They sprang into a wagon and prepared to follow the direction of the balloon, supposing it would come down as soon as the hot air began to cool off.
Meanwhile, what of Leo?
So sudden was the upward rush of the balloon that the boy was thrown to the bottom of the basket ere he was aware.
He clutched the sides and then ventured to look down. The earth seemed to be fading away beneath him.
For a few minutes he was deadly sick at the stomach and there was a strange ringing in his ears.
The balloon was moving in the direction of Hopsville. Soon it passed over the town.
Leo could see the few streets and the brook laid out like a map beneath him.
He was growing accustomed to his novel situation.
On and on went the balloon.
The wind appeared to blow stronger the higher he went.
Then he looked ahead and saw he was rushing rapidly toward a dense mass of clouds to the southeast.
The boy had noticed the clouds while running toward Lendham.
They betokened a thunderstorm, and already the mutterings of thunder came to his ears.
“A storm would be more than I bargained for,” he thought. “I wonder if I can’t get away from it?”
Leo had heard tell of going up above a storm when the latter hung low.
He did not know if he could make a hot-air balloon go up, but he resolved to try.
With great rapidity he threw out one sandbag after another.
Lightened of a great part of its load, the balloon shot up a hundred feet or more.
Then the boy noticed a large sponge tied to the side of the basket and beside a can labeled alcohol.
At once he saturated the sponge and placed it on the stick for that purpose.
When the sponge was lit he held it up to the mouth of the balloon.
The cooling air began to grow hot again, and once more the balloon went up slowly, but steadily.
But now the wind made the basket rock violently from side to side.
Soon Leo had to extinguish the sponge and put it away.
A gust sent the basket almost over to one side, and he had to let everything go in order to cling fast.
Sizz! A jagged streak of lightning crossed directly in front of the balloon!
He was now in the very midst of the storm and all grew black around him.
The change from the bright sunshine was terrible to the boy and he almost gave himself up for lost.
Back and forth rocked the balloon and the basket, and many were the times that he was in danger of being hurled to death.
Then the balloon began to descend.
The clouds were left behind, and there followed a deluge of rain which drenched Leo to the skin.
He fell so rapidly that a new danger presented itself.
Where or how would he land?
Would he break his neck or a limb?
Down, down he went! There were trees or bushes under him, he could not tell which.
Crash! The basket settled in the top of a tree.
Down came the folds of the balloon on top of it, and the boy was nearly smothered.
Yet he was exceedingly thankful that his life had been spared.
He crawled from the basket and carefully made his way down the tree to the ground.
The storm still raged, but gradually it moved onward, and the sun broke from beneath the scattering clouds.
Leo had traveled at least eight or ten miles, and he wondered what he should do next.
He had half a mind to run off and leave the balloon men to find their property as best they might.
But he soon changed his mind on that point.
“I’ll aid them all I can,” he said to himself.
The boy knew there was a road through the woods which ran almost directly to the fair grounds.
He made his way to this and walked on through the mud and wet.
It was not long before he came up to the men in the wagon.
At first they were inclined to be abusive, and they thought to have the boy locked up.
But Leo soon changed all this.
“Your balloon is all right,” he said. “And by going up I reckon I saved you the amount you were to get from the fair people. You wouldn’t get a cent if somebody hadn’t gone up.”
This was a new way of looking at it.
“Well, we won’t get paid for a parachute jump,” said the balloon manager. “But we can claim half money, true enough.”
The boy showed the men where the balloon was, and helped them load it on their wagon.
The men took to Leo, and as he helped them at the hardest work, they readily answered his questions about the circus and gave him full directions by which he could take a short cut to the grounds.
“That was a narrow escape,” murmured Leo to himself as he made his way back to the “Greatest Show on Earth.”
Arriving there, he had another long talk with Barton Reeve, who, as before stated, had taken a sudden and strong fancy to the brave lad.
The upshot of the matter was that Reeve bought Leo a trunk and advanced him money for several changes of clothing.
The next day, at Lendham, the circus tents were jammed with people.
Everything was again in order, and all the acts went off with a dash that drew round after round of applause.
Snipper was as sour as ever, but he took good care not to interfere with Leo.
As for the boy, he appeared perfectly at home; so much so that many said he was a born circus performer.
As a clown he caused the people to laugh heartily, and when he threw off his trunks and performed on the bars and rings he got more than a share of the applause.
As soon as the performance was over the circus packed up, and at half-past eleven began to move from Lendham to Middletown, seven miles distant.
Leo spent the night at the Middletown Hotel with Barton Reeve. The boy was now a protégéof the menagerie manager.
Before going to bed, Leo told Reeve much about his former life, and showed the manager the pictures of his folks.
Reeve became interested.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Leo,” he said. “I’ll go to this Squire Dobb and get him to release you in a lawful way. Then you will have nothing to fear from Daniel Hawkins.”
“But supposing Hawkins won’t let the squire release me?”
“I don’t believe he has any claim on you that would hold good in a court of law. I’ll make the squire show his authority over you first.”
“I wish you could get Squire Dobb to make a settlement of my parents’ estate,” went on Leo earnestly.
“You think he is holding money from you?”
“I know he is.”
“Well, I’ll investigate.”
Bright and early the next day the young lad and Barton Reeve drove over to the home of Nathan Dobb.
They found the squire busy in his office, looking over some legal papers.
Without preliminaries Barton Reeve introduced