his formulæ had passed before 673 emerged triumphant, and the outfit prepared for what I may call the transatlantic flight. I was glad to find that the gold was undisturbed.

"After a few weeks in seclusion in inexpensive London lodgings, I decided that no further time should be lost. Although I had saved a little money from the handsome salary which Parke Hopkinson allowed me, I was not then, any more than I now am, a man of means. Rightly or wrongly, I decided that I would have no collaborator; if all went well, my presence in this country on one day and my presence in America on, at the latest, the next, could be unassailably established. Having sprung the discovery on the world in one glorious burst, I could then come to my own terms with any scientist, government, or company in existence. There was big money in this, I saw, and the more the business was confined to me and me alone, the bigger the money would be. Selfish? Perhaps. Egotistical? Certainly. But think of the temptation.

"In all this I thought very little of my own safety. Parke Hopkinson was dead, killed by Dædaloid. But then, of course, he had been foolish. Major Radcliffe's dog was probably dead too. But then it knew nothing about Dædaloid, and lacked my protective outfit. However, I determined that I should give myself every chance of coming out alive. The first

essential seemed to be to get properly clear of the earth, without the risk of fouling any obstruction. At first I decided that I should simply go to the country and float off a hill. Eventually I came to the conclusion that nothing less than Ben Nevis would do. The danger of coming in contact with anything on this side of the Atlantic would thus be absolutely eliminated. Clearly Ben Nevis was the place for me.

"Accordingly, provided with poor Parke Hopkinson's outfit and a third-class single ticket to Fort William, I set out on my adventure. I could not help contrasting my unobtrusive departure with the surging crowds that I hoped would throng round me on my return. The journey in question impressed me as tedious and unattractive; there, too, I could not help comparing it, by anticipation, with the new and more exciting method which I was soon to test, and later, if all went well, to universalise. I should add that I left the folios, the formulæ, and such of the stock of Dædaloid as I did not require for my immediate purposes, with Mrs Buckley, my London landlady, a simple soul, whom I judged too stupid to be dishonest.

people all willing and eager to establish that I had been on Scotch soil at the time in question, and had, further, left without paying my bill. I

was fortunate enough also, during my short stay in that distasteful town, to lose small sums at various games of chance to certain of its inhabitants, all of whom, as I had meantime omitted the formality of payment, would gladly confirm my identity and presence in their country.

66 'Fortune favoured me in the matter of weather-an unusual circumstance in those parts, I am told, and, on the afternoon of my second day in Fort William, I made the ascent of the mountain, accompanied by a small boy, who led a pony, to which my equipment was strapped. I had given out that I intended to make certain astronomical observations, and expected to spend the night on the summit. You will observe that I gave no hint to any one of my real purpose; and, truth to say, I feared the ridicule that must attend complete failure. stuff might not act, its goodness might have evaporated; and I always bore in mind that in the event of success I should have no difficulty in proving what I had done. So that memorable evening found me alone on the top of Ben Nevis, in a silence which became aweinspiring as soon as the clatter of the pony's hoofs had died away, and I no longer heard the strains of Angus Macdonald, who, encouraged by the muni

The

ficence of the tip which I had given him, whistled some of the better-known works of Sir Harry Lauder in tones of singular penetration as he descended the mountain. My arrangement with him was that he should return for me on the following morning. I fancy that on the second occasion his whistling would be less in evidence.

"As dusk fell I made my preparations. I donned the suit, made sure that its pockets contained everything which Parke Hopkinson had SO thoughtfully provided, and saw that the parachute could be extended to its full length in a moment. The sun was dipping majestically towards the western horizon, and it pleased me to think that it would not outstrip me, for, of course, I should arrive in America as soon as the sunset. The chariot of Phæthon and I should cross the Atlantic simultaneously. Then, standing immediately to the west of the cairn which marks the topmost point of the mountain, I uncorked the Dædaloid. You ask me what, at this solemn moment, were my thoughts. They turned, of course, to Parke Hopkinson for a time, but I well remember that the last thing which occurred to me as I raised the bottle to my lips was, whimsically enough, the recollection of an undergraduate dinner.

