secret on your part. Never breathe a word of it to a living soul. You
are the only person, except my own daughter, whom I have ever taken into
my confidence."

I gave him my word of honour.

"Very well," he continued, lifting a small metal box from one of the
tables, and patting it with his hand. "I have been working at the
subject of aerial navigation for well-nigh thirty years, and this is the
result."

I looked at the metal case, but could see nothing remarkable about it.

"It seems a little thing, hardly worth a few pence, and yet how much I
have paid for it!" said the inventor, with a sigh, and a far-away
expression in his eyes. "Many a time it has reminded me of the mouse's
nest that was turned up by the ploughshare.

"'Thy wee bit heap o' strae and stibble
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble.'

Of course this is only a model."

"A model of a flying machine?" I inquired, in a tone of surprise.

"You may call it so," he answered; "but it is a flying machine that does
not fly or soar in the strict sense of the words, for it has neither
wings nor aeroplane. It is, in fact, an aerial locomotive, as you will
see."