he rose it was obvious he was fagged, and I fancied he turned his eyes upon me with a look of despair and yet defiance.

I paused to blow a long, loud warning blast on my whistle. I heard it answered and I blew again; then in I went after him. I was fresher than he, made more rapid strokes, and gained upon him until I could almost touch him, when, with a sudden movement, he faced round and grappled me.

He had realised that his game was up-that he was at bay; but he was determined if possible to have more blood on his guilty soul, although he was within the shadow of death.

Amongst the few accomplishments that I really excelled in at school was that of swimming, and it was to serve me in good stead now, although at first I thought my last hour had come, for he seized me by the hair and held me under the water.

I managed, however, to get my head free; how I really don't know. Then I grappled him, and we struggled frantically together.

"You shall never get out alive!" he hissed in gasps.

But he was wrong. I had managed by some means, which I can scarcely describe, to drag him near enough to the edge to enable me to grasp the bank with one hand, while I held him with the other. I turned my eyes anxiously to see if help was coming, for I knew only too well that I could never hope to get him out of the water alone. We were both exhausted, and it was a question which would give in first. Although a maddening desperation lent him a certain strength, it would not hold out long, and I believe he would have succumbed before me, but that meant that he would be drowned, and I was particularly anxious to capture him alive.

It was a terrible and thrilling situation-one of those situations when a man's hopes, his future, his very life may be said to hang upon a hair, and it is impossible to predict if the hair will break or not.

I heard the gurgling of the water, and it mingled with the stertorous breathing of the wretch I was anxious to save, in order that the law might take its vengeance. I saw his fierce eyes glaring at me with something of fiendish hate in their expression.

Moments under such an awful strain seemed minutes, and minutes hours. The whole terrible scene was enacted in a very brief space of time, and yet it seemed interminable. Then I heard a rush and a plunge, and saw

a third

man in the water. It was one of my comrades, who, as if to make up for the way he had treated me on the previous day, did not hesitate to jump to my rescue. Then a third man appeared on the scene, and by our united efforts we dragged the half-drowned wretch on to the bank, where he lay prostrated for some little time. Presently he recovered, and we helped him to his

feet and handcuffed him.

Never to my dying day shall I forget the look of utter despair that came into his pallid face as he felt the cold steel close on his wrists. His exhausted

state had caused us to somewhat relax our watchfulness. He saw this, and with one mighty effort he threw himself backwards and fell with a great splash into the water again. We saw his feet appear above the surface for an instant or two; then he disappeared, and I have a notion that he must have literally dug his hands into the bottom of the river. In a few minutes his back showed on the surface; he was hanging limp down, with his head entirely covered. He was close to the bank, and we managed to grab him and land him.

But it was too late. Consciousness had fled, and though I could detect the beating of his heart for some minutes, it gradually ceased, and Peter Mogford, the most desperate ruffian of his time, was dead. He had at least succeeded in cheating man of his vengeance, and had robbed the public of a spectacle. We bore his worthless body back to London, and in due course it was consigned to a dishonoured grave.

My companion Michael Owen speedily recovered from his wound, and he, in common with all of us who had taken part in that memorable man-hunt, received a share of a considerable subscription that was raised by a grateful public; and in process of time the authorities were pleased to recognise the service I had rendered by awarding me promotion. I thus gained something, but I do not think that anything could ever have tempted me to again engage in such an awful and sickening duty as was that hunt for a murderer in the Woolwich marshes.

[Our thanks for permission to use the above story are due to Messrs. Chatto and Windus.]

N 1783 the two brothers Montgolfier had made their great discovery, the first considerable step, as it may be called, in aërostatics. Joseph Montgolfier, as a result of a series of minor experiments, had become convinced that air when heated to 180° became so highly rarefied as to occupy twice its original space, or, to put the fact differently, that this degree of heat diminished the weight of air by one-half. As a consequence he set his wits to work to invent a structure that, being filled with air thus heated, would triumph over its own weight and rise from the earth.

The structure was invented and became the parent of the modern balloon. A number of trials proved its success. Paris went wild over the new toy, Songs were sung about it in the streets; all the drawing-rooms discussed it; the libraries held models of it; learned societies issued pamphlets upon it to show its latent possibilities, its conceivable uses as an instrument of warfare, of locomotion, of scientific discovery, of criminal investigation, &c. &c. Society, from the noble to the gamin, trooped to the Champ de Mars, to Versailles, to the gardens of the Faubourg St. Antoine, whenever an ascent was to be exhibited. A new new era, according to some, was beginning, and France of course led the way. "Then, as now," said a writer, "the voice of Paris gave the cue to France, and France to all the world."

This was all very well, but as yet the new invention had risen into the air

alone. No man had been found daring enough to trust himself to the dismal luck that attends the pioneer of progress. The question was-Coula a man go up with this new machine and come down alive? And before this could be answered came another question-Who cared to try?

