"A journey without danger or fatigue," he soliloquized;
"your meals when you please; a swinging hammock all
the time! What more could a man ask? And there was
Kennedy, who didn't want to come!"
On his part, Dr. Ferguson was engrossed in a serious
and thorough examination of the balloon. The latter did
not appear to have suffered from the storm; the silk and
the gutta percha had resisted wonderfully, and, upon estimating
the exact height of the ground and the ascensional
force of the balloon, our aeronaut saw, with satisfaction,
that the hydrogen was in exactly the same quantity as
before. The covering had remained completely waterproof.
It was now only five days since our travellers had
quitted Zanzibar; their pemmican had not yet been
touched; their stock of biscuit and potted meat was enough
for a long trip, and there was nothing to be replenished
but the water.
The pipes and spiral seemed to be in perfect condition,
since, thanks to their india-rubber jointings, they had
yielded to all the oscillations of the balloon. His examination
ended, the doctor betook himself to setting his
notes in order. He made a very accurate sketch of the
surrounding landscape, with its long prairie stretching
away out of sight, the forest of calmadores, and the balloon
resting motionless over the body of the dead elephant.
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