burned every hair off the starboard side of my best Alderney cow. If you
are bent on trying something new, hold it off until I can get my poor
wife out of harm's way."

Hawkins favored me with a stare that would have withered a row of hardy
sunflowers and turned his eyes to the stable.

Something was being led toward us from that direction.

The foundation of the something I recognized as Hawkins' aged work horse,
facetiously christened Maud S. The superstructure was the most remarkable
collection of mechanism I ever saw.

Four tall steel rods stuck into the air at the four corners of the animal.
They seemed to be connected in some way to a machine strapped to the back
of the saddle.

I presume the machine was logical enough if you understood it, but beyond
noting that it bore striking resemblance to the vital organs of a clock, I
cannot attempt a description.

"That will do, Patrick," said Hawkins, taking the bridle and regarding his
handiwork with an enraptured smile. "Well, Griggs, frankly, what do you
think of it?"

"Frankly," I said, "when I look at that thing, I feel somehow incapable of
thought."

"I rather imagined that it would take your eye," replied Hawkins,
complacently. "Now, just see the simplicity of the thing, Griggs. Drop