A man whose name was destined to be famous-Pilâtre de Roziers—was the first volunteer. The balloon was a new one, constructed by the Montgolfiers. Its form was oval, its height 70 feet, its diameter 46 feet, its cubic capacity 60,000 feet. The top was embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, and with the signs of the Zodiac worked in gold. Below came the monogram of King Louis XVI., alternating with the device of the sun; and the bottom part was elaborately worked with festoons, masks, and eagles. A wicker basket, draped and elaborately ornamented, was attached to the bottom of the balloon by cords. This basket was three feet wide, and the sides were three feet in height. The whole structure weighed 1,600 pounds. It was completed on the 10th of October, 1783, and on the 15th Roziers made his ascent.

It was a small but interesting experiment. The balloon was inflated; stout ropes were fastened to it, which allowed it to rise to the height of 80 feet. To this height it accordingly soared, and remained there four minutes, twentyfive seconds. The crucial point to be tested was the manner in which it would descend when the hot air was exhausted. It descended quietly, distending as it dropped. Roziers jumped quietly out; and after touching the ground, the balloon, relieved of his weight, rose again a foot or two before it finally settled.

Two days later the same experiment was repeated with success before a vast concourse of people. There was a trying wind, the ropes were severely strained, and the balloon swayed unsteadily. Still the result was encouraging, and on the Sunday-a fine day-three bolder trials were made.

First Ascent: On October 19th, at half-past four, in presence of two thousand spectators, the machine was filled with gas in five minutes, and Roziers, being placed in the basket, with a ballast of 110 pounds to trim the car, was carried aloft to the height of 200 feet. The machine remained six minutes at this elevation, without any fire in the grating. (It must be explained that under the neck of the balloon was suspended a grating of iron wire, upon which the occupant of the car could kindle a fire and heat up the air afresh when the balloon began to be exhausted.)

Second Ascent: The machine, a fire being lit in the grating, carried Roziers and his ballast to the height of 200 feet. Here it remained stationary eight and a half minutes. As it was pulled back to earth, a wind from the east carried it against a clump of very tall trees in a neighbouring garden, when it became extricated, without, however, losing its equilibrium. Roziers renewed the fire, and the balloon, again rising majestically into the air, extricated itself from among the branches and soared aloft, followed by the acclamations of the public. This second ascent was highly instructive, for it had been often

asserted that if ever a balloon fell upon a forest it would be destroyed, and would place those who travelled in it in the greatest peril. This experiment proved that the balloon does not fall, it descends; that it does not overturn; that it does not destroy itself on trees; that it neither causes death, nor even damage, to its passengers; that, on the contrary, by making fresh gas, they can give it the power of detaching itself from the trees; and that it can resume its course after such an event. The intrepid Roziers gave in this ascent a further proof of the facility he had in ascending and descending at will. When the machine had again risen to the height of 200 feet it began to descend lightly, and just before it came to earth the aeronaut very cleverly and quickly threw on more fuel and produced more smoke, at which the balloon, to the astonishment of everyone, suddenly soared away again to its former elevation.

Third Ascent: The balloon rose again with Roziers, who discarded his ballast, and was accompanied instead by another aëronaut, Gerond de Villette; and as the cords had been lengthened, the adventurers were carried up to the height of 324 feet. At this elevation the balloon rested in perfect equilibrium for nine minutes. It was the first time that human beings had ever been carried to an equal altitude, and the spectators were astonished to find that they could remain there without danger and without alarm. The balloon had a superb effect at this elevation; it looked down upon the whole town, and was seen from all the suburbs. Its size seemed hardly diminished, though the men themselves were barely visible. By the aid of glasses, Roziers could be seen calmly and industriously manufacturing new gas.

Says de Villette, writing on this experiment:-"I found myself in a quarter of a minute raised 400 feet above the surface of the earth. Here we remained six minutes. My first employment was to watch with admiration my intelligent companion. His intelligence, his courage and agility in attending to the fire enchanted me. Below I could see the Boulevards, from the Porte St. Antoine to the Porte St. Martin, all covered with people, who seemed to me to be a flat band of flowers of various colours. Glancing at the distance, I beheld the summit of Montmartre, which seemed to me much below our level. I could easily distinguish Neuilly, St. Cloud, Sèvres, Issy, Ivry, Charenton, and Choisy. At once I was convinced that this machine might be very useful in war to enable one to discover the position of the enemy, his manoeuvres and his marches, and to announce these by signals to our own army. I believe that at sea it is equally possible to make use of it. All that I regret is that I did not provide myself with a telescope."

There was one aim in these experiments-to test the possibility of navigating the air in the newly invented machine. It was quickly resolved that a voyage should be attempted.

But the scheme was opposed. King Louis at first forbade it; and on being pressed, would only grant permission on the condition that two condemned criminals should be placed in the car. Roziers was prettily indignant. What!