"We must be off, Dick," said the doctor; "we cannot
remain in this situation."
"But, doctor, what of Joe?"
"I am not likely to abandon him. No, indeed! and
should the hurricane carry me a thousand miles to the
northward, I will return! But here we are endangering
the safety of all."
"Must we go without him?" asked the Scot, with an
accent of profound grief.
"And do you think, then," rejoined Ferguson, "that
my heart does not bleed like your own? Am I not merely
obeying an imperious necessity?"
"I am entirely at your orders," replied the hunter;
"let us start!"
But their departure was surrounded with unusual difficulty.
The anchor, which had caught very deeply, resisted all
their efforts to disengage it; while the balloon,
drawing in the opposite direction, increased its tension.
Kennedy could not get it free. Besides, in his present
position, the manoeuvre had become a very perilous one,
for the Victoria threatened to break away before he should
be able to get into the car again.
The doctor, unwilling to run such a risk, made his
friend get into his place, and resigned himself to the
alternative of cutting the anchor-rope. The Victoria made
one bound of three hundred feet into the air, and took her
route directly northward.
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