A few more revolutions of the wheels, and it will be all
over with us, for we seem to be fated to meet with geometrical
precision at one spot!
"What will happen?
"Travelling at our present hurricane pace, we shall undoubtedly
lift up and overturn the machine and what it is drawing. But
shall we not be crushed ourselves? A few paces still intervene
between us and our foe, and we give vent to a shout of terror.
"It is heard, and the locomotive answers it by a whistle, then
slackens its pace, and after seeming to hesitate an instant backs
quickly and only just in time to give us a free passage, whilst
the driver, waving his cap, salutes us with--
"'Look out for the wires!'
"The caution was well timed, for we had not noticed the four
telegraph wires which we rapidly approached. We energetically
ducked our heads on seeing them, but fortunately we escaped any
more damage than having two or three of our ropes cut. These we
continued to drag after us like the tail of a ragged comet,
having the telegraph-wires and the posts which lately supported
them attached to us."
After having been dragged thus for some time at the mercy of a
hurricane which they ought to have been able to avoid, these
aerial navigators at last got entangled in the outskirts of a
wood near Rethem, in Hanover.
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