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.So we had advance positions set up, as near as possible to the City, whoseduty was to report back, by pigeon, when the wind was holding strongly enoughin that direction.Until they did, we could do nothing but chafe at the delay.And chafe most of us did.Ours had been the last but one party to arrive, therest coming a day later, but although many had waited longer, Ifound myself one of the least able to accept the situation.My temperworsened, and I began flaring up at the smallest provocation.Finally, whenone of the others made a joking remark -- it was that I was so full of hot airhe doubted if I really needed a balloon -- I sailed into him, and we foughtfuriously until we were dragged apart.That evening, Fritz spoke to me.We were in a tent but, as was frequently the case, the tent was leaking inseveral places.The rains of this land were not easily stopped by canvas.It swished down outside as he remonstrated with me.I said I was sorry, but hedid not seem much impressed."You have been sorry before," he told me, "but you keep on doing thingswithout thinking -- flying off the handle.We cannot afford dissension here.We must live together and work together.""I know," I said."I will do better." He stared at me.He was fond of me, Iknew, as I of him.We had been together a long time, and shared hardships anddangers.Nevertheless, his expression was grim.He said, "As you know, I am incharge of the attack.Julius and I discussed many things before we left.Hetold me that if I was not sure of any man I must leave him out of the assault.He spoke of you, Will, in particular."Page 60ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe liked me, but his duty came first, as it always would with Fritz.Ipleaded with him for a last chance.In the end, shaking his head, he said hewould -- but it really was a last chance.If any trouble occurred in which Iwas concerned, he would not bother to find out who was responsible.Out Iwould go.The following morning, in the course of our usual drill on the balloons, theone I had fought with tripped me -- perhaps accidentally, perhaps not --and I went sprawling.Not only did my elbow hit a chunk of rock, but I landedin a patch of sticky mud.I closed my eyes, and lay there for at least fiveseconds before getting up again.With a smile on my face, and my teeth tightlygritted.Two mornings later, through yet another downpour, a bedraggled pigeon alightedon the perch in front of its box.A little scroll of paper was fastened to itsleg.We had twelve balloons altogether in our force, with one man to each so as tobe able to carry the greatest possible weight of explosive.This was in theform of metal containers, something like the grooved metal eggs we had foundin the ruins of the great-city, hut very much larger.It was not too easy atask to lift them over the edge of the basket.They were fitted with fuses,which would cause them to explode four seconds after the release was pulled.This meant, Beanpole had explained to us, that we needed to make our drop froma height of just under a hundred and fifty feet.The calculationdepended on something which had been discovered by a famous scientist of theancients called Newton.He tried to explain it but it was beyond ourcomprehension -- beyond mine, anyway.What it meant was that an object fallingthrough the air traveled a distance in feet of sixteen, multiplied twice overby the number of seconds it had been falling.Thus in the first second itwould fall sixteen feet (sixteen multiplied by one multiplied by one), in twoseconds sixty-four feet, and in three a hundred and forty-four.The fourthsecond was the time allowed for getting the bomb, as he called it, intoposition and ready for the drop.We had practiced this with dummy bombs over and over again, learning tocalculate distances from the ground, to estimate time, and so on.There wasalso the question of the forward motion of the balloon, which naturallyaffected the place at which the bomb dropped.We had become quite skilled inthe art.Now we had to apply it.The balloons went up at two-second intervals into a sodden gray sky and a winddragging in from the ocean behind us.Our order had been allocated byFritz, who himself went first.I was sixth, and Henry tenth.As I cast off andfound myself shooting skyward, I looked down at the faces so quickly dwindlingbelow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]