thousand was believed, but
at last it was accepted as truth, and eminent scientists studied
the matter exhaustively.

There has been one rather queer result of the journey of the
runaway sky-scraper. A certain Isidore Eckstein, a dealer in jewelry
novelties, whose office was in the tower when it disappeared into the
past, has entered suit in the courts of the United States against
all the holders of land on Manhattan Island. It seems that during
the two weeks in which the tower rested in the wilderness he traded
independently with one of the Indian chiefs, and in exchange for
two near-pearl necklaces, sixteen finger-rings, and one dollar in
money, received a title-deed to the entire island.--He claims that
his deed is a conveyance made previous to all other sales whatever.

Strictly speaking, he is undoubtedly right, as his deed was
signed before the discovery of America. The courts, however, are
deliberating the question with a great deal of perplexity.

Eckstein is quite confident that in the end his claim will be
allowed and he will be admitted as the sole owner of real-estate
on Manhattan Island, with all occupiers of buildings and territory
paying him ground rent at a rate he will fix himself. In the mean
time, though the foundations are being reinforced so the catastrophe
cannot occur again, his entire office is packed full of articles
suitable for trading with the Indians. If the tower makes another
trip back through time, Eckstein hopes to become a landholder of
some importance.

No less than eighty-seven books have been written by members of
the memorable two thousand in description of their trip to the
hinterland of time, but Arthur, who could write more intelligently
about the matter than any one else, is so extremely busy that
he cannot bother with such things. He has two very important
matters to look after. One is, of course, the reenforcement of the
foundations of the building so that a repetition of the catastrophe
cannot occur, and the other is to convince his wife--who is Estelle,
naturally--that she is the most adorable person in the universe. He
finds the latter task the more difficult, because she insists that
_he_ is the most adorable person--

[* Transcriber's note: This etext was produced from the February 22,
1919 issue of _Argosy_ magazine.]

End of Project Gutenberg's The Runaway Skyscraper, by Murray Leinster

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RUNAWAY SKYSCRAPER *