The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-07-08

promise to succeed in my experiment
IL that beast is on hand"
"All right" said /, "the cat shall he
locked up. But ask you what will
happen when your army marches across
country with their shirts inflated with
gas? Cats are awfully common, and IL
the army treads on cats tail therell
be panic that will bc worse than de-
feat"
Van Wagener didn't condescend to
answer me, but he marched out of my
yard with his basket on his arm, and
glow Of triumph in his face, which
struck me as being little previous, in
view of all the facts.
Well! the next day the professor
turned up at the same hour in the very
best of spirits.
PART III.
This time he had extra heavy lead
weights to his feet, and when every
thing was ready, turned on the supply
of gas for him, until he judged that bis
weight had been reduced TO about one
third of what it ordinarily was. Then
he gave me the word to turn off the gas,
and he started to walk across the yard.
His walk was only little drunker in
appearance than il had been the day be-
fore, but he certainly did get over the
ground at tremendous rate. Every
time his feet touched the earth he
bounded about ten feet into the air, and
came down again a good thirty feet
h. ha a.
the length of the yard, which was fully
five hundred feet, in no time at all, and
as he passed me on the way back, he
was so excited that he tried to clap his
feet together, and to crow like n rooster.
i don't say this was quite worthy OF a
respectable scientific man, but allow
ance must be made for an inventor who
finds that his invention works. But the
professor made the biggest mistake in
his life when he tried to clap his feet to-
gether. In so doing, one of his lead solcs,
which had been tied on by the professor
himself, with n sort Of knot that was OF
no manner Of use, dropped off, and Van
Wagener went up into the air like a shot.
l saw him trying to reach the stop
cock that shut Off the gas from his shirt,
but he could not find it, and il would
have done him no good if he had found
it. What that shirt needed was some
sort of safety valve for letting the gas
escape in case of accident, but Van
Wagener had omitted to furnish il with
any such valve. Without his lead sole
he was considerably lighter than the at
mosphere, and consequently there was
nothing 10 prevent him from going up.
There was gentle breeze from the
southwark, and as Van Wagener rose
slowly and seemed TO be drifting
towards u thiclly-built part of the
town l was in hopes that he would be
.ble TO catch hold of some building and
hold OH till some one could come TO bis
aid. lie never said word as he sailed
upwards, but I'm ready TO bet that he
would have given good deal If the cat
could have jumped on him from the roof
of the house and punctured his shirt.
/ sang out to him 10 keep cool, which is
the easicst thing to say to a man whc is
In difficulties, but he simply smiled
resigned sort of smile, and disappeared
behind the house.
ran out of the 'front.' door and chased
the professor, keeping my eye on him
Just as n sailor keeps his eye on a mln
who falls overheard. though there
wasn't any chance OF sending n lifeboat,
or for that matter, life.balloon, after
him. lie drifted along at an elevation
of perhaps fifty feet, and presently I
saw that he was hcading directly Tor
the Presbyterian church. The church
itself was only about thirty feet high
from the ground to the roof: but IL had a
stceplc that was good hundred feet in
height, though it didn't look it. In fact
II looked as il IL was lower than the Bap-
tist steeple, which was only eighty-five
feet high, and the Prcsbyterians used
to win no end OF bets by inducing
strangers TO bet on the comparative
height of the two steeples. However,
that is neither here nor there. Nnn
Wagcner drifted along amid the general
enthusiasm of the inhabitants, who oil
rushed out of doors to see him, and
imagined that he had contrived some
new way Of navigating the air. aDd was
making a big success of H. Everybody
said that this time the professor had
made the greatest invention OF the CEN
tury, and that New Bcrlinopolisville
would have a chance TO put up monu-
ment 90 him, after his death. that would
attract thousands of visito-s. / said
nothing. for nothing that could say
would be of any help towards getting
the professor down TO the ground IN