Wherever the poor little boat may be, it contains eleven of my best
cigars, the better part of a substantial meal, and, what is in my eyes
of less importance, the sole existing example of what Hawkins still
considers an ideal generator of power.




CHAPTER III.


We were sitting on my porch, smoking placidly in the sunset glow,
when Hawkins aroused himself from a momentary reverie and remarked:

"Now, if the body were made of aluminum it would be far lighter and
just as strong, wouldn't it?"

"Probably, Hawkins," I replied, "but it would also be decidedly stiff
and inconvenient. Just imagine how one's aluminium knees would crackle
and bend going up and down-stairs, and what an awful job one would have
conforming one's aluminum spinal column to the back of a chair."

"No, no, no, no," cried Hawkins, impatiently. "I don't mean the human
body, Griggs; I----"

"I'm glad to hear it," I said. "Don't you go to inventing an aluminum man,
Hawkins. Good, old-fashioned flesh and bones have been giving thorough
satisfaction for the past few thousand years, and it would be wiser for
you to turn your peculiar talents toward----"