5b2 CIKCLIJSG EIFFEL T(_)VVEK IN AIR SH1J\ 



})ircr,s fliifht, cloan-f'ut and unsworving. He gained and rounded the 

 tower in nine minutes, a gain of four minutes over his first trial, or 

 less than one-third of the time limit. He had, therefore, twenty-one 

 minutes in whirh to make the same trip back. It would be stubborn 

 hard luck that could keep him from the prize. But that is what 

 happened. 



The tower was no sooner rounded than difficulties seemed to begin. 

 Without apparent cause the air ship suddenly pointed upward, and 

 mounted 100 yards higlw.r in air. Then it l)egan to sink toward the 

 roofs, ])ereft of buoyant force or vitality. Jt was beyond conti'ol, and 

 its navigator was being tossed in midair, more helpless than a sailor 

 clinging to a plank. He started the ventilators, to inflate the y)allonet 

 with air and make the ])alloon rigid, but as a <'limax to despair the 

 vcntilatoi's would not work. The l)alloon became flab))y, and even its 

 ends doubled on itself like si pocketknife. This ))rought the wires that 

 suspend the framework into trouble witli the turning screw, and in a 

 mouKMit several of them snapped. fJust in time to save himself from 

 being cut away from the ))alloon entii-ely and dashed to the ground, 

 Santos stopped the screw, and then the unwieldy air ship dragged 

 lower to the eartii, and was soon skinuuing over some high hotels 

 that had been built for the exposition. Once he was jolted against 

 a cornice, and once again he was so low that his guide rope coiled 

 along the ground. A carpenter seized the end and wrapped it around 

 the iron bars of a window\ But the ))reeze carried the ))alioon on, and 

 with a jerk the guide rope toi-e out the iron bars. On the edge of the 

 next hotel roof the balloon was stranded and wrecked. The frame- 

 work, though, holding the heavy motor and the man, dangled from its 

 wiring over the wall of the building. A moment it hung suspended, 

 then its lower end settled on the roof of a two-story restaurant next 

 door, and its upper end against the wall of the hotel. There was a 

 space between the two buildings, and the framework spanned this 

 space almost perpendicularly. The delicate wooden l)eams strained 

 and cracked, read}" to break and }>ring its load to the ground. 



A company of firemen were on hand almost at once, and from the 

 to]) of the hotel they threw a rope to Santos-Dumont, who tied it 

 around his waist ;ind allowed himself to be drawn up. He had not 

 sutt'ered a scratch, but he suffered much more than that when the fire- 

 men began to extract his l)eloved air ship. With each cracking of 

 wood he shuddered as though it were a bone; yet despite his anxiet}' 

 and the care of the firemen, the framework l)roke into halves, and was 

 soon found to l)e irreparable, and the same fate met the l)alloon. The 

 only consolation was the motor, which seemed to be unhurt. 



"Now what are you going to do?" one of his friends demanded. 



" Wh}', ])egin again, of course. One has to have patience."" 



And that same day he gave orders for another balloon, which will 

 be the balloon of the air ship Scmtos-Dionont VI. The new air ship 



