The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-06-20

extremely slow In my machine. You
will run for six Thousand miles at 200
miles an hour owe the railroads of
Europe-for thirty hours. You'll need
that o%vercoat before you get through.
Pray like the devil, Hopkins-pray for
a clear road and no open switches"
Hopkins attempted no reply. He
placed no faith In the wild statements
Of the other, whom he regarded as a
mailman. His confidence had been
steadily rising; he felt assured now
that this diabolical machine would car
ry him, at the most, a mile or two, un-
til 1t ceased to work. Doubtless men
by the roadway would effect his re-
lease. He masked his Joy, lest the
other discover 1t and change his
scheme for one more diabolical.
Haynes stopped and touched the
mechanism which controlled the gyro-
scope. The machine throbbed, pulled,
leaped forward. Hopkins was out OF
sight in an instant.
1t was not until Hopkins approached
the German frontier that it became
positively known that anything was
MlOh6s HOls " Tic ClOhub VI dludISu
spectators who lined the track at
every town and in each hamlet and
to the gazing peasants in the fields,
Hopkins was nothing but a passing
flash-something hat shot toward
them out OF the void distance at an in
credible rate of speed, a blur that
flashed over the line as a shadow of
some passing bird, and vanished.
His cries they thought were those of
exultation. And so he passed.
But there is one human invention
more swift than the gyroscope-driven
wheel, and only one-except a rifle
or cannon ball. That is the telegraph.
AS Hopkins shot across the German
frontier n Of the customs guards,
who had spent a year in England, dis
covered that it was in agony and not
for joy that he cried; so did one of the
newspaper correspondents who were
lettering near And fifteen minutes
later the afternoon editions of the GEN.
trail European papers were printing
extra issues, detailing the amazing
story of this mad American, the new
Frankenstein," as they termed him,
who had fallen q victim to the infer
nal monster of his own invention.
The news was flashed from town to
town. By three o'clock enormous
crowds had gathered along the track
for seven miles outside Bonn. But at
the Ministry Of the Interior a hasty
consultation had been held. II Walk
enphast" a into Bonn and could not
stop he would run to destruction, for
the rate at which he went would have
driven him through the terminal
with terrific force. And then, besides
and this vas no small matter-there
would be much damage to property.
A hasty order, a few manipulations of
the Geographic keyboard--and the
traveller, by virtue of a turned switch,
was journeying toward Berlin.
Meanwhile, GREATNESS, shocked by
the terrific blasts that blew on him,
trussed h~elplessly, the president of the
Nokomis and Western Railroad went
racing eastward. The physical pain
was not as yet intolerable, for the
gyroscope aided him to maintain his
poise, and 1t was only necessary not
to lean too far over, lest he should
strain the aching muscles of his limbs.
So he ran On and on, tearing through
village and town, catching a momen-
tary glimpse of crowds with white,
terror-struck faces-then on and on
once more, over the open fields,
through woods and hills and swamps,
borne on by the resistless force Of that
Unsuitable devil that drove him. He
thanked heaven for that one mercy of
the fur overcoat which Haynes had
bestowed on him. But that had been
a part of the mans scheme, in order
that he might p~rolong the agony, for
without it Hopkins would have been
frozen stiff before the afternoon was
over.
Now operators waited, finger on key
board, to receive the news brought in
by mounted men at every station. And
it vas ever the same. The mad Amer
lean still journeyed eastward and his
speed showed no sign of abating.
Traffic was disorganized over all Prus-
STA. The Minister of the Interior,
without waiting to consult his col
leagues, issued another order and a
second switch was turned. He had
meant to turn the flying man into the
Hartz region, a sparsely settled dis
trict where the mechanism might wear
itself out among the steep mountain
grades. But in the confusion the
wrong switch was turned, and the next
news flashed over the wires was to the
effect that Cyrus Walkenphast" was
approaching Munich.
More consultation; treachery now
and competition among the line man.
ayers to turn the fugitive away and
secure free passage for their stalled
trains. Cooperation ceased; each
played his own hand. Hopkins was
sent z~igzagging throughout South Ger
many, spinning from line to line, pass
Ing stalled trains on sidings and mobs
of shouting men. Some Of them kneel-
ed to pray. Many thought him a mes
senger announcing the approach OF the
last Judgment. Finally, by a sudden
consensus Of individual plans. he was
shunted out of Germany and into Aus
tria, into Bohemia, into Galicia.
There. On the vast Polish plains. night
fell and shrouded him.
Night fell, but still he journey on.
He was in Russia now, travelling the
vast and almost boundless Steppes.
Here the danger Of encountering traf-
fic was less, for the lines in the
Cars country were few, and every
-