Adrift in the Unknown

r and me. Rather it was some chemical, known to the Mercurial

clung to our clothes and sapped our strength. Shackles of ir

a small army of Mercurials down the principal street of t

ave been comfortably housed, but we were of such stupendous p

sened and my strength increased I tried to roll over this low barrier, but receive

pt. "These Mercurials are possessed of ways and means beyond our earthly powers

rce of strength and inspiration to me. While we lay forsaken by our captors and couched on t

stion concerning a matter that ha

ound remains in a liquid state in an open cask? I should thi

f an algebraic formula," said he.

answered

in ignorance. You must rest content with the evidence of your sense

rise, we made an attempt to step over the ring that hemmed us in, but were

, Mr. Munn, that Nature takes care of her own. Ah, here comes Captain Goldman! Retainers follow, and they are bringing-now, what ar

trous attempt to regain the surface we had be

on with such telling effect, was crossing the fields toward us, followed by six of his countr

he black tip of it cut an imaginary doorway for himself in the air.

power of the circle at a given point. The others

egan manipulating his word-box with the other two. He was n

while the remaining three conveyed a machine to the professor.

be out of place. As to the word-box itself, it had seven keys. This made it somewhat difficult for a five-fingered creature t

be combined and repeated and combined again, the vocabulary of the boxes was practically unlimited. The syllable notes were of resonant quality and of such divergent timber as to

o be in a class by itself. It was used for spacing between words, for e

ad all the passions of other mortals, and Key 7 acted as a sort of saf

rvelous. He was well along in the polysyllables while I was struggling with the basi

so eloquent with his word-box that he could now and then play off a metaph

by a thinking mind. I have a very good memory, and when sufficiently proficient with the keys I practiced by repeating passages from "Forty Ways of Cracking Safes," which, as distinguished from "The Sandbagger's Manual," I considered my chef

English word "cracksman." Finally, however, I hit upon three quick touches of the s

ross my side of the prison ring, listening intently

r of scientific capers with his word-box. "The Mutability of Newtonian Law" formed h

me that my brand of science was more attractive to the little people than the professor's. While "The Mutability of Newtoni

wever, finally caused him to sit up and take notice. Halting his weighty remarks, he laid aside his talk machine, came over to my side of the circle, and stood behind me, listening. The first

e I was leaping to my feet and whirling around, my liste

ever before seen him, held my talking apparatus over his head

alled restrainingly, "d

one of the worthiest of all those brought from Terra, and yet I find you busily inculcating false ideas of personal property into the k

deas and mine do not harmonize o

to air your ideas in Njambai. Here the conditions are of an altogether different sort. So far as I have been able to learn, this orb has not fallen u

d of the instruction. Everybody listens to me, while you haven't had so much as a corpora

On the other hand, my thesis on 'The Mutability of Newtonian Law' requires profound thought before it can be assimilated. Yet, be that as it may, I shall not allow you to degrade these people with t

essor," I replied. "It is not nece

he at once returned t

d he. "I have confidence in your w

onsidered practicing may have wrought. I told the Mercurials that my utterances had been in the nature of a fairy

Mercurials as more worth while, and they flocked to hear him. We began acquiring a knowledge of the country, and of its

kingdoms comprising the under-world of Njambai. The other three kingdoms were Baiji

the sun. These places were at the two ends of the planet's axis, corresponding to the polar regions of

north and the latter at the south. They were the only kingdoms on the outer shell of Njam

ated at either end of a radius drawn through the equator. There was one stupendous reflector on either side o

gh the heavens, and reflected heat and light to countless other re

the planet's shell, which, forming the vault of

of his line. The name of the pompous gentleman whom t

ere given, are simply a rude equivalent a

x basic syllables of the Baigol language. The flexibility of the word-box

gdoms were not on the best of terms, owing to a wretched piece of business carr

e called. The roadbed was a "V"-shaped groove, and the wheels of the cars were solid sphe

gely backward in their motive power, their trains being dragge

sily handled, and a fair rate of speed was developed by the tra

our enforced stay in Baigol had passed, a startling rumor was wafted from the word-boxes of the other kingdom to the effe

president, and board of directors of the Interplanetary were to take a t

ch imprisoned us, but we could stand erect, and so overtop the

ut the right of way and clambering to roof tops and other elevation

professor and I hear

-t! Ting-a-l

of that echoing cry. The professor gave

hoarsely. "Merciful powers, Mr. Munn, ho

and dragging behind him a train of queer-looking cars crowded with

ier that hedged us round. He could not

sor," I urged, grasping

on power the other kingdom has been talking about? How does he happen to be here?

his talking machine he dived for it

s, however. Leviathan in harness absorbed the entire attention of all the Baigols, and w

was almost as completely unmann