Robur the Conqueror

ghborhood with their tumult. Several times had the inhabitants complained of the noisy way in which the proceedings ended, and more than once had the poli

ns, never had the complaints been better founded, never

se. To these enthusiasts for "lighter than air" a no less enthusiast for "heavier than air" had said thing

ll with American blood in their veins. Had not the sons of Amerigo been called the sons

to indemnify them later on for the outrage on their privacy. Vain were all their trouble and searching. Robur was nowhere to be found; there was no trace of him. He might have gone off in the "Go-Ahead," the balloon of the

pective houses. To mention the most distinguished amongst them, William T. Forbes sought his large sugar establishment, where Miss Doll and Miss Mat had prepared for him his evening tea, sweetened with his own glucose. Truck Milnor took the road t

. They availed themselves of the opportunity to discuss the question with more than usual acrimony. These w

, his master, and at last he went after him, though he cared but lit

n which the duet between the president and secretary was being performed. As a m

nor of being president of the Weldon Institute, ther

ne, if you had had the hono

the insulter before he

possible to stop him until he had ope

ica, Sir; no

walked on through the streets farther and farther from their homes, until they

d the moon was only a thin crescent just beginning its monthly life. Frycollin kept a lookout to the left and right of him to see if he was followed. And he fancied he could see five or six h

heir dispute they crossed the Schuyllkill river by the famous iron bridge. They met only a few belated wayfarers, and pressed on across a wide open t

bridge. The pupils of his eyes broadened out to the circumference of his iris, and his limbs seemed to diminish as if endowed w

d idle, and a magnificent poltroon, he had been the servant of Uncle Prudent for about three years. Over and over again had his master threatened to kick him out, but had kept him on for fear of doing worse. With a master e

at Boston with the Sneffels, and not have given them up when they talked of going to Switzerland? Was no

h he was a Negro by birth he did not speak like a Negro, and nothing is so irritating as that hateful jargon in which all

ays streaming fitfully through the branches made the shadows darker than ever. Frycollin looked around him anxiously. "B

of the Weldon Institute, and thus di

r away from the Schuyllkill bridge. They had reached the center of a wide clump of trees, whose summits were just tipped by the parting rays of the moon. Beyond the trees

ustomed to, they would have found the clearing was not in its usual state. Was it a flour mill that had anchored on

seemed to him that the thieves were approaching, and preparing for their attack; and he was seized with convulsive fear, paralyzed in his limbs, with every hair he cou

er with you?" ask

lieved their fury at the expense of the unfortunate valet.

lash of electric light s

m under the trees, two onto Uncle Prudent, two onto Phil Evans, two onto Frycollin-there was no need for the last two, for the Negro w

ed bodily off across the clearing. What could they think except that they had fallen into the hands of people who intended to rob them? The people d

l Evans, and Frycollin felt themselves laid gently down, not on the grass, but

ng of a bolt in a staple told

s buzzing, a quivering, a f

y sound that broke t

the appearance of the mysterious engineer named Robur-Robur the Conqueror-and the tumult among the balloonists, and his inexplicable disappear

f the United States reported the facts and explained them in a hundred ways, not one of which was the right one. Heavy rewards were offered, and pla