Nosnibor's house towards the
Queen's workshops. For the moment my pulse ceased beating, and then,
knowing that the time had come when I must either do or die, I called
vehemently to those who were holding the ropes (some thirty men) to let
go at once, and made gestures signifying danger, and that there would be
mischief if they held on longer. Many obeyed; the rest were too weak to
hold on to the ropes, and were forced to let them go. On this the
balloon bounded suddenly upwards, but my own feeling was that the earth
had dropped off from me, and was sinking fast into the open space
beneath.
This happened at the very moment that the attention of the crowd was
divided, the one half paying heed to the eager gestures of those coming
from Mr. Nosnibor's house, and the other to the exclamations from myself.
A minute more and Arowhena would doubtless have been discovered, but
before that minute was over, I was at such a height above the city that
nothing could harm me, and every second both the town and the crowd
became smaller and more confused. In an incredibly short time, I could
see little but a vast wall of blue plains rising up against me, towards
whichever side I looked.
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