“Somebody just called about you,” the jeweler told him. “Seemed like he
was sore about something. I told him you hadn’t been here, and he said
for you to hurry up, that they were waiting for you out there.”
“Good! If he’ll only wait, everything’ll be all right. If he takes off
without this clock, there’ll be hell to pay!” He grabbed the instrument
and hurried out. He found a cab and gave the driver directions, offering
a double rate for speed. But on the highway the cab moved along at a
speed within the limits of law. Looking back, Welkfurn saw the same
motorcycle cop who had detained him earlier riding steadily along a
hundred yards behind.
The cab left the highway and entered the reservation. The driver shoved
the throttle down now, and in less than a minute more turned onto the
road that led to the balloon hangar. And at that moment Welkfurn saw the
_Marie_, gray and stately against the haze, rise slowly in the air.
*       *       *       *       *
With the weather all against him if his flight should be delayed, Conway
decided, at two o’clock, to fly the _Marie IV_ into the subzero
temperatures of the upper air with an ordinary clock. Kisner tried in
every way to dissuade him, but without success. Kisner persisted, like a
mother who argues with a wayward son, until the other man turned on him
impatiently.
“I know what I’m about!” Conway snapped. “Get the crew and put the
_Marie_ outside. If I don’t go today I’ll not have another chance before
spring!”
“But see here, Con,” Kisner said desperately. “That clock’ll stop and
you’ll run out of oxygen up there! You’ll die before you can get down!
Dammit, you don’t have to kill yourself trying to get that record!”
But Kisner saw that Conway was in earnest and he reluctantly put the
crew to work. They hauled the balloon outside the hangar, took the place
of the sandbags that had held it to the ground.
Conway came presently and shoved through the crowd of curious people,
climbed into the basket and put on his fur-lined helmet and his
parachute. He made a last-minute inspection of the oxygen equipment and
spoke quietly to Kisner, who stood close by. He was in a good humor now
that the flight was definitely under way.
“Tell that little cuss I’m going to break his neck when I get down,” he