A Knight of the Air by Henry Tracey Coxwell

Mr Harry Goodall, a young, tall and well-set-up gentleman, was walking impatiently to and fro on the south side of Trafalgar Square, as if he were awaiting the arrival of someone who had agreed to meet him. The fact was, he was in a hurry to get to Sydenham, where he was about to try a scientific experiment, and was momentarily expecting a cab conveying a model apparatus which he was going to test. While he was waiting, his attention was drawn to two men who, in crossing the road, were nearly run over, and who, as soon as they caught sight of Goodall, nudged one another and whispered for a moment, and then disappeared behind one of the lions. Almost immediately the cab Goodall was expecting drew up with a long, coffin-shaped box on the top, and, at the same moment, the two men emerged from their hiding-place, and passed Goodall as he stepped into the cab. He noticed this action, and, for some undefined reason, he merely instructed the coachman to drive over Westminster Bridge. The cab bore him swiftly away, but "More haste less speed," for, as they went down the incline on the Surrey side, the horse slipped and fell. A crowd gathered, and Goodall alighted. As he did so, he noticed a hansom pass him, in which were the same two men he had observed watching him in Trafalgar Square. Shortly afterwards, the cab horse was got up on to his legs again and the journey to Sydenham was proceeded with, after the coachman had received definite orders as to his destination.

As he drove along, it occurred to Goodall that he must be the object of these two men's attention. The question was, were they detectives who had mistaken him for someone else, or were they spies put on by his uncle, who was, he knew, most averse to the hobby of his life, which, it may be said at once, was ballooning? However, he dismissed the matter from his mind as the cab drew up at the workmen's entrance to the Crystal Palace, where he deposited the box with the officials and then drove on to the central entrance, where he exchanged civilities with the general manager, and with whom he chatted for a short time in the transept as to what he proposed doing in the way of experiments, and so on. Passing into the building, and wending his way through the groups of refreshment tables, although his mind was full of his project, he could not help noticing a party of people seated at one of the tables. It consisted of a young lady and two gentleman, while another person, as if an attendant on one of them, stood in the background.