Page 291 - erewhon

once, and made gestures signifying danger, and that there
would be mischief if they held on longer. Many obeyed; the
rest were too weak to hold on to the ropes, and were forced
to let them go. On this the balloon bounded suddenly up-
wards, but my own feeling was that the earth had dropped
off from me, and was sinking fast into the open space be-
neath.
This happened at the very moment that the attention of
the crowd was divided, the one half paying heed to the eager
gestures of those coming from Mr. Nosnibor’s house, and
the other to the exclamations from myself. A minute more
and Arowhena would doubtless have been discovered, but
before that minute was over, I was at such a height above
the city that nothing could harm me, and every second both
the town and the crowd became smaller and more confused.
In an incredibly short time, I could see little but a vast wall
of blue plains rising up against me, towards whichever side
I looked.
At first, the balloon mounted vertically upwards, but af-
ter about five minutes, when we had already attained a very
great elevation, I fancied that the objects on the plain be-
neath began to move from under me. I did not feel so much
as a breath of wind, and could not suppose that the bal-
loon itself was travelling. I was, therefore, wondering what
this strange movement of fixed objects could mean, when
it struck me that people in a balloon do not feel the wind
inasmuch as they travel with it and offer it no resistance.
Then I was happy in thinking that I must now have reached
the invariable trade wind of the upper air, and that I should

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