that I could imagine, unless Perry desired to pray. And I was
quite sure that he would, for he never left an opportunity neglected
where he might sandwich in a prayer. He prayed when he arose in
the morning, he prayed before he ate, he prayed when he had finished
eating, and before he went to bed at night he prayed again. In
between he often found excuses to pray even when the provocation
seemed far-fetched to my worldly eyes--now that he was about to die
I felt positive that I should witness a perfect orgy of prayer--if
one may allude with such a simile to so solemn an act.

But to my astonishment I discovered that with death staring him in
the face Abner Perry was transformed into a new being. From his
lips there flowed--not prayer--but a clear and limpid stream of
undiluted profanity, and it was all directed at that quietly stubborn
piece of unyielding mechanism.

"I should think, Perry," I chided, "that a man of your professed
religiousness would rather be at his prayers than cursing in the
presence of imminent death."

"Death!" he cried. "Death is it that appalls you? That is nothing
by comparison with the loss the world must suffer. Why, David
within this iron cylinder we have demonstrated possibilities that
science has scarce dreamed. We have harnessed a new principle, and
with it animated a piece of steel with the power of ten thousand
men. That two lives will be snuffed out is nothing to the world
calamity that entombs in the bowels of the earth the discoveries
that I have made and proved in the successful construction of the
thing that is now carrying us farther and farther toward the eternal
central fires."