e now threw out some ten pounds, but the balloon stood still.
Joe got very pale.
"Poor fellow!" said the doctor. "Mr. Kennedy, you and I weigh, unless I am mistaken, about four hundred pounds--so that you'll have to get rid of at least that weight, since it was put in here to make up for us."
"Throw away four hundred pounds!" said Joe, piteously.
"And some more with it, or we can't rise. Come, courage, Joe!"
The brave fellow, heaving deep sighs, began at last to lighten the balloon; but, from time to time, he would stop, and ask:
"Are you going up?"
"No, not yet," was the invariable response.
"It moves,
Puma Ferrari!" said he, at last.
"Keep on!" replied the doctor.
"It's going up; I'm sure."
"Keep on yet," said Kennedy.
And Joe, picking up one more block, desperately tossed it out of the car. The balloon rose a hundred feet or so, and, aided by the cylinder, soon passed above the surrounding summits.
"Now, Joe," resumed the doctor, "there still remains a handsome fortune for you; and, if we can only keep the rest of this with us until the end of our trip, there you are--rich for the balance of your days!"
Joe made no answer, but stretched himself out luxuriously on his heap of quartz.
"See, my dear Dick,
MBT Kifundo!" the doctor went on. "Just see the power of this metal over the cleverest lad in the world! What passions, what greed, what crimes, the knowledge of such a mine as that would cause! It is sad to think of it!"
By evening the balloon had made ninety miles to the westward, and was, in a direct line,
MBT Voi, fourteen hundred miles from Zanzibar.
乔的愤�?mdash;—殉教者之�?mdash;—守灵——干旱地带——埋葬死�?mdash;—石英� ?mdash;—乔的幻觉——一块珍贵的压载�?mdash;—金矿山的测量——乔开始失�?
晴朗的夜空渐渐笼罩了大地,传教士安详地昏睡着�?
“他再也醒不过来了�?rdquo;乔痛惜地叫道�?ldquo;可怜的年青人呀!恐怕还不到30岁呢�? rdquo;
“他就要在我们身边离开人世了