--`a fool and his
money are soon parted'--if you are convinced that your scheme is really
practicable, professor, I will find the needful," remarked the baronet.

"Bragdigable! My dear sir, id is as bragdigable as id is to build a
shib which will navigade the ocean. I have thoughd the madder oudt, and
there is nod a single weak boindt anywhere in my scheme. Led me have
der money and I will brovide you with the means of zoaring above the
grest of Mount Everest, or of exbloring the deepest ocean valleys,"
exclaimed the professor enthusiastically.

"Good!" remarked the baronet quietly. "That is a bargain. Meet me here
at noon to-morrow, and we will go together to my bankers, where I will
transfer one hundred thousand pounds to your account. And--what say
you, gentlemen?--when this wonderful ship is completed will you join the
professor and me in an experimental trip round the world?"

"I shall be delighted," exclaimed the colonel.

"Nothing would please me better," remarked the lieutenant.

And so it was agreed.

"Well," remarked the baronet reflectively, and as though he already
began to feel doubtful as to the wisdom of his agreement with the
professor, "if it has no other good result it will at least afford
employment to a few of the unfortunate fellows who are now hanging about
idle day after day."

The professor looked up sharply.

"What!" he exclaimed. "Of whom are you sbeaging, my dear Sir Reginald?"

"I am speaking of the unfortunate individual known as `the British
Workman,'" was the baronet's quiet reply.

"Am I do understandt thad you make the embloymend of English workmen a
gondition of the underdaking?" asked the professor somewhat sharply.

"By no means, my dear sir," answered Sir Reginald; "I shall not attempt
to impose conditions of any kind upon you. But I should naturally
expect that, if English workmen are as capable of executing the work as
foreigners, the former would be given the preference in a matter
involving the expenditure of say a hundred thousand pounds of an
Englishman's money."

"Quide zo," concurred the professor; "and you would be perfectly
justified in such an expegdation _if_ the Bridish workman was the
steady, indusdrious, reliable fellow he once was. Bud, unfordunadely,
he is _nod_ the same, zo var ad leasd as _reliabilidy_ is concerned.
You gannod any longer debend ubon him. Id is no longer bossible to
underdake a work of any imbordance withoudt the gonsdand hau