The unfinished ascent

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

The balloon rose to the sound of the town band. Below, hundreds of faces surrounded the field, and a banner stretched between two poles: ACROSS THE BLACK RIDGE BEFORE SUNSET. Mrs Fenner had promised the crossing in every notice, and Caleb, her young assistant, had repeated the words so often that they seemed less a hope than a command.

At first, the ascent was gentle. The town diminished into red squares and silver threads, while the ridge waited in the east beneath a clear sky. Caleb laughed and waved his cap at the shrinking crowd. Mrs Fenner did not wave. She watched a bank of cloud gathering beyond the ridge and examined the small compass hanging from the basket.

The cloud rose with unnatural speed. Its upper edge was white, but beneath it the sky had become green and heavy. Mrs Fenner released three scraps of paper. Instead of falling beneath them, the scraps flew sharply west.

“We are descending,” she said.

Caleb stared at her. The ridge was plainly visible, and they had completed scarcely half the promised distance. “They will call us cowards.”

Mrs Fenner's hand trembled once as she reached above him. Then she pulled the valve line with a steady movement. “They may call us what they please, provided they call us alive.”

The balloon came down in a field two miles from the town. Its basket struck the earth, lifted and struck again before dragging through the wet grass. Farm workers ran to seize the ropes. As Caleb climbed out, the first thunder sounded behind him. A fork of lightning divided the sky directly above the ridge, and hail swept across its darkened slopes until the hill disappeared.

The owner of the exhibition field arrived in a cart after the storm. He looked at the collapsed balloon and demanded to know what he should tell the disappointed crowd. Mrs Fenner opened the journey book on the basket. Beneath the line where she had written their intended destination, she recorded: LANDED BY CHOICE. She underlined the final word once and handed him the book.

Caleb took down the wet banner from the side of the cart. That morning, its promise had seemed to him a measure of courage. He folded it now without looking at the ridge.

“The writer makes the abandoned ascent seem more like a victory of judgement than a failure of nerve.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.