and
even if he did kick himself loose, for his struggles had begun again,
he could not have hurt himself much.

"Back up till we get over that haystack," said Jack, "and then play
out rope till we lower him. It'll make a nice soft jumping-off place."

Tom obeyed, pulling a reverse lever. The Wondership, steered with
skill by Jack's practiced hand, backed slowly up. At length they hung
directly over the haystack. Jack turned and nodded. Tom sprang to the
rope and lowered the indignant farmer into the soft hay. The man lost
no time in disentangling himself. Then he sprang to his feet and began
hurling vituperation at them at the top of his lungs.

"I'll have ther law on yer fer this," he yelled. "Tryin' ter kidnap me
and bustin' down my barn. I'll see whether such goin's on is allowed
in ther sufferin' state uv Massachusetts, yew see if I don't, consarn
yer. I'll----"

But the Wondership, bearing the two boys who could not help laughing
heartily, although they feared serious consequences might come of the
accident, was winging its way onward out of earshot of the not
unnaturally indignant Ezra Perkins.

They passed Rayburn before Jack noticed a peculiar smell in the
atmosphere.

It was leaking gas. Then, for the first time, he recollected that the
farmer might have hit the gas bag above them with his double shots,
although, till then, there had been no indication that such was the
case.

He called Tom to the wheel, explaining his suspicions and clambered
out on the rigging to see if he could find any holes in the balloon.
It would have made a less steady boy dizzy and sick to stand on the
edge of the Wondership, clinging to one of the supports that held the
body of the craft to the gas-bag, while the whole affair plunged and
swayed five hundred feet above the earth. But Jack, used as he was to
navigating the air, felt none of these qualms.

His suspicions were speedily confirmed. There was a jagged hole in the
underbody of the balloon, from which gas was rushing. Jack's face grew
grave. The situation was dangerous.

He knew, as does every balloonist, that out-rushing gas can make an
electric spark in the atmosphere which, in turn, ignites the gas
itself, sometimes with fatal results. Experts in aeronautics attribute
the disasters befalling the long series of Zeppelins, the giant
German dirigibles, to this cause.

"Tom, we must go down. Drop at once," he said. "That old fellow
succeeded in blowing a hole in u