might troop to the show-master, workmen, women, old men, children,
members of Congress, soldiers, magistrates, reporters, white natives
and black natives, all were there. We need not stop to describe the
excitement, the unaccountable movements, the sudden pushings, which
made the mass heave and swell. Nor need we recount the number of
cheers which rose from all sides like fireworks when Uncle Prudent
and Phil Evans appeared on the platform and hoisted the American
colors. Need we say that the majority of the crowd had come from afar
not so much to see the "Go-Ahead" as to gaze on these extraordinary
men?

Why two and not three? Why not Frycollin? Because Frycollin thought
his campaign in the "Albatross" sufficient for his fame. He had
declined the honor of accompanying his master, and he took no part in
the frenzied declamations that greeted the president and secretary of
the Weldon Institute.

Of the members of the illustrious assembly not one was absent from
the reserved places within the ropes. There were Truck Milnor, Bat T.
Fynn, and William T. Forbes with his two daughters on his arm. All
had come to affirm by their presence that nothing could separate them
from the partisans of "lighter than air."

About twenty minutes past eleven a gun announced the end of the final
preparations. The "Go-Ahead" only waited the signal to start. At
twenty-five minutes past eleven the second gun was fired.

The "Go-Ahead" was about one hundred and fifty feet above the
clearing, and was held by a rope. In this way the platform commanded
the excited crowd. Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans stood upright and