"Right after we had had a bite to eat he starts in hammering away at
the wireless, sending out calls for help while I just sat around and
hoped something would turn up. Some observations we took showed that
we had not drifted very much further from land in the night on account
of there being no wind. This looked good for it meant that we were, or
should be, in the path of ships. The only thing that worried me was
that mighty few coasting vessels carry wireless, and I was surprised
when we got an answer from what I knew later was the Southern Cross.

"It was just as Melville was getting your answer that I noticed the
bag. The air had grown hot as an oven as the sun rose higher and about
noon I looked up just to see if there wasn't a cloud in the sky that
might mean a storm, and perhaps a change of wind that maybe would blow
us back over land again. What I saw scared me. The bag was blown out
as tight as the skin of a sausage, and it didn't look to me as if it
could swell much more without busting.

"I pointed it out to Melville and he went up in the air--worried to
death.

"'The gas is expanding,' he explains, 'it's the sun that's doing it.
If we don't let some gas out we'll bust.'

"And if we do we'll drop into the sea," says I.

"'Yes, that's very likely,' he replied, as cool as a cucumber, 'when
the evening comes and the gas condenses, with what we've lost, if we
pull the valve open, we won't have enough to keep the ship in the
air.'