A Knight of the Air by Henry Tracey Coxwell

After Harry Goodall and Tom Trigger had left the park and Doctor Peters in the lurch, a grand view burst upon them as the balloon mounted to an elevation of over two thousand feet, when the rays of the bright sun enlivened the Sussex scenery and began to dry the saturated silk.

Magnificent, however, as the change proved, the voyagers had no time to dwell upon such matters, for the open sea lay before them, and they were drifting towards it rapidly and in the direction of Newhaven. Up to this time, Goodall had kept his real project from Trigger, but now that the aeronaut and his assistant were alone in the empyrean, there was no longer any reason for concealing from Tom that they were not aloft solely for the object of drying the balloon, but principally to carry out the daring and novel idea of pursuing the fugitives, Falcon and Croft, should they have crossed over to Dieppe by the steamer from Newhaven. And certainty as to this Goodall expected to get from Warner, whom he had arranged to pick up and take in his balloon somewhere near the coast by preconcerted signal. This was the scheme concocted by Harry Goodall, and listened to with approval by the squire when they journeyed to Lewes, though, of course, it was not finally settled until Warner had agreed to it.