"Two hundred and fifty feet each." "Anchor?" "Two hundred pounds." "Are you ready, professor?" asked Swift, satisfied with his inspection. "She's full to bustin'!" said the professor, looking uneasily at the straining cable. "Jump in, Mr. Ticks!" The crowd was almost beside itself at the boldness of the undertaking. Men yelled and hooted encouragement as the venerable and musty editor stepped into the car with a natural air. It took more than this to embarrass Mr. Ticks. "Now, professor!" As Swift spoke he handed the professor a draft on the _Planet_ for five hundred dollars. The professor hesitated no longer. He snatched the check and bounded in. An assistant stood ready with an axe to cut the ropes that held the impatient balloon. Swift then stepped in leisurely. It was just twenty-nine minutes and a quarter past one o'clock. The crowd shrieked as if their throats would burst. Swift lifted his hat in acknowledgment. "Good luck!" "Never say die!" "Come back and tell us all about it." "If you see my husband tell him I'm waiting for him." They cheered and yelled and cried and cheered again. "Are you ready?" asked Swift, looking at his companions. "Then let her go!" A cut, a swirl, an indescribable motion, and shouts became to those in the _High Tariff_ whispers, men became ants, and they were gone. V. "Look! For God's sake, look! What is it?" Swift strained his eyes to the southward, toward the death-bound territory. The malignant cloud that settled over plain and mountain slope was broken on the Gopher lake. As soon as Swift had recovered from the first bound of the balloon he had scanned the dark mist, and by the borders of the lake he had found a rift. This rift indicated the spot where the city of Russell should have been. As he spoke he clutched the arm of his colleague, and pointed over the side of the rising car. "I--I'm afraid I can't see what you mean," stammered Mr. Statis Ticks, "my glasses are blurred." The man of figures was really agitated. But Professor Ariel, like many an adventurer, had more than his share of what one may politely call sang-froid, but what is known in common North American as simple "cheek." Besides, in some sections of the country, he might have been called a profane man. With his hands on the safety valve, he looked and then ejaculated: "By ----. It's gone!" "I see nothing--nothing but black streaks," said the elder member of the _Planet_ corps hurriedly. "Can't we stop, professor? Perhaps that isn't the site of the unfortunate city!" The professor, obedient to the suggestion, pulled the safety valve, and the gas rushed out with a wheeze. "You bet it is! That's the place! Didn't I land there before I struck Empiria? Darned lucky for me they didn't take stock in the _High Tariff_. I might have been--God knows what, now!"