De Aery was now the only one remaining in the stern. He was exposed to
great peril, but refused to quit his post while it remained possible to
control in any degree the motions of the vessel. The flames played
about him without shaking his courage or his coolness, and broke
through upon the upper deck and separated him from us with a seething
hedge and whirlpool of fire. We lost sight of him, and supposed he had
perished, when suddenly his voice, issuing from the midst of the
furnace, rung on our ears like a trumpet.
"Up the ropes! quit the ship, or you die, every man of you!" he
shouted; and at the same time we discovered him emerging from the
flames and smoke, and ascending the network which enveloped the balloon
and connected it with the ship. We followed his example; some of our
number--the more timid or the more daring, it would be difficult to say
which--continuing the ascent until they had reached the upper surface
of the gas-chamber, and placed its entire fragile bulk between them and
the hazard they most dreaded.
The momentary refuge afforded by these upper works was scarcely
attained, when the bow, where we had stood but a minute before, and the
whole hull of the "Flying Cloud" with it, blended together in one mass
of surging fire.
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