The united strength of all three travellers
was required to detach these reservoirs from the bottom
of the car in which they had been so firmly secured; but
Kennedy was so strong, Joe so adroit, and the doctor so
ingenious, that they finally succeeded. The different
pieces were thrown out, one after the other, and they
disappeared below, making huge gaps in the foliage of
the sycamores.
"The black fellows will be mightily astonished," said
Joe, "at finding things like those in the woods; they'll
make idols of them!"
The next thing to be looked after was the displacement
of the pipes that were fastened in the balloon and
connected with the spiral. Joe succeeded in cutting the
caoutchouc jointings above the car, but when he came to
the pipes he found it more difficult to disengage them,
because they were held by their upper extremity and fastened
by wires to the very circlet of the valve.
Then it was that Joe showed wonderful adroitness.
In his naked feet, so as not to scratch the covering, he
succeeded by the aid of the network, and in spite of the
oscillations of the balloon, in climbing to the upper
extremity, and after a thousand difficulties, in holding on
with one hand to that slippery surface, while he detached
the outside screws that secured the pipes in their place.
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