Richards thinks
it wasn't the girl at all who went up on that pole, but a sort of
balloon in her shape. But then, as I say, there was the girl standing
among us before she took her place on the pole. We saw her sit down
and settle herself on the cushion so that she was balanced right.
So it could not have been a balloon then, and if it were a balloon
afterwards, when did she change? At any rate the light below was
sufficient to see well until she was forty or fifty feet up, and
after that she shone out, and we never lost sight of her until
she was ever so high. I can understand the pictures, because there
might have been a magic lantern somewhere, but that girl trick, and
the basket trick, and that great snake are altogether beyond me."
"So I should imagine, Wilson," the Doctor said dryly; "and if I were
you I would not bother my head about it.. Nobody has succeeded in
finding out any of them yet, and all the wondering in the world is
not likely to get you any nearer to it."
"That is what I feel, Doctor, but it is very riling to see things
that you can't account for anyhow. I wish he had sent up Richards
on the pole instead of the girl. I would not have minded going up
myself if he had asked me, though I expect I should have jumped off
before it got up very far, even at the risk of breaking my neck."
"I should not mind risking that," the Doctor said, "though I doubt
whether I should have known any more about it when I came down;
but these jugglers always bring a girl or a boy with them instead
of calling somebody out from the audience, as they do at home.
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