“They are following us!” said the doctor, as he saw them ascending with him, “and, mount as we may, they can fly still higher!” “Well, what are we to do?” asked Kennedy. The doctor made no answer. “Listen, Samuel!” said the sportsman. “There are fourteen of those birds; we have seventeen shots at our disposal if we discharge all our weapons. Have we not the means, then, to destroy them or disperse them? I will give a good account of some of them!” “I have no doubt of your skill, Dick; I look upon all as dead that may come within range of your rifle, but I repeat that, if they attack the upper part of the balloon, you could not get a sight at them. They would tear the silk covering that sustains us, and we are three thousand feet up in the air!” At this moment, one of the ferocious birds darted right at the balloon, with outstretched beak and claws, ready to rend it with either or both. “Fire! fire at once!” cried the doctor. He had scarcely ceased, ere the huge creature, stricken dead, dropped headlong, turning over and over in space as he fell. Kennedy had already grasped one of the two-barrelled fowling-pieces and Joe was taking aim with another. Frightened by the report, the condors drew back for a moment, but they almost instantly returned to the charge with extreme fury. Kennedy severed the head of one from its body with his first shot, and Joe broke the wing of another. “Only eleven left,” said he. Thereupon the birds changed their tactics, and by common consent soared above the balloon. Kennedy glanced at Ferguson. The latter, in spite of his imperturbability, grew pale. Then ensued a moment of terrifying silence. In the next they heard a harsh tearing noise, as of something rending the silk, and the car seemed to sink from beneath the feet of our three aëronauts. “We are lost!” exclaimed Ferguson, glancing at the barometer, which was now swiftly rising. “Over with the ballast!” he shouted, “over with it!” And in a few seconds the last lumps of quartz had disappeared. “We are still falling! Empty the water-tanks! Do you hear me, Joe? We are pitching into the lake!” Joe obeyed. The doctor leaned over and looked out. The lake seemed to come up toward him like a rising tide. Every object around grew rapidly in size while they were looking at it. The car was not two hundred feet from the surface of Lake Tchad. “The provisions! the provisions!” cried the doctor. And the box containing them was launched into space. Their descent became less rapid, but the luckless aëronauts were still falling, and into the lake. “Throw out something—something more!” cried the doctor. “There is nothing more to throw!” was Kennedy’s despairing response. “Yes, there is!” called Joe, and with a wave of the hand he disappeared like a flash, over the edge of the car. “Joe! Joe!” exclaimed the doctor, horror-stricken.