt light, carefree,
buoyant. But, in these higher altitudes, I was buffeted by strong winds,
pelted by rain in enormous quantities and subjected to sudden drops that
had me gasping. How I managed to survive, I can't understand. Surely, I
would have died if I had floated completely out of the atmosphere but,
luckily, the belt's power to lift me leveled off at about 10,000 feet.

For days, I drifted at that altitude, blown willy-nilly by the contrary
winds, starved and bitterly cold. Several times, I tried to steer
myself--but to no avail. I was powerless to control my flight. My sense
of direction left me and I had no idea where I was. Sometimes, I would
look down through a rift in the clouds and see farmland, or perhaps
cities. Once I glimpsed the sea--and shut my eyes.

It was not until the sixth day of my flight that I noticed a change. I
was sinking. Slowly but steadily, I was losing altitude. I was at a loss
to explain this phenomenon