“About ten or twelve miles.”
Dismayed, Jessamy exclaimed: “We are an hour behind, then!”
“Rather more — probably very much more!”
“Hold on, sir!” interrupted Curry. “Seems to me it is coming down!”
Jessamy stared at the balloon until his eyes watered. He brushed his hand across them, saying angrily: “Oh, curse this sunshine! It isn’t coming down! It’s as high as — No, by Jove, it is, it is! Look, sir!”
Alverstoke cast a fleeting glance at it. “It is undoubtedly coming down. How gratifying! I said the descent would be in the region of Watford.”
This way of receiving the glad tidings struck Jessamy, soaring into optimism, as exquisitely humorous. He gave a crack of laughter, exclaiming: “What a hand you are! Oh, I shouldn’t have said that! I beg your pardon, sir!”
“So I should hope!”
“As though you cared a button! You can’t hoax me, sir, because I know very well — ” He broke oil; and after a tense moment said uneasily: “Why is it veering like that? It was coming down almost straight a moment ago!”
“You may be seeing it from a different angle.”
“No, I’m not! I mean, that wouldn’t account for the way it’s travelling now!”
In another minute, a spinney shut the balloon from his view; and by the tune the phaeton had passed the last of the trees it had dropped altogether out of sight. Jessamy began to pose unanswerable questions to the Marquis: what had caused the balloon to swerve? did he know if it could be steered in any way? did he think there might be something amiss with the valve?
“I should think it more likely that when they dropped nearer to earth they found there was more wind than they had expected,” said Alverstoke.
Jessamy’s eyes widened. “Wind! Do you remember what Cousin Buxted told us, about the grapnels tearing away whole bushes, not anchoring the balloon at all, so that they had to shut the valve, which made them shoot up again, and — ”
“I have some faint recollection of his pitching various tales to your sisters, but as I have yet to hear him say anything worth listening to I fear I didn’t attend to him. I daresay there may have been such mischances, but as this particular balloon has not shot up into the air again it seems safe to assume that that fate has not befallen it.”
“Yes, that’s so! I hadn’t thought — ah, but — ”
“Jessamy,” interrupted his lordship wearily, “your reflections on the subject are as valueless as Buxted’s. Neither of you knows anything about it. Nor, I may add, do I, so that it is quite useless to bombard me with questions. It is even more useless to harrow yourself by imagining disasters, which really, my dear boy, you have very little reason to expect.”
“You must forgive me, sir!” said Jessamy stiffly. “I had no intention of boring you!”
“No, that’s why I ventured to give you a hint,” said his lordship apologetically.
Jessamy was obliged to bite his lip at this description of a masterly set-down, and to turn his face away, so that Alverstoke should not see how near to laughter he was. He was still on his dignity when, at last, they reached Watford; but the news that met them at the Essex Arms drove all other thoughts from his mind.
Oh, yes, said the landlord, they had seen the balloon as plain as print! Such an uproar as it had caused his lordship wouldn’t hardly credit, with everyone rushing out-of-doors to get a sight of it, and then rushing in again because it was so low they thought it was going to come down right in the middle of the town. “Which of course it didn’t, as any but a set of jobbernolls would have known it wouldn’t, my lord. By what I hear it came down between here and King’s Langley. And if there’s a boy in the place, barring my own lads, it’s more than I’d bargain for! They was all off, and others old enough to know better than to take part in such foolishness, for they might have known they wouldn’t see the balloon land, and where’s the sense of running miles to look at it on the ground?”
“How long ago was it when it came down?” Jessamy asked eagerly.
“Well, I can’t rightly say, sir,” replied the landlord, smiling indulgently at him. “It was an hour ago when it came by the town — maybe an hour-and-a-half.”
Jessamy’s shining eyes lifted to Alverstoke’s; a smile wavered on his lips; he said simply: “The relief of it! How far is that place — King’s Langley?”
“Just a matter of five miles, sir. But I don’t believe all I hear, and there’s no saying that the balloon did come down there. All I say is that none of those cod’s heads that went chasing after it has come back yet, so if they ain’t still gawking at it where it lays they’re maybe following it into the next county!”
“I see,” said Alverstoke. “You can draw me a tankard of your home-brewed. Order what you like, Jessamy: I’m going to have a word with Curry.”
He strode out of the inn as he spoke, to find Curry and the head ostler leading the grays towards the stables. He ran Ms experienced eye over his horses. They were sweating, but. not distressed. Curry said, with pride: “Prime ‘uns, my lord! Didn’t I say to your lordship they’d go well upon wind?”
Alverstoke nodded, but Curry saw that he was slightly frowning, and looked an enquiry. “They’ve taken no hurt, my lord. I’ll give ’em some warm gruel, and — ”
“Yes, see that done, and give the ostler exact instructions. I’m taking you on with me.”
“Very good, my lord. Nothing wrong, I do hope?”
“I’m not sure. No need to say anything to Mr Jessamy, but there’s no question that when we last saw the balloon it was being borne, off its course. Well, if the wind took it, the country is fairly open, and it may have made a safe landing.”
“No reason why it shouldn’t have, my lord.”
“None, but it appears that none of the people who ran off to see it have yet returned. If there was nothing more to look at than the boat, and the empty bag, what should be keeping them so long?”
“Well, your lordship knows what boys are!” suggested Curry.
“I do indeed! But they were not all boys. I may have become infected by Mr Jessamy’s alarms, but I’ve a feeling I may need you. Fifteen minutes!”
He went back into the inn, to find Jessamy refreshing himself from a large tankard. He lowered it, with a sigh of satisfaction, and handed a similar one to the Marquis, saying: “Lord, I was thirsty! Here’s yours, sir: the ale-draper says it’s a regular knock-me-down!”
“In that case, you will shortly be top-heavy, and I shall abandon you, so that you may sleep it off at your leisure.”
“Well, I thought I might be a trifle overtaken, so I ordered a half-and-half for myself.”
“Thank God for that!”
Jessamy laughed, but said, a little shyly: “I expect I’ve plagued you enough already, with my — my distempered freaks, sir.”
“Now, what can I have said to make you think so?” demanded Alverstoke, in astonished accents.
“You may choose to poke bogey at me, but you know very well, sir! Such a set-down —! I–I am afraid I took snuff, and I shouldn’t have done so!”
“Handsomely said!” approved Alverstoke. “But if you took that for one of my set-downs —!”
“Well, if it wasn’t I hope you’ll never give me one,” said Jessamy frankly. “Sir, when do we set forward again? I have been thinking, and I shouldn’t wonder at it if we met them on their way back to London. Except that — what becomes of the balloon?”
“I haven’t the least idea. It’s a nice point, I admit.”
“It occurred to me a minute ago. They can’t carry it, and they can’t fill the bag again, because where would they get the hydrogen? And all those casks couldn’t be brought on the wagon — at least, they could, but it would take them all day to get here, even if they knew where the thing meant to make its descent, which they never do.”
“Very true. One can only assume that they must have it conveyed by farm-cart, or some such thing, to a place of safety — leaving it there to be recovered later.”