"Not yet," said the doctor. "Go on!"
Kennedy laughed, Joe threw away about 12 lbs.
The balloon remained immovable. Joe got pale.
"My poor fellow," said Ferguson, Dick, you, and myself weigh, I believe, about 400 lbs.; you must then get rid of a weight at lest equal to ours, since it replaces us."
"Throw away 400 lbs.?" cried Joe piteously.
"And something over, so that we may ascend. Go on; courage."
The worthy lad, heaving deep sighs, commenced to throw the ballast over. From time to time he stopped.
"We are ascending," he would say each time.
"We are not," the doctor would invariably reply.
"It moves!" he said at last.
"Go on," repeated Ferguson.
"It is ascending, I am sure!" said Joe.
"Go on still," answered Ferguson.
Then Joe, taking up the last block, desperately threw it away from the car.
The "Victoria" rose about 100 feet, and the blow-pipe being at work, it soon passed the neighboring summits.
"Now, Joe," said the doctor, "there still remains a large fortune if we can retain it until the end of our journey, and you will be a rich man to the end of your days."
Joe made no reply, and lay down gently upon his bed of minerals.
"Just look, my dear Dick, at the influence this metal has exercised upon the best lad in the world. What passions, what desires, what crimes might not be born of the knowledge of such a mine! It is melancholy."
In the evening the "Victoria" had made ninety miles towards the west; it was then a direct line of 1,400 miles to Zanzibar.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE DESERT
The "Victoria" was fastened to an almost withered and solitary tree, and the night passed tranquilly. The travelers were thus enabled to enjoy a little of that sleep of which they stood in so great need. The incidents of the past few days had left some sad memories.
