The Log of the Flying Fish | Page 4

solid known. Loog ad this."
The professor lifted the plate of metal out of the water, and, wiping it dry very carefully with his silk pocket-handkerchief, held it suspended, flat side downwards, between his finger and thumb. Then, when he had poised it as nearly horizontal as he could guess at, he let it go. It wavered about in the air as a thin sheet of paper would have done, and finally sailed aslant and very gently to the ground, amid the astonished exclamations of the beholders, by whom it was immediately examined with the utmost curiosity.
"You have seen for yourselves and gan therefore judge how marvellously lighd this medal is," continued the professor when the plate had been handed back to him; "bud ids sdrength you musd dake my word for, as I have no means ad hand do illusdrade id. Ids sdrength is as wonderful as ids lighdness, being--zo var as I have had obbordunidy do desd id-- exactly one hundred dimes thad of the besd sdeel."
"If that be the case, professor, then I should say you have solved the problem of aerial navigation," remarked the colonel. "But you spoke of having also discovered a new power. What is it?"
The professor once more instituted a search in his pockets, and at length produced a small paper packet, which, on being opened, was found to contain about a table-spoonful of green metallic-looking crystals.
"There id is," he said, handing the packet to the colonel for inspection.
"Um!" ejaculated the colonel, turning the crystals over slowly with his finger. "Quite new to me; I don't recognise them at all. And what is the nature of the power derivable from these crystals?"
"Dreated in one way they give off elegdricidy; dreated in another way they yield an exbansive gas, which may be subsdiduded for either gunbowder or sdeam," answered the professor.
"Are they explosive, then?" asked the colonel.
"Nod in their bresend form. You mighd doss all those crysdals indo the fire with imbunidy; but bowder them and mix indo a baste with a zerdain acid, and whad you now hold in your hand would develop exblosive bower enough to demolish this building," was the quiet reply.
The professor's little audience looked at him incredulously; a look to which he responded by saying:
"Id is quide drue, I assure you," in such convincing tones as left no room for further doubt. They knew the professor well; knew him to be quite incapable of the slightest attempt at deception or exaggeration.
"Then, if I have understood you aright, you will construct your aerial ship of your new metal, and apply your new power to give motion to her machinery?" said the colonel.
"Yes. Thad is do say, I would if I bossessed the means do build such a ship as I have described. Bud I am a scientist, and therefore boor. Never mind; I have no doubt thad, when I make my discoveries known, I shall find some wealthy man who, for the sake of science, will find der money," said the professor hopefully.
"How much would it cost to build an aerial ship such as you have been speaking of?" asked the baronet.
"Oh! I cannod say. Nod zo very much. Berhabs a hundred thousandt bounds," was the reply.
"Phew! That's rather `steep,' as the Yankees say. But--`a fool and his money are soon parted'--if you are convinced that your scheme is really practicable, professor, I will find the needful," remarked the baronet.
"Bragdigable! My dear sir, id is as bragdigable as id is to build a shib which will navigade the ocean. I have thoughd the madder oudt, and there is nod a single weak boindt anywhere in my scheme. Led me have der money and I will brovide you with the means of zoaring above the grest of Mount Everest, or of exbloring the deepest ocean valleys," exclaimed the professor enthusiastically.
"Good!" remarked the baronet quietly. "That is a bargain. Meet me here at noon to-morrow, and we will go together to my bankers, where I will transfer one hundred thousand pounds to your account. And--what say you, gentlemen?--when this wonderful ship is completed will you join the professor and me in an experimental trip round the world?"
"I shall be delighted," exclaimed the colonel.
"Nothing would please me better," remarked the lieutenant.
And so it was agreed.
"Well," remarked the baronet reflectively, and as though he already began to feel doubtful as to the wisdom of his agreement with the professor, "if it has no other good result it will at least afford employment to a few of the unfortunate fellows who are now hanging about idle day after day."
The professor looked up sharply.
"What!" he exclaimed. "Of whom are you sbeaging, my dear Sir Reginald?"
"I am speaking of the unfortunate individual known as `the British Workman,'" was the baronet's quiet reply.
"Am I do understandt thad you make