"Over with the ballast!" he shouted, "over with it!"
And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared.
"We are still falling! Empty the water-tanks! Do
you hear me, Joe? We are pitching into the lake!"
Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out.
The lake seemed to come up toward him like a rising tide.
Every object around grew rapidly in size while they were
looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the
surface of Lake Tchad.
"The provisions! the provisions!" cried the doctor.
And the box containing them was launched into space.
Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless
aeronauts were still falling, and into the lake.
"Throw out something--something more!" cried the doctor.
"There is nothing more to throw!" was Kennedy's
despairing response.
"Yes, there is!" called Joe, and with a wave of the hand
he disappeared like a flash, over the edge of the car.
"Joe! Joe!" exclaimed the doctor, horror-stricken.
The Victoria thus relieved resumed her ascending motion,
mounted a thousand feet into the air, and the wind,
burying itself in the disinflated covering, bore them away
toward the northern part of the lake.
"Lost!" exclaimed the sportsman, with a gesture of despair.
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