King at last 271 XXXIV. A moment of rest 276 XXXV. A fellow human 282 XXXVI. Surprise and suspense 293 XXXVII. The goddess 306 XXXVIII. A prospect of wealth 313 XXXIX. Stealing the enemy’s fire 324 XL. Coveted gold 334 XLI. Farewell to the camp 344 XLII. Golden gleams 358 XLIII. Surrounded by the Blacks 365 XLIV. Vale faithful Fatty 380 XLV. No longer a king 387 The Crystal Sceptre CHAPTER I THE END OF THE VOYAGE We had lost all control of the wild balloon. It was driven ahead of the wind like a shred of rags, the car trailing behind at a fearful angle, for many of the ropes were broken and all the others were twisted in a hopeless tangle. Nearly all our ballast had fallen into the angry sea beneath us an hour after the storm first caught us in its whirl. I could hear the ocean roaring and swashing, where its gigantic waves toppled over each other below. The sound must have been tremendous, for the wind blew such a howling gale that neither Ford nor I could make each other hear what we shouted two feet away. Our hats were gone; Ford’s face was haggard, whenever the lightning revealed him in the gloom. So intense was the darkness that I could not even see the vast bag above us. When a great flash illuminated the heavens, directly ahead, I noted the monster globe full of gas, silhouetted blackly against the glare, and knew it was slightly leaking. A small three-cornered dent was in its side already. I also observed that the sea was hardly more than fifty feet below, churning milk-white foam in its fury out of liquid ebon waves of mountainous size. The sky seemed like a solid bank of black. The darkness that followed the flash absorbed even Ford. Yet I knew that while he clung to the basket with his right hand, as I had done for above an hour, he was nevertheless attempting with his left to heave out the bag of provisions and the blankets. I helped him at this and we rose perceptibly.