The red crash helmet raised itself to reveal a pair of very blue eyes. "He"s here somewhere," he said politely. "Flies a Stormcloud balloon. Now would you mind getting the h.e.l.l out, we"re busy."
I walked along the edge of things, trying to keep out of their way. Balloon races, it seemed, were a serious business and no occasion for light laughter and social chat. The intent faces leant over ropes and equipment, testing, checking, worriedly frowning. No balloons looked much like stormclouds. I risked another question.
"John Viking? That b.l.o.o.d.y idiot. Yes, he"s here. Flies a Stormcloud." He turned away, busy and anxious.
"What colour is it?" I said.
"Yellow and green. Look, go away, will you?"
There were balloons advertising whisky and marmalade and towns, and even insurance companies. Balloons in brilliant primary colours and pink-and-white pastels, balloons in the sunshine rising from the green gra.s.s in glorious jumbled rainbows. On an ordinary day, a scene of delight, but to me, trying to get round them to ask fruitlessly at the next clump gathered anxiously by its basket, a frustrating silky maze.
I circled a soft billowing black and white monster and went deeper into the centre. As if at a signal, there arose in a chorus from all around a series of deep throated roars, caused by flames suddenly spurting from the large burners which were supported on frames above the baskets. The flames roared into the open mouths of the half-inflated balloons, heating and expanding the air already there and driving in more. The gleaming envelopes swelled and surged with quickening life, growing from mushrooms to toadstools, the tops rising slowly and magnificently towards the hazy blue sky.
"John Viking? Somewhere over there." A girl swung her arm vaguely. "But he"ll be as busy as we are."
As the balloons filled they began to heave off the ground and sway in great floating ma.s.ses, b.u.mping into each other, still billowing, still not full enough to live with the birds. Under each balloon the flames roared, scarlet and l.u.s.ty, with the little cl.u.s.ters of helpers clinging to the baskets to prevent them escaping too soon.
With the balloons off the ground, I saw a yellow and green one quite easily; yellow and green in segments, like an orange, with a wide green band at the bottom. There was one man already in the basket, with about three people holding it down, and he, unlike everyone else in sight, wore not a crash helmet but a blue denim cap.
I ran in his direction, and even as I ran there was the sound of a starter"s pistol. All around me the baskets were released, and began dragging and b.u.mping over the ground; and a great cheer went up from the watching crowd.
I reached the bunch of people I was aiming for and put my hand on the basket.
"John Viking?"
No one listened. They were deep in a quarrel. A girl in a crash helmet, ski-ing jacket, jeans and boots stood on the ground, with the two helpers beside her looking glum and embarra.s.sed.
"I"m not coming. You"re a b.l.o.o.d.y madman."
"Get in, get in dammit. The race has started."
He was very tall, very thin, very agitated.
"I"m not coming."
"You must." He made a grab at her and held her wrist in a sinewy grip. It looked almost as if he were going to haul her wholesale into the basket, and she certainly believed it. She tugged and panted and screamed at him. "Let go, John. Let go. I"m not coming."
"Are you John Viking?" I said loudly. He swung his head and kept hold of the girl. "Yes, I am, what do you want? I"m starting this race as soon as my pa.s.senger gets in."
"I"m not going," she screamed.
I looked around. The other baskets were mostly airborne, sweeping gently across the area a foot or two above the surface, and rising in a smooth, glorious crowd. Every basket, I saw, carried two people.
"If you want a pa.s.senger," I said. "I"ll come."
He let go of the girl and looked me up and down.
"How much do you weigh?" And then, impatiently, as he saw the other balloons getting a head start, "Oh, all right, get in. Get in."
I gripped hold of a stay, and jumped, and wriggled, and ended standing inside a rather small hamper under a very large cloud of balloon.
"Leave go," commanded the captain of this ship, and the helpers somewhat helplessly obeyed.
The basket momentarily stayed exactly where it was. Then John Viking reached above his head and flipped a lever which operated the burners, and there at close quarters, right above our heads, was the flame and the ear-filling roar.
The girl"s face was still on a level with mine. "He"s mad," she yelled. "And you"re crazy."
