Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne Page B

it!"
    "Then you really think of going with your master?"
    "I?" answered Joe, with an accent of profound conviction.
"Why, I'd go with him wherever he pleases!
Who ever heard of such a thing? Leave him to go off
alone, after we've been all over the world together! Who
would help him, when he was tired? Who would give
him a hand in climbing over the rocks? Who would
attend him when he was sick? No, Mr. Kennedy, Joe will
always stick to the doctor!"
    "You're a fine fellow, Joe!"
    "But, then, you're coming with us!"
    "Oh! certainly," said Kennedy; "that is to say, I
will go with you up to the last moment, to prevent Samuel
even then from being guilty of such an act of folly! I
will follow him as far as Zanzibar, so as to stop him there,
if possible."
    "You'll stop nothing at all, Mr. Kennedy, with all respect
to you, sir. My master is no hare-brained person;
he takes a long time to think over what he means to do,
and then, when he once gets started, the Evil One himself
couldn't make him give it up."
    "Well, we'll see about that."
    "Don't flatter yourself, sir—but then, the main thing
is, to have you with us. For a hunter like you, sir,
Africa's a great country. So, either way, you won't be
sorry for the trip."
    "No, that's a fact, I shan't be sorry for it, if I can get
this crazy man to give up his scheme."
    "By-the-way," said Joe, "you know that the weighing
comes off to-day."
    "The weighing—what weighing?"
    "Why, my master, and you, and I, are all to be
weighed to-day!"
    "What! like horse-jockeys?"
    "Yes, like jockeys. Only, never fear, you won't be
expected to make yourself lean, if you're found to be
heavy. You'll go as you are."
    "Well, I can tell you, I am not going to let myself be
weighed," said Kennedy, firmly.
    "But, sir, it seems that the doctor's machine requires it."
    "Well, his machine will have to do without it."
    "Humph! and suppose that it couldn't go up, then?"
    "Egad! that's all I want!"
    "Come! come, Mr. Kennedy! My master will be sending
for us directly."
    "I shan't go."
    "Oh! now, you won't vex the doctor in that way!"
    "Aye! that I will."
    "Well!" said Joe with a laugh, "you say that because
he's not here; but when he says to your face, 'Dick!'
(with all respect to you, sir,) 'Dick, I want to know
exactly how much you weigh,' you'll go, I warrant it."
    "No, I will NOT go!"
    At this moment the doctor entered his study, where
this discussion had been taking place; and, as he came
in, cast a glance at Kennedy, who did not feel altogether
at his ease.
    "Dick," said the doctor, "come with Joe; I want to
know how much you both weigh."
    "But—"
    "You may keep your hat on. Come!" And Kennedy went.
    They repaired in company to the workshop of the
Messrs. Mitchell, where one of those so-called "Roman"
scales was in readiness. It was necessary, by the way,
for the doctor to know the weight of his companions, so
as to fix the equilibrium of his balloon; so he made Dick
get up on the platform of the scales. The latter, without
making any resistance, said, in an undertone:
    "Oh! well, that doesn't bind me to any thing."
    "One hundred and fifty-three pounds," said the doctor,
noting it down on his tablets.
    "Am I too heavy?"
    "Why, no, Mr. Kennedy!" said Joe; "and then, you
know, I am light to make up for it."
    So saying, Joe, with enthusiasm, took his place on the
scales, and very nearly upset them in his ready haste.
He struck the attitude of Wellington where he is made to
ape Achilles, at Hyde-Park entrance, and was superb in
it, without the shield.
    "One hundred and twenty pounds," wrote the doctor.
    "Ah! ha!" said Joe, with a smile of satisfaction
And why did he smile? He never could tell himself.
    "It's my turn now," said Ferguson—and he put down
one hundred and thirty-five pounds to his own account.
    "All three of us," said he, "do not weigh much more
than four hundred pounds."
    "But, sir," said Joe, "if it was necessary for your
expedition, I could make myself thinner by twenty pounds,
by not eating so