www.freeclassicebooks.com

11. The Man of Science

Rob passed the remainder of the day wandering about London and

amusing himself by watching the peculiar ways of the people. When it

became so dark that there was no danger of his being observed, he rose

through the air to the narrow slit in the church tower and lay upon the

floor of the little room, with the bells hanging all around him, to pass the

night.

He was just falling asleep when a tremendous din and clatter nearly

deafened him, and set the whole tower trembling. It was the midnight

chime.

Rob clutched his ears tightly, and when the vibrations had died away

descended by the ladder to a lower platform. But even here the next

hourly chime made his ears ring, and he kept descending from platform

to platform until the last half of a restless night was passed in the little

room at the bottom of the tower.

When, at daylight, the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes, he said, wearily:

Churches are all right as churches; but as hotels they are rank failures.

I ought to have bunked in with my friend, King Edward."

He climbed up the stairs and the ladders again and looked out the little

window in the belfry. Then he examined his map of Europe.

I believe I'll take a run over to Paris," he thought. "I must be home again

by Saturday, to meet the Demon, so I'll have to make every day count."

Without waiting for breakfast, since he had eaten a tablet the evening

before, he crept through the window and mounted into the fresh morning

air until the great city with its broad waterway lay spread out beneath

him. Then he sped away to the southeast and, crossing the channel,

passed between Amiens and Rouen and reached Paris before ten o'clock.

Near the outskirts of the city appeared a high tower, upon the flat roof of

which a man was engaged in adjusting a telescope. Upon seeing Rob,

who was passing at no great distance from this tower, the man cried out:

APPROCHEZ!--VENEZ ICI!"

The Master Key