The basket moved away, b.u.mped, and rose quite suddenly to a height of six feet. The girl ran after it and delivered a parting encouragement. "And you haven"t got a crash helmet."
What I did have, though, was a marvellous escape route from two purposeful thugs, and a crash helmet at that moment seemed superfluous, particularly as my companion hadn"t one either.
John Viking was staring about him in the remnants of fury, muttering under his breath, and operating the burner almost non-stop. His was the last balloon away. I looked down to where the applauding holiday crowd were watching the ma.s.s departure and a small boy darted suddenly from under the restraining rope, and ran into the now empty starting area, shouting and pointing. Pointing at John Viking"s balloon, pointing excitedly at me.
My pal Mark, with his bright little eyes and his truthful tongue. My pal Mark, whom I"d like to have strangled.
John Viking started cursing. I switched my attention from ground to air and saw that the reason for the resounding and imaginative obscenities floating to heaven was a belt of trees lying ahead which might prevent us going in the same direction. One balloon already lay in a tangle on the take-off side, and another, scarlet and purple, seemed set on a collision course.
John Viking yelled at me over the continuing roar of the burner, "Hold on b.l.o.o.d.y tight with both hands. If the basket hits the tops of the trees we don"t want to be spilled right out."
The trees looked sixty feet high and a formidable obstacle, but most of the balloons had cleared them easily and were drifting away skywards, great bright pear-shaped fantasies hanging on the wind.
John Viking"s basket closed with a rush towards the tree tops with the burner roaring over our heads like a demented dragon. The lift it should have provided seemed totally lacking.
"Turbulence," John Viking shrieked. "b.l.o.o.d.y wind turbulence. Hold on. It"s a long way down."
Frightfully jolly, I thought, being tipped out of a hamper sixty feet from the ground without a crash helmet. I grinned at him, and he caught the expression and looked startled.
The basket hit the tree tops, and tipped on its side, tumbling me from the vertical to the horizontal with no trouble at all. I grabbed right-handed at whatever I could to stop myself falling right out, and I felt as much as saw that the majestically swelling envelope above us was carrying on with its journey regardless. It tugged the basket after it, crashing and b.u.mping through the tops of the trees, flinging me about like a rag doll with at times most of my body hanging out in s.p.a.ce. My host, made of sterner stuff, had one arm clamped like a vice round one of the metal struts which supported the burner, and the other twined into a black rubber strap. His legs were braced against the side of the basket, which was now the floor, and he changed his footholds as necessary, at one point planting one foot firmly on my stomach.
With a last sickening jolt and wrench the basket tore itself free, and we swung to and fro under the wobbling balloon like a pendulum. I was by this manoeuvre wedged into a disorganised heap in the bottom of the basket, but John Viking still stood rather splendidly on his feet.
There really wasn"t much room, I thought, disentangling myself and straightening upwards. The basket, still swaying and shaking, was only four feet square, and reached no higher than one"s waist. Along two opposite sides stood eight gas cylinders, four each side, fastened to the wickerwork with rubber straps. The oblong s.p.a.ce left was big enough for two men to stand in, but not overgenerous even for that: about two feet by two feet per person.
John Viking gave the burner a rest at last, and into the sudden silence said forcefully, "Why the h.e.l.l didn"t you hold on like I told you to? Don"t you know you d.a.m.ned nearly fell out, and got me into trouble?"
"Sorry," I said, amused. "Is it usual to go on burning, when you"re stuck on a tree?"
"It got us clear, didn"t it?" he demanded.
"It sure did."
"Don"t complain, then. I didn"t ask you to come."
He was of about my own age; perhaps a year or two younger. His face under his blue denim yachting cap was craggy with a bone structure that might one day give him distinction, and his blue eyes shone with the brilliance of the true fanatic. John Viking the madman, I thought, and warmed to him.
"Check round the outsides, will you," he said. "See if anything" s come adrift."
It seemed he meant the outside of the basket, as he was himself looking outwards, over the edge. I discovered that on my side, too, there were bundles on the outside of the basket, either strapped to it tight, or swinging on ropes.