... join the Southern forces.Among them was one Jonathan Forster, a determined Southerner. The truth was, that if the prisoners of the Secessionists could not leave the town, neither could the Secessionists ... guards, they might approach the balloon, slip into the car, and thencut the cords which held it. There was no doubt that they might bekilled, but on the other hand they might succeed, and without ... wasmissing, the man who was to be their guide, their leading spirit, the en-gineer, Captain Harding! The instant they had recovered their feet, theyall hurried to the beach in the hopes of rendering him...