"I had measured into the bottle exactly what Parke Hopkinson had calculated would suffice for the task in hand, and I swallowed it all. In

rushed away from and beneath me; it whizzed east in precisely the same manner that Major Radcliffe's dog had rushed west. I had an impression of the west coast of Scotland, like a great aeroplane map in relief, speeding beneath me. My heart stopped still; every particle of my being seemed to concentrate in my head, which drummed as though all the winds and waters of the universe were rushing through it; and I knew no more. To speak in cold sober fact, I suppose it was about three-eighths of a second before I lost consciousness."

Here the stranger interrupted himself to hail the waiter, who unfortunately was passing.

I stretched out my hands; they penetrated a soft yielding substance. With infinite labour I pulled off one of my gloves and grasped a handful; it was cold and wet, and crumbled in my grasp. I realised then that I was lying in a snowdrift. After a welcome drink of brandy, which put new life in me-oh, how I blessed Parke Hopkinson's forethought! - I managed to stagger to my feet, and engaged in a desperate struggle to reach the outer air. At length I succeeded, and found that the snow in which I had been lying was a drift filling a narrow cleft on a great mountain-side. Weak as a rat, I collapsed on a rock, and surveyed the landscape. It was a scene far more rugged and inhospitable than that which I had left-how long before? It was broad daylight, and the sun revealed a land of mountains which towered up into gleaming masses of snow and ice. Far below me, beyond a panorama of rock and scree, lay a river valley. There was not a tree in sight, not a patch of green, not a trace of man or any of the works of man.

"I sat and ate a beef lozenge, wondering dully where on earth I was. The expression 'where on earth' has here, you will note, a singular propriety. I also wondered how long I had lain in the snow. To judge not only from my weakness but from the growth that fringed my face, several days had elapsed since I left Scot

land. Of one thing I was certain, that falling in the snow had saved my life. Of course it was impossible to tell with what velocity I had come to earth; the parachute had certainly opened, and probably had helped to break my fall; but even so, only the good fortune of descending in soft snow had kept me alive, for it is possible to live underneath snow for days, whereas exposure on this bare hillside must have ended in my death.

66

Yet exposure seemed like to be my lot. When I moved, it was with pain and difficulty, although I was glad to find that I had broken no bones. There seemed little prospect of finding assistance. I fired off a revolver shot, but the echoes of it died away in mocking reverberation, and it only served to intensify the silence. There seemed to be no living creature of any kind within sight or sound. Slowly I began to make my way down the mountain-side.

"All that day I stumbled and tripped towards the river valley; when night fell it seemed hardly any nearer. The loneliness of that desolate place was awful. All night I shivered behind a rock, which sheltered me only partially from the searching wind. On the next morning I continued my progress. It was now borne in on me very strongly that the scenery did not suggest to my mind any part of the western hemisphere. Even the Rockies were surely less inhospitable than this ice-bound wilderness.

It was on this day too, I think, that I sighted a mountain-goat of a type that was not, so far as I knew, indigenous to any part of the American continent. Although joyful at seeing a fellow-creature, I fired a shot at the animal, which scuttered away unhurt among the rocks. My idea was to supplement my slender resources of beef lozenges, but I lacked experience as a marksman. I say I think it was on this day that I met the goat, for I cannot be sure. About this time I became delirious with fever and exhaustion; but I continued my course, and after what seemed like years, but on what was probably the third day, I reached the river valley. A rude track ran beside the turbid water; along this I staggered more dead than alive. Still there was no trace of any human habitation, and I spent another night of exposure and misery.

"On the next day I met my fellow-men. Rounding a corner I found myself among a band of about twenty horsemen. They were wild-looking fellows on shaggy ponies. Their high cheek-bones and slits of eyes, the yellow tint of their skin, and their sleek black hair, left me in no doubt that these were Mongols. I was in the uplands of Asia! Chattering to one another in a language quite unknown to me, they surrounded me with cries and menaces. One dreadful-looking ruffian drew a sword, and brandished it in a most un